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Age of the Shasta Ground Sloth from Aden Crater, New Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Elwyn L. Simons  and
H. L. Alexander Jr.
Elwyn L. Simons
Affiliation:
Peabody Museum, New Haven, Connecticut
H. L. Alexander Jr.
Affiliation:
Peabody Museum, New Haven, Connecticut
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Abstract

Late survival of the Shasta ground sloth, Nothrotherium shastense, an assumption partially based on excellent preservation of a specimen from the Aden Crater, New Mexico, can no longer be supported, at least on the basis of this specimen. Two radiocarbon dates, one derived from desiccated tissues and the other from an associated coprolite (9840 ± 160 and 11,080 ± 200 B.P.), place the specimen within the temporal span of other dated ground-sloth finds. The discrepancy of over 1000 years in these two dates can be explained by alcohol contamination of the tissue sample.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , January 1964 , pp. 390 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1964

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References

Hester, J. J. 1960 Late Pleistocene Extinction and Radiocarbon Dating. American Antiquity, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 58–77. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Lull, R. S. 1929 A Remarkable Ground Sloth. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Vol. 3, No. 2. New Haven.Google Scholar
Martin, P. S., Sabels, B. E., and Shutler, D. Jr. 1961 Rampart Cave Coprolite and Ecology of the Shasta Ground Sloth. American Journal of Science, Vol. 259, No. 2, pp. 102-27. New Haven.Google Scholar