Lower Rampart Cave Unit C: Late/Upper Pleistocene, Alaska
collected 1978, 1987

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Mammalia - Proboscidea - Elephantidae
Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach 1799)
Mammalia - Carnivora - Canidae
Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus 1758)
Mammalia - Bovidae
Ovis sp. Linnaeus 1758
Bison sp. Hamilton-Smith 1827
Mammalia - Cervidae
Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus 1758)
see common names

Geography
Country:United States State/province:Alaska
Coordinates: 65.3° North, 151.0° West (view map)
Paleocoordinates:65.3° North, 151.0° West
Basis of coordinate:based on nearby landmark
Geographic resolution:small collection
Time
Period:Quaternary Epoch:Pleistocene
Stage:Late/Upper Pleistocene 10 m.y. bin:Cenozoic 6
Key time interval:Late/Upper Pleistocene
Age range of interval:0.12900 - 0.01170 m.y. ago
Age estimate:22480 ± 200 to 13725 ± 110 YBP (14C)
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphic resolution:bed
Stratigraphy comments: "sampling units were removed in 5- or 10-cm thick levels" in 1978 and "at 5-cm-thick intervals" in 1987
four unit C dates on mammal bone range from 22,480 +/- 200 to 13,725 +/- 110
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:brown,gray calcareous breccia
Lithology description: "Holocene 'upper units' include Units A, B, and Ba and are brown organic breccia with unweathered clasts. The Pleistocene 'lower units' include Units C and D and are light-brown to gray calcareous breccia with weathered clasts and include faunal remains of extinct megafauna"
Environment:cave
Glacial or sequence phase:late glacial
Geology comments: "The origins of the cave are unclear"
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:body,bone collector
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Feeding/predation traces:tooth marks
Temporal resolution:time-averaged
Spatial resolution:parautochthonous
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:bulk,selective quarrying,sieve
Minimum sieve size:6.350
Reason for describing collection:archaeological analysis
Collection dates:1978, 1987
Collection method comments: in 1987 "sediments were sieved in the field through nested shaker screens with 1/4 and 1/8 in. mesh"
Taxonomic list comments:only large mammals are listed because microvertebrates are "reported elsewhere"
Metadata
Database number:93339
Authorizer:J. Alroy Enterer:J. Alroy
Modifier:J. Alroy Research group:vertebrate
Created:2010-01-14 19:34:29 Last modified:2012-04-04 07:54:09
Access level:the public Released:2010-01-14 19:34:29
Creative Commons license:CC BY
Reference information

Primary reference:
31581. R. A. Sattler. 1997. Large mammals in Lower Rampart Cave 1, Alaska: interspecific utilization of an eastern Beringian cave. Geoarchaeology 12(6):657-688 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]