Wildcat Remains from Natural Bridge Caverns Offer Insights into the Quaternary Diversity of Felines

Speaker’s Bio, John A. Moretti: 

I am a paleontologist in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin where I study Quaternary vertebrate dynamics in southwestern North America. My research investigates patterns of change in the animal community of North America over the last approximately 3 million years. My research seeks to understand how animal communities change over time and how changes in the past led to the biodiversity of today. To do this, I study fossils collected from caves across the Edwards Plateau of Texas. Those caves contain archives of information about past animals and environments and by exploring them, I am able to reconstruct the natural history of central Texas.

𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆:

Small wildcats, including ocelots and bobcats, are rare, elusive, and difficult to study. Fossils of small cats are even more scarce, and those that do exist are fragmentary and incomplete. As a result, we know little about the natural history of small wildcats throughout North America. Exceptional fossil skeletons and tracks of two small cats were discovered deep inside Natural Bridge Caverns, a show cave near New Braunfels, Texas. Those specimens hold the unique potential to reveal new insights into feline history in Texas and beyond. In this talk, I will introduce you to the small wildcats of Texas and recount how a team of cavers and I squeezed through narrow crawl ways and rappelled into chasms to recover these rare cat fossils from nearly a mile inside Natural Bridge Caverns. Those fossils are now slowly revealing their secrets, and you will be among the first to hear about our latest, cutting-edge research results!

𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮@𝗧𝗲𝘅𝗮𝘀𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗖𝗮𝘁𝘀.𝗼𝗿𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘃𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

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