New word of the day

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My new word is Cacomistle. I came across it in Emil Haury's "The Stratigraphy and Archaeology of Ventana Cave". It seems like a word that would be all over the place on HAZ, but I've never seen or heard it before.

[azbackpackr]

Yes, but according to Wikipedia, it's not exactly the same species as a ringtail, it's a related species, and lives in southern Mexico and in Central America. The photos of it show a bit larger animal with a sort of longer slimmer face than our ringtail. So, we don't talk about cacomistles in Arizona because we don't have them here.

Since Emil Haury was an archaeologist, not a taxonomist, he could have gotten the two species mixed up. Plus, it's possible that cacomistles lived in Arizona during the time of the Ventana Cave occupation, since the climate was totally different. OR that there is an extinct species, one of the lost fauna from the end of the Ice Age.

Wouldn't it be great to have a time machine? I want to see Arizona 10,000 years ago, and 200 million years ago, etc. etc.

Unless they've removed it, which would be sad, there is a really cool large diorama of Ventana Cave at the Arizona State Museum, on campus at UA. Here is a photo of only a part of it:

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Since Emil Haury was an archaeologist, not a taxonomist, he could have gotten the two species mixed up. Plus, it's possible that cacomistles lived in Arizona during the time of the Ventana Cave occupation, since the climate was totally different. OR that there is an extinct species, one of the lost fauna from the end of the Ice Age.

Many sections of the report were written by specialists, including the analysis of bird and mammal remains. There was considerable discussion of surviving vs. extinct species, climatic dependencies on species range, and especially apparent climatic differences over the time of deposition (not just in AZ, but throughout North America and Europe). That part was especially interesting because there was debate over the temporal relationship of warm, wet, and windy periods within the phases of glacial advance and retreat (supposedly not entirely as expected), which was balanced against the mix of fauna found in each layer. I'll have to go back and look more carefully to compare actual species, but the cacomistle was included in the list of living mammals and as I recall, it was off-handedly referred to as currently common in Arizona. It wasn't discussed in the same way as the extinct horses and sloths, or with species that still exist, but no longer occupy the area (jaguars, tapirs, certain squirrels).

I thought it was interesting that while there was extreme detail in the analysis of mammals and birds, they said no effort was made to identify any snake or lizard remains. Maybe they're harder to distinguish or have less variation, but I thought that was odd.

Anyway, I'll look through the tables again to see which species are called out.

[azbackpackr]

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I'll have more time to read stuff like that pretty soon now. School will be over with for me in 10 days. Old Pueblo Archaeology takes people to Ventana Cave, I think every February. It would be worth going on that field trip.

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@azbackpackr

That's good to know, I'd probably find it interesting. I'd ask a bunch of questions about revised interpretations, especially now that some items can be more easily dated. I've avoided peeking at anything until I finish this book, but the glimpse I sneaked suggested only minor adjustments have been made.

By the way, in the book, Cacomistle is listed as Bassuriscus astutus flavus (the "normal" AZ Ringtail), rather than the Central American relative that seems more properly identified by that name. I wonder if the word was in more common usage back in the 40s. The biologists consulted were Grover M. Allen and Barbara Lawrence of Harvard, so maybe it was an outsider's choice of words.

ETA: The Ringtail remains where in the top two half-meter zones, which correspond to modern climatic conditions. It looks like they may even have been post-Columbian.

[azbackpackr]

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The cost is very reasonable at $40 for non-members. I could probably do it. I'll put it on my December calendar to remind myself to revisit their website, see if they're going again. Hope you can get out west at that time. Done...it's on the calendar.

You lost me on half-meter zones, don't know that term. And what did you mean was post-Columbian, the ringtail's move to the current US? Other animals have moved north. I have heard that both javelinas and coatimundis are relatively recent arrivals, having moved up from Mexico.

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@azbackpackr

Haury's stratigraphy was based on half-meter zones, and Ringtail remains were found only in the top two zones, which also included remains of modern horses and cattle. That suggests their formation was either post-Columbian or that they suffered significant post-Columbian disturbance. I just started the section on tools, which goes from the bottom up, so I don't know what else was in those upper zones apart from mammals and birds. Fauna typically associated with different climates are found deeper. (The midden is about 6 meters thick).

They noted the absence of many fauna known to have inhabited the region across time, so remains found in the cave was assumed to be more representative primarily of what animals humans were eating or otherwise using, along with whatever animals used the cave along with humans or during gaps in human occupation.