Great Summary of Cave Fossil Preservation

Expect me to reference this post by David Bressan over at History of Geology regarding cave taphonomy anytime I am talking about fossils found in caves. It is so well done here read a paragraph or two.

A peculiar bone bed formation found in caves is under sinkholes. Fissures, hidden under vegetation, snow cover or a thin soil layer can act like a pitfall trap - animals fell trough them and die on the impact or later by starvation. Under these natural traps a talus of rubble accumulates that contains a chaotic assemblage of bones from animals died at different times.

In parts of the cave accessible by animals, and used as shelter or resting place, animals that die of natural causes, get lost or become entrapped can became accumulated. Many carnivorous animals, mammals and birds, carry their prey or parts of it in their shelter, were the bones later are found (a prominent recent example is the den of the man-eaters of Tsavo).

This is a great read as is most of the stuff over at History of Geology so if you are a huge dork (me a dork, what?) I recommend you subscribe to the feed and keep on reading the other excellent posts that will come in the future. Also expect another post from me soon where I will reference this particular article.