SOLOMONS, Md. – A recent Smithsonian Institution publication details the remarkable diversity of Ice Age animals that were preserved in a cave in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland (Figure 1). This publication is available online for free at: https://doi.org/10.5479/si.28597193.
Calvert Marine Museum Curator of Paleontology Dr. Stephen J. Godfrey was a member of the team that reviewed this Maryland treasure – the largest collection of fossils of Ice Age animals in the eastern United States, north of Florida.
This publication was anchored by Dr. Ralph E. Eshelman (Figure 2, a former director of the Calvert Marine Museum). The research team assembled for this study consists of some of the most notable Pleistocene (i.e., Ice Age) paleontologists in the United States. This 700,000-year-old fauna is considered the most significant fauna of this age known east of the Mississippi River and north of Florida.
The bone cave was discovered in 1912 (Figure 1) when excavation of a railroad near Cumberland cut into the cave. Since then, the fossilized remains of 154 species, of which 109 are of vertebrates (animals with internal bony skeletons) have been discovered (Figures 3-5). The bones of cave bears (Figure 3), peccaries (Figure 4, locally extinct pig-like herbivores) and American mink (Figure 5) are among the many exquisite fossils that were found.
It is thought that the fossils in the cave came to be there because (1) some of the carnivores and possibly peccaries were living there, (2) some of the tiny bones came in from owl pellets and other predatory bird regurgitation, and (3) animals became trapped and/or injured when they fell into parts of the cave (or perhaps when carnivores were lured and fell into the cave by the sounds and smells of prey).
Between 1912 and 2012, the cave was excavated during eleven expeditions from five museums. This new publication compiles in one place most everything that is presently known about this important Maryland geological and paleontological landmark. During part of the Ice Age, when the bones of animals were accumulating within this cave, climate was slightly cooler than it is now. Summer high temperatures were also somewhat lower within the mixed hardwood forest and open grassy lands around the cave.
Unfortunately, very little of the original cave remains, and what remains is fenced off and inaccessible to the public because of its location along an active railroad with precarious rocky surroundings.
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Citation:
Ralph E. Eshelman, Christopher J. Bell, Russell W. Graham, Holmes A. Semken Jr.†, Charles B. Withnell, Simon G. Scarpetta, Helen F. James, Stephen J. Godfrey, Jim I. Mead, John-Paul Hodnett, and Frederick V. Grady†. Middle Pleistocene Cumberland Bone Cave Local Fauna, Allegany County, Maryland: A Systematic Revision and Paleoecological Interpretation of the Irvingtonian, Middle Appalachians, USA. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology, number 108, xiv + 305 pages, 93 figures, 29 tables, 2025. www.doi.org/10.5479/si.28597193
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