1897.] 



THE FOSSIL SLOTH AT BIO BONE CAVE, TKXX. 



(>::^ 



Heilprin, one of the bead-like stem segments of a crinoid character 



istic of the carboniferous lime- 



stone of the cave walls. 



Judged by this botanical asso- 

 ciation, the age of the sloth re- 

 mains was that of the flora of 

 the surrounding hills, and that 

 had not changed since seeds, 

 nuts and bones came together. 

 These specimens of well-known 

 trees and plants common to the 

 forest of eastern North America 

 still flourished upon the moun- 

 tain above us. 



But over and above the gen- 

 eral significance of this fact, two 



objects discovered — the fur and 

 the large coprolite had a particu- 

 lar bearing upon the investiga- 

 tion.^ 



Fk;. 21 (actual size). — Ob- 

 jects which were imbedded in 

 the cave earth about the time 

 that the sloth bones reached 

 their position, i. Gnawed 

 seed of the gum Nyssa sylva- 

 iica, and 2, gnawed seeds of the 

 hornbeam, Carpinus carolinl- 

 ana, found in the unhardened 

 later part of the manure (Layer 

 2) around the resting place ot 

 the sloth. Cave rat coprolites 

 and characteristic ingredients of 

 Layer 2 in the background. 





L, 



1 Not in the underground darkness, 

 but seven months later, during the exam- 

 ination of the contents of two muslin 

 bags, brought from the cave, labeled 

 Layers 2 and 3, and finally placed in 

 glass jars, I found (as identified by Mr. 

 Brown) two fragments of maize silk, Zea 

 mais, (see Fig. 17 object 11, and Fig. 

 22 object 2), and a seed of the sunflower, 

 Helianthus annuus, (see Fig, 20 object 

 2). If unquestionably bedded as deeply 

 in the undisturbed deposit as the sloth 

 bones, these specimens might well have 

 testified to the existence of an aborig- 

 inal cornfield or sunflower plantation 

 rifled by cave rats on the hill above, or 

 in other words (if with recent investiga- 

 tors we suppose maize to have been in- 

 digenous to southern Mexico, the sunflower to South America or the trans-Missis- 

 sippi plains, and disseminated North and East by Indians), to the contemporaneity 

 of the red ma'n with the sloth. But as several ears of corn in the husk came from 

 Tennessee in contact with the specimen bags, there is a chance that skeins of the 

 former, clinging to the outside of the muslin bags may have fallen into the glass jars,, 

 when the latter were filled from the bags— while a mischance in the process of afiix- 



FlG. 22 (actual size). — Objects which 

 reached their position in the cave earth 

 before the advent of the sloth bones. 

 I. Jaw and bone of the bat, Vespertilio 

 gryphus. 3. Hair of the cave rat, Neo- 

 toma mngister, and 2. Skein of maize 

 silk, Zea mais, excluded from the evi- 

 dence for reasons given in the footnote. 



