University of Kansas Publications
Museum of Natural History

Volume 9, No. 21, pp. 539-548
January 14, 1960

Pleistocene Pocket Gophers
From San Josecito Cave,
Nuevo León, México

BY
ROBERT J. RUSSELL

University of Kansas
Lawrence
1960

University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch,
Robert W. Wilson

Volume 9, No. 21, pp. 539-548
Published January 14, 1960

University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED IN
THE STATE PRINTING PLANT
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1960

28-1562

[Pg 541]

Pleistocene Pocket Gophers
From San Josecito Cave, Nuevo León, México

BY
ROBERT J. RUSSELL

Cueva de San Josecito in the province of Aramberri, near thetown on Aramberri, Nuevo León, México, is at an elevation ofapproximately 7400 feet above sea level on the east-facing slopeof the Sierra Madre Occidental in a limestone scarp. The dominantvegetation about the cave is the decidedly boreal forest associationof pine and live oak. Additional information concerning the caveis provided by Miller (1943:143-144).

Animal remains recovered from San Josecito Cave are among themost important Pleistocene finds in México, and include the mostextensive collection of Pleistocene geomyids. The vertebrate remainsare probably late Pleistocene in age; certainly they are post-Blancan,since the genera Equus, Preptoceras, Smilodon, and Aenocyon(all Pleistocene genera) are present. According to Miller's(loc. cit.:145) extensive report on the avifauna, the bird remainsfrom the cave are a remarkable assemblage and beautifully preserved.Most of the mammalian remains have been studied indetail, and the results of these studies have been published in anumber of papers each treating specific groups. These reportsprovide valuable information concerning the distribution of mammalsin northeastern México in the late Pleistocene, a knowledge ofwhich is most important to an understanding of present patterns ofdistribution and evolution of Mexican mammals.

Cushing's (1945:182-185) report on his study of the rodents andlagomorphs includes a description of an extinct pygmy species ofrabbit, Sylvilagus leonensis. He records three kinds of pocketgophers from San Josecito; Cushing was able to separate the genusThomomys from two unidentified geomyids (loc. cit.:185). Theseprove to belong to the genera Cratogeomys and Heterogeomys; thematerials are described below. Cushing records also larger mammals,including the antilocaprid (Stockoceros conklingi), saber-toothedcat (Smilodon), dire wolf (Aenocyon), a large oviboid(Preptoceras), and deer (loc. cit.:182).

More recently Findley (1953:633-639) has written on the remainsof the family Soricidae taken from the cave, and Hooper (1952:59)[Pg 542]has studied the bones of the genus Reithrodontomys and found themnot different from those of R. megalotis that inhabits the region ofthe cave today. Handley (1955:48) has described a new species ofplecotine bat, Corynorhinus tetralophodon, from the collection.Jones (1958:389-396) published an account of the bats of San Josecito,and described a new vampire bat, Desmodus sto