Late Quaternary Voles from Persistence Cave, Black Hills, South Dakota

Abstract

Excavations at Persistence Cave (Black Hills, SD), produced a large sample of Quaternary microfauna including a diverse assemblage of arvicoline rodents. Identifiable lower first molars (n = 367) include specimens referred to heather vole (Phenacomys sp.), muskrat (Ondatra sp.), southern bog lemming (Synaptomys cooperi), red-backed vole (Myodes sp.), sagebrush vole (Lemmiscus curtatus), prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster), and a form of meadow vole (Microtus sp.). Direct radiocarbon dating of specimens of Lemmiscus curtatus is consistent with previous records from the Nelson–Wittenberg Site and indicates that sagebrush voles inhabited the southern Black Hills roughly 40,000 yr BP. Direct ages for Myodes sp. and Microtus ochrogaster taxa are consistent with previously published data from Don's Gooseberry Pit, supporting previous interpretations of faunal turnover in the late Pleistocene/early Holocene. Collectively, the radiocarbon record suggests that deposition of fossils of arvicoline rodents at Persistence Cave occurred over a restricted period of time beginning approximately 40,000 yr BP. This period of deposition was followed by a depositional hiatus that included the Last Glacial Maximum, and deposition was reinitiated near the terminal Pleistocene.