| Summary: | Cavern Holds Relics Of Past Bones Found In Bend Tunnel Thought To Be 2000 Years Old. Cavern Holds Relics Of Past. Bones Found In Bend Tunnel Thought To Be 2000 Years Old. BEND, Ore.—Fragments of skeletons and teeth found recently in a lava river tunnel 12 miles south- east of Bend are probably more than 2000 years old and represent creatures, including- a giant bear and an extinct species of horse, which ranged over ancient Oregon in the pleistocene period. This is the information just received in Bend by Walter J. Perry of the Deschutes national forest, who sent the fossils to Dr. J. W. Gidley, Smithsonian institution paleontologist, for determination. Although regretting that the material sent to the institution is too fragmentary for definite specific determination, Dr. Gidley writes "it is nevertheless a very interesting little lot and seems rather definitely to represent a pleistocene fauna." Bearing out the contention of the Bend people who found the bones in Skeleton cave, some of the teeth in the collection sent east are believed by Dr. Gidley to represent an extinct form of horse, probably intermediate between the species represented in Fossil lake deposits of south central Oregon and the horse of the present, it is pointed out by students of paleontology times. All of these species were extinct when white settlers first visited America, the Spanish conquerors bringing the first representatives of the present day horse, to this continent. Among the most interesting material in the collection sent to the Smithsonian institution were bones of a very large bear, probably the one known as Archtotherium, reports Dr. Gidley. "Pieces in the collection are at least one-third larger than those of the largest living bear," writes the Smithsonian paleontologist. The bear material was found in a branch cave of Skeleton cavern, about one-half mile back from the entrance. The bear teeth were found in a mass of bone dust, the skeleton of the creature having turned to ash long years ago. Skeleton cave has also yielded parts of the skeleton of a pleistocene wolf, "nearly as large as Canis occidentalis," writes Dr. Gidley. It is the opinion that this may be the same species found in the noted Rancheo La Brea deposits of California. This would provide a time correlation between the Oregon animals and those of southern California, it is pointed out. Rancho La Brea is one of the most noted pleistocene fossil localities on the continent. In the Skeleton cave also are teeth of the Arctic fox, according to the information from the national museum in Washington, D. C.
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