CARLSBAD CAVERN GROUND SLOTH
|
|
| DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME : Rotteneggs.com text files and message bases are for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT undertake any project based upon any information obtained from this or any other web site.We are not responsible for, nor do we assume any liability for, damages resulting from the use of any information on this site. |
|
|
|
(42 votes)
Published:
Viewed 484 times |
In 1947, the remains of a fossil vertebrate skeleton were discovered in Lower Devil’s Den. Under the supervision of Dr. Eric Reed, Regional Archeologist for the NPS, these remains were removed and shipped to Dr. C.L. Gazin, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The remains were identified as belonging to the Pleistocene ground sloth, Nothrotherium sp. (This classification has since changed to Nothrotheriops sp.). The remains were then shipped back to the park and stored in the musuem collection. With the discovery of these remains, it was thought that the bones had been washed into the cave during a much wetter period in time.
In 1959, more vertebrate bones were found ’upstream’ from the original site and were also identified as Northrotheriops sp., possibly even the same individual. Photographs were evidently not taken of either of these sites when initially discovered.
In 1985, Carol Hill and David Gillette relocated the Lower Devil’s Den site, but the 1959 site was not found. The remaining in-situ bone fragments were carefully studied. These bones were laying on top of the silt and there appeared to be no silt packed into the bone marrow. These factors led the researchers to believe that the bones were not washed into cave by an active stream as was first thought.
The bones from the Lower Devil’s Den area were dated by two methods: the Carbon-14 method and the Uranium-series dating method. The Carbon-14 method yielded a date of >29,700 years before present (ybp). The Uranium-series dating method yielded a date of 111,900 ybp. Calcite crystals which had grown inside the bone marrow were dated at 58,000 ybp. As of 1985, this date of 111,900 ybp was the oldest absolute date ever obtained for this species.
More detailed information can be obtained from a paper by Hill and Gillette titled ’Bones of the Pleistocene Ground Sloth NOTHROTHERIOPS IN CARLSBAD CAVERN, NEW MEXICO’. |
|
|
|
|
|
Edit Page
Message left_hand
Add Comment
Add to Favorites
Email to Friend
