ammonites
Williams Cave (Pleistocene Level) (Pleistocene of the United States)

Where: Culberson County, Texas (31.9° N, 104.9° W: paleocoordinates 31.9° N, 104.7° W)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Pleistocene (2.6 - 0.0 Ma)

• "The top three feet of deposit had been thoroughly dug away except in small areas" and the Pleistocene taxa listed here are from "a depth of 4 feet" except for the Nothrotherium dung from a "trench" dug "to a depth of seven feet"

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; rubbly siltstone

• "Portions of the roof have fallen... so that rocks and spalls were intermingled with the very fine dust that covered the floor of the cave"; there is a thick "layer of caliche, limestone and gypsum" across the entrance of the cave but it is not fossiliferous

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by M. Y. Ayer, R. G. L. Ayer, W. Beal in 1935; reposited in the ANSP

Collection methods: quarrying,

• Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia collection

•most of the archaeological material including three "Heuco Cave Dweller" burials was removed in 1934 from "18 inches below the surface," followed by the faunal material in 1935 from depths of up to seven feet

•collectors include "Mr. and Mrs. Richard G. L. Ayer," presumable meaning Ayer and her husband

Primary reference: M. Y. Ayer. 1936. The archaeological and faunal material from Williams Cave, Guadalupe Mountains, Texas. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 88:599-618 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy] more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 93257: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 10.01.2010

Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (attribution-noncommercial-no derivatives)