Hermit's Cave

Hermit's Cave

NM: Eddy Co. Est. 1600 m

General Description.—Findley 1965: Sec. 6, T24S, R21E.

Age.—12,900 ± 350 on charcoal from hearth (W-495); 11,850 ± 350 (W-498) on log from extinct mammal horizons (W-498); 12,270 ± 450 (W-499) on log from mouth of cave (W-499) (Hester 1960; Schultz 1968).

Paleoenvironment.—Findley (1965) notes that subspecies of vagrans (=monticolus) now geographically nearest is not the closest morphologically to the fossils; closer to (or perhaps intermediate to) obscurus and monticolus. Twenty-nine specimens of "vagrans," 21 of nanus, but only one of Notiosorex. S. monticolus and nanus now found together in a number of ranges in NM, usually in relatively mesic forests of Abies concolor, Pseudotsuga taxifolia, Pinus ponderosa, Quercus gambeli, and Populus tremuloides.

Comments.—Findley 1965: Shrew material from pre-Basketmaker level of Hermit's Cave. Carraway (pers. comm. 1991) reexamined the Sorex nanus material to see if possibly S. preblei— were good S. nanus.

Publications.—Ferdon 1946; (*Findley 1965); Harris 1985; Hester 1960; Nowak 1979; Schultz 1968; Schultz, Martin, and Tanner 1970.

Fauna.—

• Sorex monticolus Findley 1965
• Sorex nanus Findley 1965
• Notiosorex crawfordi Findley 1965
• Marmota sp. Schultz et al. 1970
• Microtus pennsylvanicus Harris ID
• Canis lupus Nowak 1979
• Canis dirus Nowak 1979
• Mammuthus columbi Nowak 1979
• Equus sp. Nowak 1979
• Navahoceros fricki Nowak 1979

Last Update: 6 September 1998.