A PALEOECOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LATE-PLEISTOCENE CERVID REMAINS FROM GUY WILSON CAVE, SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS, TENNESSEE

The Guy Wilson Cave locality is a Late-Pleistocene fauna that is extremely diverse in mammalian herbivore taxa, presenting a unique opportunity to study faunal dynamics in a terminal Pleistocene community based on systematic paleontology, taphonomic analysis of carnivore modification, and isotope ecology. Radiocarbon dates derived from peccary material indicate late Pleistocene ages of 19,700 +/- 600 yrs BP and 11,727 +/- 60 yrs BP, although the full age range is unknown. This cave was not excavated systematically, but this analysis of cervid material is possible due to a large donation from the Blumberg family, originally collected by Mr. Ronnie Jones sometime in the early 1970s. This collection is now housed in the natural history museum at East Tennessee State University. The cervid assemblage is both diverse and abundant. Examination of dental morphology indicates the presence of Odocoileus cf. O. virginianus (white-tailed deer), Rangifer tarandus (caribou), and large cervids in which separation between Cervalces (the extinct stag moose) and Alces (the living moose) were limited. The post cranial remains are represented solely by Odocoileus. Patterns of carnivore modification present on this postcranial material indicate a canid predator, most likely the extinct dire wolf. White-tailed deer are the key to linking the past and present in this fauna; Odocoileus is the only large mammal that is both locally present and alive today, amongst at least eight other extinct taxa characteristic of the late Pleistocene and other extralimital genera. The dental enamel of six modern and eight fossil Odocoileus m3s were sampled, along with samples of large cervid, tapir, sloth, mastodon, peccary, and horse. Results concerning the dietary niches (inferred from carbon isotopes) of Pleistocene deer, both in comparison to the Pleistocene Guy Wilson Cave fauna and modern deer in northeast Tennessee, will be discussed.