This accentuates the fact that owl pellets provide an important supplement to traditional collecting techniques. While searching for Permian reptiles in fissure-fills at an abandoned rock quarry in Kiowa County, located approximately 15 km south and 2 km west of Carnegie, I found several owl pellets containing recent skeletal, mandibular, and cranial elements of small mammals. The pellets were in such poor condition that identification of the owl responsible for regurgitating them was not possible. Furthermore, no owls were in the immediate area where the pellets were found. Therefore, the taxonomic identification of the owl that regurgitated these pellets remains unknown.
Owls evidently roost on the vertical rock faces of the abandoned quarry.
The small mammal remains identified included Sylvilagus sp., Sigmodon hispidus , and Microtus sp. The most significant find was a left lower jaw of a vole, identified as Microtus sp. Caire et al. A collection site of Stangl et al. Caire et al.