Pleistocene Vampires In West Virginia

[MarkGelbart]

While doing research for my book, Georgia Before People, I discovered information that surprised me.

I never did find the paper I was looking for (about a smilodon fossil found at the First American Bank site in Nashville in 1971), but I did find out that Pleistocene Vampire Bats ranged as far north as West Virginia. Scientists found 4 bones in Trout Cave in Pendleton Country. The bones radiocarbon dated to 29,000 years ago and therefore the bats must have lived close to a glacier. If any of the fossil hunters on this board live near there, you'll have to be on the look out for them.

It's believed that because vampire bats are restricted to tropical regions, there were none north of Florida during the ice age. This find blows that away.

In the paper (which is among a series of scientific papers dedicated to the retired Clayton Ray www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/paleobiology/text/SCtP-0093.txt) the scientists speculate that either the climate was milder during ice age winters, or the Pleistocene Vampire bat was more resistant to cold weather.

Another factor which they don't mention is the possiblity it simply migrated north during summers.

The collection of papers also includes an intersting one on Pleistocene fossil sites of S. Florida.

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

Not a paper, just an article: http://nashville.about.com/cs/historicalsites/a/marathon.htm

[DD1991]

On 5/13/2008 at 7:49 AM, MarkGelbart said:

I never did find the paper I was looking for (about a smilodon fossil found at the First American Bank site in Nashville in 1971), but I did find out that Pleistocene Vampire Bats ranged as far north as West Virginia. Scientists found 4 bones in Trout Cave in Pendleton Country. The bones radiocarbon dated to 29,000 years ago and therefore the bats must have lived close to a glacier. If any of the fossil hunters on this board live near there, you'll have to be on the look out for them.

 

The citation of the paper about the Smilodon fossil found in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1971, is as follows:

 

Guilday, JE. 1977. Saber-tooth cat, Smilodon floridanus (Leidy) and associated fauna from a Tennessee cave (40Dv 40), the first American Bank site. Tennessee Academy of Science, Journal 52: 84-94.

[siteseer]

4 hours ago, DD1991 said:

 

The citation of the paper about the Smilodon fossil found in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1971, is as follows:

 

Guilday, JE. 1977. Saber-tooth cat, Smilodon floridanus (Leidy) and associated fauna from a Tennessee cave (40Dv 40), the first American Bank site. Tennessee Academy of Science, Journal 52: 84-94.

 

DD1991,

 

Thanks for the citation.  Even if this is an old thread, someone will be able to find it in a search now.

 

Regarding vampire bats, there is also a Pleistocene occurrence in northern California (Hutchinson, 1967) which was a significant extension north and west for the genus (Desmodus).  There is a nice 2015 summary of the fossil history of the vampire bat here:

 

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vertebrate-fossils/species/desmodus-stocki/

 

It cites the Hutchinson article and even offers a PDF of it.

 

Jess

[Plax]

interesting. thanks for posting