The NSS Bulletin - ISSN 1090-6924
Volume 39 Number 4: 106-108 - October 1977
A publication of the National Speleological Society

Post-Wisconsianan Vertebrate Remains from a Fissure Deposit Near Ripplemead, Virginia
R.E. Weems and B.B. Higgins

Abstract

Fissures in a quarry wall near Ripplemead, Virginia have yielded fragmentary remains of at least 33 species of vertebrates (26 mammals, one bird, three reptiles, two amphibians, and one fish). Most of the fauna is considered characteristic of post-Wisconsinan time (<10,000 BP) except for remains of horses, tapirs, and peccaries. Although the possibility cannot be rigorously excluded that there has been a postmortem mixing of Wisconsianan and post-Wisconsinan animal remains, it is considered more likely that thse species were contemporaries of the rest of the fauna and thus survived into post-Wisconsian time in southwestern Virginia.

This page last updated: 18 June, 2002 15:41
Web Author: Jim Pisarowicz