9 - Horner Site Local Fauna: Vertebrates

Abstract

This chapter discusses the fauna that would have been observed at the Horner site during the Paleoindian occupation. The fauna is early Holocene in age, based on a series of radiometric dates from the various site areas. There have been only preliminary descriptions of the faunal material recovered during the Princeton University–Smithsonian Institution excavations. A total of 13 taxa of vertebrates have been recovered from both faunules of the Horner l.f. These include three reptiles, three birds, and eight mammals. The l.f. was recovered by two processes. All Bison and most large- and medium-sized mammal bones were recovered during excavation, using standard archaeological recovery methods. The microvertebrate fauna, and most of the invertebrate fauna, was recovered during waterscreening of a selected area of the bone bed (1045-1047S/1008-101OW) excavated by the University of Wyoming. The minimum number of species counts was determined by counting the most common element present for each species and adding any immature animals or old animals represented by another element.