Long Mile Cave

Cave in Jamaica
18°22′36″N 77°38′39″W / 18.3768°N 77.6441°W / 18.3768; -77.6441Depth3 metres (9.8 ft)Length6 metres (20 ft)Geologylimestone

Long Mile Cave, sometimes known locally as Pick'ny Mama Cave or Hell's Gate Cave, is a palaeontological and palaeoanthropological site in the Cockpit Country of north-western Jamaica.

Description

The site is a small, largely collapsed, limestone chamber cave that is now a rock shelter with a depth of 3 m and a length of 6 m. It lies in the Trelawny Parish close to the Coxheath-Windsor Road on privately owned farmland and is an important Quaternary palaeontological site as well as containing a Taino midden.[1] Extinct fossil animals discovered at the site include the Jamaican monkey (Xenothrix mcgregori) and the Jamaican flightless ibis (Xenicibis xympithecus), which were described from material excavated by Harold Anthony in 1919–1920.[2]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Jamaican Caving Notes.
  2. ^ Olson & Steadman (1977).

Sources

  • Olson, Storrs L. & Steadman, David W. (1977). "A new genus of flightless ibis (Threskiornithidae) and other fossil birds from cave deposits in Jamaica". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 90 (2): 447–457.
  • "Long Mile Cave". Jamaican Caving Notes. Jamaican Caves Organization. March–April 2005. Retrieved 2011-01-06.


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