West US cave with fossil secrets to be excavated

Phys dot org ^ | July 24, 2014 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

(Bureau of Land Management photos also attributed to AP, so not using them)

[SunkenCiv]

[dalebert]

ping

[Fresh Wind]

[MaxMax]

They won't find the missing link, in there.

[TigersEye]

That is very interesting. I agree with the scientist who called it a “tad creepy.” A natural death trap that has existed for 100k+ years and killed tens of thousands of animals!?! Maybe more than a tad creepy. Sort of a natural time capsule though.

[Bernard Marx]

Sort of a natural time capsule though.

Like the La Brea Tar Pits. Very interesting place if you've never visited. Many Pleistocene fossils in a nice museum.

[TigersEye]

Natural Trap, Wyoming, 1975

There is an article about the earlier expedition into Natural Trap with more pics. I was hoping to find some good well illuminated pics of the bottom but haven't yet.

[SatinDoll]

Hmm...makes one wonder if, like the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, scientists will find one hominid or homo sapien sapien among the animal bones.

[TigersEye]

I have heard and read about the La Brea Tar Pits since I was a kid but have not had the fortune to visit it. Someday maybe.

[Graewoulf]

Good find, thanks!

[TigersEye]

I was wondering that too. In the pics at the link I posted they show the entrance. It’s easy to see how animals or humans could fall in.

[SunkenCiv]

Probably the creepiness comes from experiencing the grotto itself. One has to wonder how many human remains are down there, and if there are some, how old they are. Seems like a worthwhile idea to bore a parallel shaft and install an elevator (and/or staircase), and probably an underground facility for the analysis and cataloguing of the finds.

[SunkenCiv]

:’D

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure.

[SunkenCiv]

Heh, I love that one.

I recall (but couldn’t find in a cursory search) that somewhere in the western US there’s at least one sudden hole in the ground that has claimed the lives of ORV-riders.

[SunkenCiv]

Nice, thanks!

[TigersEye]

I would think they could set up an electric winch above the entrance and save a lot of muscle power getting people and equipment in and out. Just on a temporary per-exploration basis.

I found a pic of a placard there that says it may have existed (and been trapping animals) for 250k years. Wow!

[sauropod]

I know someone that excavated cave floors in just this manner. He found some quite interesting fossil bones.

Pretty neat.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

There is one in Florida that is full of water to the top. Exploration shows it funnels down, then opens out into a wide cave.
Once the water level was way low, and any animal or man who fell in was permanently there. Exploration found a large turtle that some MAN cooked and ate while trapped there.