NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CAVE PALEONTOLOGY: 2002–2023

ABSTRACT:

The first published inventory of paleontological resources associated with National Park Service (NPS) caves was issued in 2001 (Santucci et al. 2001). This report documented occurrences of fossil resources within caves in 35 NPS units and the challenges of managing and protecting these paleontological resources. Many significant NPS cave paleontology discoveries have been made in the following two decades. Highlights include: the first paleontological inventory of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which documented both Permian fossils in cavern bedrock, and bones of Quaternary megafauna; reassessments of Quaternary fossils, particularly avifauna, from rock shelters and caves of Channel Islands NP; the discovery of thousands of Pleistocene–Holocene mummified bats from a cave in Grand Canyon NP, and the identification of an American cheetah skull from Rampart Cave; documentation of extinct or locally extirpated taxa from Great Basin NP; discoveries of abundant Mississippian fossils, particularly sharks, in cave bedrock of Mammoth Cave NP and Natchez Trace Parkway; the relocation of the Port Kennedy Bone Cave site in Valley Forge National Historical Park; and an inventory of Neotoma middens from across the NPS. The rise of photogrammetry as an investigative technique has been key to facilitating study of in situ specimens in these challenging settings. The pos- sibility of paleontological resources in caves is now addressed during any paleontological inventory work in NPS units. We can expect that many more cave paleontology discoveries from NPS caves will be made in the decades to come.