Lost River - Karst Information Portal

The History and Status of Karst Vertebrate
Paleobiology in Indiana
By Ronald L. Richards, Indiana State Museum, Department of Natural Resources, NSS 8326
Abstract
The number of extinct and extralimital
taxa are disproportionately high when
Indiana karst faunas are compared with those
of open air sites, and the karst deposits can be
much older. Cave faunas are largely composed
of extinct, extralimital, and resident taxa, a
reflection of equable late Pleistocene climates.
Thirteen extinct and 18 extralimital taxa have
been recorded from Indiana caves. The history
of Indiana karst vertebrate paleontology is
examined, with three notable faunas emerging:
Pipe Creek Sinkhole, Harrodsburg Crevice, and
Megenity Peccary Cave. Field methodology
and the age of the Harrodsburg Crevice fauna
are commented upon.
Introduction
The caves of Indiana’s south-central and
southeastern karst preserve a unique
and diverse concentration of primarily
terrestrial vertebrate fossils that are not
preserved in Indiana’s other major depositional
environments. While the other major
depositional regimes in Indiana, the bog
and lake deposits, as well as glacial sluiceway
deposits, often produce large, now-extinct
megavertebrate remains such as those of
mastodont, mammoth, giant beaver, and
muskox, the associated remains usually
reflect the accumulation of aquatic and semiaquatic
vertebrates. Indiana cave faunas, in
contrast, have a predominance of terrestrial
vertebrates, many of which are extinct and
many of which no longer occur in the area
today (are extralimital). The numerous modes
of cave faunal accumulation, including pit
entrapment, habitation mortality, den refuse,
scat and stomach contents, wash-in, owl pellet
debris, and woodrat-caching, enhance the
diversity and abundance of remains, especially
of herptiles (reptiles and amphibians), and
such mammals as insectivores, carnivores, and
rodents that are incorporated within the cave
sediments.
Late Pleistocene faunas are composed
of mixtures of modern “resident” species
that still live in the area today, species that
no longer occur in the area (extralimital
species), and species that are now extinct,
forming unique communities with no modern
analogues (Graham and Mead, 1987). Both
the resident and the extralimital species have
environmental tolerances that are observable
today, unlike extinct species for which habitat
preferences and environmental tolerances are
unknown. Some of the most important taxa
(that is, species and subspecies) for tracking
environmental changes are extralimital
taxa that have exhibited dynamic changes
of distribution, including the shrews and
microtine mice in particular (Graham, 1976;
Semken, 1988).
Some 15 species of extinct and 9 species
of extralimital taxa are known from aboveground
localities throughout most of the 92
Indiana counties (Hay, 1912, 1923; Lyon,
1936; Richards, 1984). Yet 13 extinct and 18
extralimital species have been recovered from
just 32 counties where some form of a cave has
been reported.
Extinct taxa recovered from open sites that
have not yet been recovered from Indiana karst
deposits include the Jefferson’s ground sloth
(Megalonyx jeffersonii), giant beaver (Castoroides
ohioensis), giant short-faced bear (Arctodus
simus), stag moose (Cervalces scotti), Jefferson’s
mammoth (Mammuthus jeffersonii), woolly
mammoth (M. primigenius), and the ancient
bison (Bison bison antiquus). Blanding’s turtle
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