Published June 14, 2024 in the Southwestern Naturalist authored by Jim I. Mead, Bryon A. Schroeder, and Sandra L. Swift
ABSTRACT
We present Late Pleistocene tortoise (Gopherus) fossils recovered from the dry Spirit Eye Cave in the Sierra Vieja, Presidio County, Trans-Pecos Texas. The radiocarbon-analyzed keratinous scute of the tortoise and dung of the extinct Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) surrounding the tortoise remains date to 38,553-35,996 calibrated years before the present, which indicates a pre-Last Glacial Maximum occurrence in the region. No tortoises live in the region today. These fossil Gopherus remains represent a first step in filling in the gap of over 480 km between the localities in southern New Mexico to the north of Spirit Eye Cave and those near Big Bend along the Rio Grande to the south.