Middle Pleistocene Cumberland Bone Cave Local Fauna, Allegany County, Maryland: A Systematic Revision and Paleoecological Interpretation of the Irvingtonian, Middle Appalachians, USA

The Cumberland Bone Cave Local Fauna (CBCLF) is the most significant Irvingtonian vertebrate fauna in the eastern United States north of Florida. Excavation of a railroad cut near Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland in 1912 revealed a deposit of well-preserved Pleistocene fossils comprising 154 component taxa. Of these, 109 are vertebrates of which 28 are extinct and comprise about 26% of the total recorded vertebrate taxa or about 22% of the total CBCLF. Twenty holotype specimens have been named from CBCLF. Dating of peccary molars from the cave using U-series Electron Spin Resonance (US-ESR) provided dates of 722 ± 64 and 790 ± 53 KA. Between 1912 and 2012, the cave was excavated by eleven expeditions from five institutions over 79 years. This work resulted in 24 papers with ‘Cumberland’ in the title. Papers that utilize specimens from the CBCLF for taxonomic reviews or regional interpretations are far greater in number. This paper attempts to collate, standardize, summarize, and, when necessary, update the taxonomy, intrasite stratigraphy, collecting localities, geochronology, and paleoecology of the CBCLF and contrast it with other middle Irvingtonian local faunas from the Middle Atlantic Appalachian Region. Specimens collected from the CBCLF can be stratigraphically subdivided into two depositional units, a red clay found on both the north and south sides of the railroad cut and those from a brown to tan fine-grained, loose, noncemented fill largely recovered from the north side of the cut. Faunal composition from all locations within Cumberland Bone Cave is similar. Except for rare Holocene intrusions, all the CBCLF taxa are compatible with other Irvingtonian local faunas in the region. We interpret the CBCLF to represent conditions slightly cooler than those at present, but with summer high temperatures being somewhat lower within mixed hardwood forests and some open grassy areas.