The NSS Bulletin - ISSN 1090-6924
Volume 56 Number 1: 46-49 - June 1994

A publication of the National Speleological Society

A Pleistocene Herpetofauna from Worm Hole Cave, Pendleton County, West Virginia
J. Alan Holman and Frederick Grady

Abstract

The late Wisconsian Worm Hole Cave Site, Pendleton County, West Virginia, has yielded the remains of at least three salamanders (Ambystoma cf. A. jeffersonianum, A. maculatum and A. opacum) two anurans (Bufo sp. and Rana sylvatica) and six snakes (Carphophis amoenus, Lampropeltis triangulum, Opheodrys vernalis, Nerodia sipedon, Storeria sp. and Thamnophis sp.). All of the fossil amphibians and reptiles of the Worm Hole Cave fauna may be found in the area today. This is in sharp contrast to the mammalian fauna of the cave which contains several extinct and extralimital species. This situation is consistent with the pattern that exists in other late Wisconsinan Appalachian faunas.

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