Shelter Cave


Shelter Cave is an archaeological and paleontological site located in Doña Ana County, New Mexico.

Description

The site is a rock shelter well up on the western side of Bishop's Cap, an outlier of the Organ Mountains, within the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico, United States. It lies about 450 ft below the summit according to Brattstrom ; this would make its elevation about. It was originally excavated by the Los Angeles County Museum c. 1929. Specimens collected from talus, fill, or other areas are labeled 1010 Dump or 1010D. Specimens collected by Conkling are labeled C 1010. The shelter was excavated in 5-foot sections.
Brattstrom had access to the original field notes. Two profiles were given. One in Sec. S-5-7, from bottom to top: rock bottom of the shelter, 5" angular fragments, 8" smooth concretionary limestone fragments mixed with brown dust, 6" of ash mixed with angular fragments, 10" of layered gray ash grading into a layer of brown, 4" of hard burned guano, 4" of unconsolidated bat guano, top. Most bones were found in brown and gray ash. Another section 53" thick, from bottom up: floor of the shelter, 17" of broken concretionary limestone fragments, 16" of brown ash, 12" of gray layered ash grading into the brown below it, 8" of bat guano, top.
Brattstrom gives several quotes from the original field notes: ''Sloth in place, S-5-4 in upper guano layer and in direct association with bits of knots of vegetative material. S-6-5, sloth bone in upper yellow layer. Mummified rat and snake on top of rocks in bat guano. S-5-6, S-5-5, horse jaws in brown ash. S-5-6, sloth skull fragment in gray ash below overhanging rock. In same section above rock was an Indian grindstone. S-4-7, beads and sandal found beneath guano layer and also below overhanging rock. S-4-9, badger and deer skulls in gray ash.''

Age

Rancholabrean and Holocene. One date on sloth dung of 11,330 ± 370 BP. Material has continued to accumulate up to the present. Thompson et al. list three dates for sloth dung, including that above; the others are 12,330 ± 190 and 12,430 ± 250. They also list dates on desert tortoise scutes and bone and dates for middens of packrats in the shelter.

Comments

Fosberg lists plants identified from Shelter Cave deposits, but without provenance data; they likely are Holocene. He also mentions that there are coprolites of either sloth or horse. Thompson et al. point out that vegetation from pre-full-glacial middens from the shelter are more mesic than the terminal Pleistocene ones that lack oak, and pinyon pine is rare.
This is the type locality of Stockoceros conklingi.
The faunal list includes one or more citations for each taxon. UTEP indicates specimens are deposited in the Resource Collections of the Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, University of Texas at El Paso.
The Los Angeles County Museum has a large collection from Shelter Cave, including the type of Stockoceros conklingi. Most of the material has yet to be studied.

Fauna

AMPHIBIAScaphiopus cf. couchii Brattstrom 1964Rana cf. pipiens Brattstrom 1964
REPTILIAGopherus agassizii Brattstrom 1961, 1964; Van Devender et al. 1976; UTEPEumeces obsoletus Brattstrom 1964Phrynosoma cornutum Brattstrom 1964Crotaphytus collaris Brattstrom 1964Coluber constrictor Brattstrom 1964Masticophis flagellum Brattstrom 1964Lampropeltis getula Brattstrom 1964Pituophis melanoleucus Brattstrom 1964Elaphe subocularis Brattstrom 1964Trimorphodon biscutatus UTEPCrotalus atrox Brattstrom 1964
AVESAnser ? albifrons Howard and Miller 1933Anas acuta Howard and Miller 1933Anas crecca Howard and Miller 1933Cathartes aura Howard and Miller 1933Breagyps clarki Howard 1971 Accipiter striatus Howard and Miller 1933Buteo jamaicensis Howard and Miller 1933Buteo swainsoni Howard and Miller 1933Buteo ? albonotatus Howard and Miller 1933Buteogallus fragilis Howard and Miller 1933Aquila chrysaetos Howard and Miller 1933Polyborus plancus prelutosus Howard and Miller 1933Falco peregrinus Howard and Miller 1933Falco sparverius Howard and Miller 1933Centrocercus urophasianus Howard and Miller 1933Meleagris crassipes Rea 1980Callipepla squamata Howard and Miller 1933Lophortyx sp. Howard and Miller 1933Oreortyx pictus Harris 1985; Howard and Miller 1933Porzana carolina Howard and Miller 1933Fulica americana Howard and Miller 1933Larus sp. Howard and Miller 1933Zenaida macroura Howard and Miller 1933Geococcyx californianus conklingi Harris and Crews 1983; Howard and Miller 1933Geococcyx californianus californianus Harris 1985; Howard and Miller 1933Tyto furcata Howard and Miller 1933Otus asio Howard and Miller 1933Bubo virginianus Howard and Miller 1933Athene cunicularia Howard and Miller 1933Aegolius funereus Howard and Miller 1933Aegolius acadicus Howard and Miller 1933Aeronautes saxatalis Howard and Miller 1933Colaptes auratus Howard and Miller 1933Melanerpes formicivorus Howard and Miller 1933Sayornis saya Howard and Miller 1933Eremophila alpestris Howard and Miller 1933Pica pica Howard and Miller 1933Corvus corax Howard and Miller 1933Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus Howard and Miller 1933Catherpes mexicanus Howard and Miller 1933Salpinctes obsoletus Howard and Miller 1933Turdus migratorius Howard and Miller 1933Sialia sp. Howard and Miller 1933Toxostoma sp. Howard and Miller 1933Oreoscoptes montanus Howard and Miller 1933Lanius ludovicianus Howard and Miller 1933Molothrus ater Howard and Miller 1933Pyelorhamphus molothroides Howard and Miller 1933Carpodacus mexicanus Howard and Miller 1933Pipilo erythrophthalmus Howard and Miller 1933Pipilo fuscus Howard and Miller 1933Calamospiza melanocorys Howard and Miller 1933Amphispiza bilineata — very recently entombed according to Howard and Miller 1933.
MAMMALIANotiosorex crawfordi Harris 1985Nothrotheriops shastensis Harris 1985Lepus californicus UTEP