Holocene paleontology of bat cave, Edmonson County, Kentucky

We report the excavation and analysis of a Chiroptera-dominated bonebed from Bat Cave, Edmonson County, Kentucky. Paleontological materials recovered in 1999 offered new insight into formation processes of the bonebed. Stratigraphic and geochronological information indicate a long, episodic history of the deposit spanning much of the Holocene. The vertebrate assemblage is dominated by Myotis spp. Although initially believed to represent a single, catastrophic kill event due to historic flooding, our results suggest that the Bat Cave bonebed was formed by a minimum of eleven accumulation events that took place between approximately 2200 and 10,800 cal BP.