Science & Tech
Bechan Cave is a large sandstone rock shelter in southeastern Utah along Bowns Canyon Creek within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Though rarely visited, it is scientifically important for preserving an exceptional floor deposit of Pleistocene megafauna remains dating from 11,555 BCE to 9720 BCE. Excavations in 1983 and 1984 uncovered bones, hair, teeth, and abundant dung from mammoths, ground sloths, and other animals. The cave holds the largest known coprolite deposit in North America, accumulated over about a thousand years and made up mainly of Columbian mammoth dung. Above these Ice Age deposits are traces of later Holocene human use, including Archaic and Basketmaker occupation.
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Utah · United States