Extinct mountain goat ( Oreamnos harringtoni) in Southeastern Utah

Abstract

The extinct Harrington's mountain goat ( Oreamnos harringtoni Stock) is predominantly known from dry cave localities in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, in addition to two sites in the Great Basin, Nevada, and from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. A dry shelter in Natural Bridges National Monument, on the central Colorado Plateau, southeastern Utah, preserves numerous remains of the extinct mountain goat in addition to pack rat middens. Remains from a 100-cm stratigraphic profile indicate that O. harringtoni lived on the plateau >39,800 yr B.P., the oldest directly dated find of extinct mountain goat. Plant macrofossils indicate that Engelmann's spruce ( Picea engelmannii), limber pine ( Pinus flexilis), rose ( Rosa cf. woodsii), and Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii) grew during the late Pleistocene where a riparian and a pinyon-juniper ( Pinus edulis-Juniperus osteosperma) community now predominates; Douglas fir are found only in mesic, protected, north-facing areas. Limber pine, Douglas fir, bark, and grasses were the major dietary components in the dung. A springtime diet of birch ( Betula) is determined from pollen clumps in dung pellets.