Wyoming's Natural Trap Cave Yields Huge Trove of Animal Remains 31
A cave in Wyoming that's easy to fall into, and hard to escape, has become a treasure trove for scientists.
Scientists excavating an ancient Wyoming sinkhole containing a rare trove of fossils of Ice Age mammals have unearthed hundreds of bones of such prehistoric animals as American cheetahs, a paleontologist said on Friday. The two-week dig by an international team of researchers led by Des Moines University paleontologist Julie Meachen marked the first exploration of Natural Trap Cave at the base of the Bighorn Mountains in north-central Wyoming since its initial discovery in the 1970s. ... Meachen said the extensive excavation that began late last month uncovered roughly 200 large bones of animals like horses that roamed North America from 12,000 to 23,000 years ago and an uncounted number of microfossils of creatures such as birds, lizards and snakes.
...
A number of animals that fell 85 feet to their deaths after stumbling into the 15-foot-wide mouth of the cavern were unusually well preserved by cold and damp conditions, Meachen said.
You're out in Wyoming minding your own business (Score:3, Funny)
... and suddenly you're fighting for survival.
Kinda like going on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney.
Re: (Score:3)
More like, you've found Earth's only sarlacc pit.
Re: (Score:1)
They fell into Jerry Mander's Cave.
Re: (Score:3)
Only if there is a way to get to the bottom of the cave and carry out the prey, such as a side entrance. But I have heard about traps that use a similar technique: dig a hole at a narrow passage, cover it with hide, sticks, and dirt, and wait for a sucker to step on it and fall in. Dinner!
They didn't live in peace,
Re: (Score:2)
Gypsies? I can't recall any wars with Gypsies-vs-someone else.
In any case, most human beings never fight seriously in their lives. Nations do, but even that's getting less frequent as the overall world system gets more organized. So it could very well be that the age of wars was just a historical anomaly that's on its way out through natural selection - after all, resources spent on an army are resources that can't be spent on scientific
interior and exterior photos (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a photo from the cave floor. [dailymail.co.uk]
And another from the surface [stateschronicle.com] showing the grate the park system has put over the opening for safety. But you can see if you were an animal running along that this would be a rather sudden an unexpected plummet.
Re: (Score:1)
Just the last 100K years (Score:4, Insightful)
Reminds me of "At the Mountains of Madness" (Score:3)
.
Wyoming... (Score:3, Insightful)
Go Wyoming go...
Re: (Score:1)
Those are all the same thing :-)
Predator Heaven? (Score:3)
If a predator such as a mountain lion falls in and survives, he may actually have an easy life if new food falls in every few weeks. Even if the lion breaks its legs and can only hobble, bigger prey may be in worse condition, and thus readily munch-able, especially if the prey is vegetarian because they'd grow too weak to fight back being there's not much to live on down there.
And the lion may get really lucky if another lion of the opposite sex falls in. They can limp around together and munch fallen buffalo and have a family.
I doubt the frequency of falls is actually that high, but if the opening was at a highly-trafficked spot, such as near a watering hole or narrow passage through hills, it could be productive.
Re: (Score:2)
If a predator such as a mountain lion falls in and survives, he may actually have an easy life if new food falls in every few weeks. Even if the lion breaks its legs and can only hobble, bigger prey may be in worse condition, and thus readily munch-able, especially if the prey is vegetarian because they'd grow too weak to fight back being there's not much to live on down there.
And the lion may get really lucky if another lion of the opposite sex falls in. They can limp around together and munch fallen buffalo and have a family.
I doubt the frequency of falls is actually that high, but if the opening was at a highly-trafficked spot, such as near a watering hole or narrow passage through hills, it could be productive.
Do you want cave lions? Because that's how you get cave lions!
Predator Heaven? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
And then all the baby lions would playfully limp around and.... oh wait.
It was a long time ago (Score:3)
Apparently birds still fell to their deaths at that time.