Natural Chimneys
Basic information
Sample name: Natural Chimneys

Reference: J. E. Guilday. 1962. The Pleistocene local fauna of the Natural Chimneys, Augusta County, Virginia. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 36(9):87-122 [ER 3219]
Geography
Country: United States

State: Virginia


County: Augusta


Coordinate: 38° 22' N, 79° 5' W
Coordinate basis: stated in text

Time interval: Late Pleistocene

Geography comments: "one mile north of the town of Mt. Solon... the major portion of the bones was removed from the floor of Brown's Cave, although a few... were found in wall cracks in the Cave of the Wooden Steps"
there is a typo in the published longitude value, which reads 30º 22' N. 70º 5' W.
"not a temporal unit... late Pleistocene and early Recent" but Guilday believes extinct megafauna to have survived into the "early post-Wisconsin" and thinks the fauna is "very close in time" to the late Pleistocene "New Paris #4" fauna, and later authors such as Guilday et al. (1964) and Holman (Fossil Snakes of North America) assign it to the late Pleistocene

Environment
Lithology: not described

Taphonomic context: bird accumulation,cave

Habitat comments: "a former fissure system... cave fill... contained fragments of dolomite, speleothems, teeth, bone fragments and modern plant rootlets... The deposit of bone accumulated in several ways. Most important was the activity of owls"

Methods
Life forms: bats,carnivores,rodents,ungulates,other small mammals

Sampling methods: quarry

Sample size: 1185 specimens

Sampled by: T. B. Ruhoff

Years: 1949 - 1961

Sampling comments: a millipede, 31 species of snails, fishes, samalanders, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, and birds are listed but not inventoried

Metadata
Sample number: 3539

Contributor: John Alroy

Enterer: John Alroy

Created: 2019-09-14 20:58:39

Modified: 2019-09-14 11:25:43

Abundance distribution
56 species
7 singletons
total count 1185
geometric series index: 75.1
Fisher's α: 12.213
geometric series k: 0.9169
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.9489
Shannon's H: 3.3431
Good's u: 0.9941
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
Register
Sorex cinereus774.1 g
Sorex fumeus208.5 g
Sorex arcticus198.1 g
Sorex palustris1011.4 g
Sorex hoyi132.8 g
"Microsorex hoyi"
Blarina brevicauda11515.1 g
compared to the New Paris form and kirtlandi
Cryptotis parva84.3 g
Parascalops breweri10
Scalopus aquaticus1994.9 g
Condylura cristata1352.2 g
Myotis keenii824.7 g insectivore
Myotis sp.8
lucifugus, sodalis, or austroriparius
Perimyotis cf. subflavus105.6 g insectivore
"Pipistrellus cf. subflavus"
Eptesicus cf. grandis6
Eptesicus cf. fuscus217.2 g insectivore
Lasiurus borealis111.5 g insectivore
Marmota monax214.5 kg
Ictidomys cf. tridecemlineatus17160 g
"Citellus cf. tridecemlineatus"
Tamias striatus24113 g frugivore-insectivore
Sciurus carolinensis1519 g frugivore
Tamiasciurus cf. hudsonicus10187 g
"Tamiasciurus cf. tenuidens"
Glaucomys volans4367.4 g
Glaucomys sabrinus5093.4 g
Castor canadensis211 kg
Castoroides ohioensis1
Peromyscus cf. maniculatus6819.1 g
Peromyscus cf. leucopus1921.0 g
Neotoma floridana37252 g
minimum estimate ("at least 37 individuals")
Synaptomys cooperi1829.0 g
Synaptomys borealis621.3 g
Myodes gapperi11124.1 g
"Clethrionomys gapperi"
Phenacomys cf. ungava19
Microtus pennsylvanicus4535.7 g
Microtus chrotorrhinus233.0 g
Microtus xanthognathus3068.5 g
plus "isolated molars"
Microtus cf. pinetorum11824.0 g
compared with "Pitymys pinetorum"
Ondatra zibethicus131.1 kg
plus "isolated molars and postcranial scraps"
Zapus hudsonius2915.6 g
Napaeozapus cf. insignis1822.7 g
Erethizon dorsatum39.9 kg herbivore
Lepus cf. americanus91.4 kg browser
Sylvilagus sp.4
questionably referred
Canis cf. lupus243 kg carnivore
Vulpes sp.1
Ursus cf. americanus1115 kg browser-insectivore
Procyon cf. lotor55.5 kg carnivore-granivore
Martes americana2946 g
Pekania pennanti23.8 kg
"Martes pennanti"
Mustela nivalis277.5 g carnivore
"Mustela rixosa"
Neogale frenata4144 g carnivore
"Mustela frenata"
Neogale vison7950 g
"Mustela vison"
Mephitis mephitis41.5 kg carnivore-insectivore
Felidae indet.1
Mylohyus sp.6
questionably referred
Odocoileus cf. virginianus1675 kg herbivore
Cervidae indet.1
"possibly Cervus"