Extinction Cave
Basic information
Sample name: Extinction Cave

Sample aka: Sibun Cave

Reference: C. S. Churcher. 2019. Pleistocene mammals from Extinction Cave, Belize. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 57:366-376 [ER 3400]
Geography
Country: Belize



Coordinate: 17° 20' 0" N, 88° 31' 30" W
Coordinate basis: stated in text

Time interval: Late Pleistocene

Geography comments: "east of Belmopan, on the Sibun River"
age interpreted as Late Pleistocene "based on the faunal composition and the presence of Bison"

Environment
Lithology: breccia

Taphonomic context: carnivore accumulation,cave

Habitat comments: the sample includes "mammalian bones and teeth, calcareous cave earth, and bone breccia... The deposit that contained the bones and teeth is a typical brownish-buff, fine-grained powdery limestone cave earth lacking any stratification, sand grains, or pebbles... The fossils may have accumulated on a dry cave floor by the mixing of small bone fragments derived from carnivore chewing and feces, mixed with uningested larger bone fragments and teeth from animals that died in or were brought in as prey into the cave, and cave earth stirred by animal feet in a dry floor deposit. No microvertebrate or invertebrate fossils were recovered"
additional material includes chert flakes, sherds, pottery, and other "archaeological artifacts" that may or may not be associated with the fossils

Methods
Life forms: carnivores,ungulates,other large mammals

Sampling methods: quarry

Sample size: 26 specimens

Sampled by: L. McNatt

Years: 1984

Sampling comments: collected on 4 May 1984

Metadata
Sample number: 3782

Contributor: John Alroy

Enterer: John Alroy

Created: 2021-06-09 14:25:58

Modified: 2021-06-09 04:25:58

Abundance distribution
10 species
4 singletons
total count 26
geometric series index: 28.0
Fisher's α: 5.949
geometric series k: 0.7661
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.7692
Shannon's H: 1.9036
Good's u: 0.8575
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
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