Cave Localities Research Articles

New Megalonychid Sloths (Phyllophaga, Xenarthra) from the Quaternary of Hispaniola

Abstract As part of ongoing revisionary work on Antillean Megalonychidae, we document four new sloth species from Quaternary cave localities in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.* The new taxa and their tribal affiliations are as follows: Megalocnus zile (Megalocnini), Acratocnus ye (Acratocnini), and Neocnus dousman and N. toupiti (Cubanocnini). Significantly, each is closely related to species in genera long known from Cuba. This observation is of primary biogeographical importance because the most parsimonious explanation for the presence of parallel arrays of lower-level clades of sloths on opposite sides of the Windward Passage is vicariance, not a series of uncoordinated over-water dispersals. For a brief period in the late Paleogene, eastern Cuba, northern Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Aves Rise formed a large positive structure (GAARlandia) that was evidently briefly continuous with northwestern South America. We infer that the later subdivision and subsidence of major portions of GAARlandia mus...

Ultrasonic Cave Mapping

Surveying the internal structure of a cave is an important part of any archaeological or palaeontological investigation of a cave locality. However, the use of standard topographical surveying techniques is often difficult due both to the irregular nature of the structure and to the difficult working conditions. This study uses a novel method based on ultrasound reflections to produce an accurate 3D model of Kitley Shelter Cave, an archaeological cave in Yealmpton, Devon. This model enables the cave system to be visualized leading to a better understanding of the site and its taphonomy.

Biogeographic and ecological implications of newly discovered populations of the stygobiont isopod crustaceanAntrolana liraBowman (Cirolanidae)

The recent discovery of the stygobiont isopod Antrolana lira Bowman from five new cave localities in the Shenandoah Valley of northwestern Virginia has not only resulted in a significant range extension for this rare species but has also shed new light on its origin and increased our knowledge of its habitat. Prior to 1990, A. lira was known only from two caves on the northeastern end of Cave Hill in Augusta Co., VA. To date A. lira has been found only in bodies of cave water that fluctuate in concert with vertical movements of the local water table, suggesting that this species is confined to open fissures and solution cavities in the phreatic zone. Although it is widely accepted that subterranean freshwater isopods of the predominantly marine family Cirolanidae were derived from marine ancestors by ‘stranding’ during regressions of marine embayments in Late Cretaceous or Tertiary times, until now this theory failed to explain the origin of A. lira. Unlike all other stygobiont cirolanids, the known distr...

Palynology and plate tectonics — a case study on cretaceous terrestrial sediments in the eastern Klamath mountains of northern California, U.S.A.

Abstract The western part of the North American Cordillera is thought to be made up of a collage of allochthonous crustal fragments formed in a variety of tectonic settings at some distance west of their present location. Paleontological and radiometric age dating of the rocks associated with these terranes is critical in understanding their geological history. The basal conglomeratic unit of the Hornbrook Formation (Klamath River Conglomerate) and isolated exposures of some unnamed, undated conglomerates at the Pythian Cave locality, 40 km northwest of Mt. Shasta and south of the town of Yreka, California, both lie nonconformably over the basement rocks that form the Yreka‐Trinity composite microplate in Hornbrook Basin. Palynological data indicate that the geologic age of the unnamed conglomerates at Pythian Cave is middle Albian, and that of the Klamath River Conglomerate is middle Cenomanian. This study also shows that the Pythian Cave conglomerates have a different source, and have formed in a differ...

Extinct mountain goat ( Oreamnos harringtoni) in Southeastern Utah

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.

Branchiobdellids (Annelida: Clitellata) from some eastern North American caves, with descriptions of new species of the genus Cambarincola

Branchiobdellids are found as epizoites on crustaceans of the orders Isopoda and Decapoda (cambarine crayfishes) in caves of eastern North America. Species that may be considered as troglobites, since they are not known from epigean waters, appear to be confirmed to truly troglobitic isopods and possibly a few troglobitic crayfishes from Florida and the Tennessee-Kentucky Highland Rim cave belt. The majority of the records of branchiobdellids from caves are of representatives of common epigean forms epizootic un crayfishes. Cross-referenced lists of branchiobdellids, their hosts and cave localities are presented. Some of the new species described are apparently troglobitic or troglophilic, but they present no consistent phylogenetic or geographical pattern and separate origins for them from primitive stocks of the genus Cambarincola are postulated.