An Archaeological Record of the Plains Pocket Gopher (Geomys bursarius) in Southwestern Missouri

Abstract

In historic time, the geographical range of the plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) has been confined to the northern and eastern portions of Missouri, but it also lives in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and portions of Illinois, etc. (Hall, 1959). The species currently is absent from the entire south-central and southwestern portions of Missouri (Schwartz and Schwartz, 1981). A sibling species of slightly smaller size, Baird's pocket gopher (Geomys briviceps) occurs in Arkansas and Oklahoma (Sealander and Heidt, 1990). In December 1994, two adjacent 1-m sq test pits were excavated through an Indian midden at the mouth of a cave (23 CN 758; referred to as Ozark Cave in this report), located about 3 miles northeast of Ozark, Christain County, Missouri. The material was excavated in 5-cm layers and sifted through V4-in. mesh screens. The skull and mandible of an adult plains pocket gopher were recovered from the rocky clay-loam deposit at a depth of approximately 1.5 meters. Chipped Indian artifacts at the same level as the pocket gopher skull in Ozark Cave were typical of the Middle Archaic cultural period (basal notched and stemmed projectile points). This suggests that the plains pocket gopher skull was not of recent origin and possibly deposited at least 2000 years BP, assuming it was deposited there in the same time period as the adjacent artifacts. The pocket gopher skull was in a fragile state of preservation, but the mandible was in better condition. This and other archaeological evidence suggests that there has been a reduction in the range of Geomys bursarius in the southern Midwest region from prehistoric to modern time (Jeffries and Butler, 1982). It is interesting to speculate as to whether the pocket gopher was collected by Indians living at Ozark Cave for food, or whether the rodent dug its way to the cave entrance via its own mobility.