Paleoindian bison procurement and paleoenvironments in Middle Park of Colorado

The Upper Twin Mountain Site, located within a geologic slump scar at 2548 m altitude, provides significant information on Paleoindian bison procurement. As the highest known Paleoindian bison bone bed, the site contained the partial skeletal remains of at least 15 adult Late Pleistocene bison (B. antiquus), Goshen projectile points, and debitage. Radiocarbon dates of 10,240±70 and 10,470±50 yr B.P. place Upper Twin Mountain midway between the northern Plains Goshen and southern Plains Plainview sites. With a late fall or early winter mortality of the bison and the presence of only local stone, year round occupation of Middle Park is indicated. Analysis of the geology, soil, and pollen, from the archaeological and nonarchaeological deposits at the Upper Twin Mountain and elsewhere in the region are used to describe the paleoenvironmental conditions in Middle Park. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On the possible utilization of Camelops by early man in North America

Camelops was a major faunal element in late Wisconsin biotic communities over much of North America. Interpretations of possible human association with Camelops are often based on poorly evaluated evidence. Ideal standards for acceptable evidence are compared here to the actual evidence that has been advanced. Of 25 fossil assemblages examined, 2 might be examples only of geological contemporaneity of humans and Camelops; 2 might indicate behavioral association of humans and Camelops bones; and 2 might indicate actual human utilization of Camelops (killing and/or butchering). Camelops bones interpreted as artifacts are similar to modern specimens affected by noncultural processes.     

The last 30,000 years of faunal history within the Grand Canyon, Arizona

The vertebrate fauna of the last 30,000 radiocarbon years in the Grand Canyon is reviewed. Faunas accompanied with 92 ¹⁴C dates have been analyzed from nine cave sites (four systematically excavated) and 50 packrat middens. Reasonably precise chronological and environmental data of late Pleistocene and Holocene age were obtained through dung studies in Rampart, Muav, and Stanton's Caves; from the numerous packrat middens; and from a ringtail refuse deposit in Vulture Cave. The desert tortoise, 8 species of lizards, 12 species of snakes, 68 species of birds, and 33 species of mammals are identified. Extinct animals include the avian carrion feeder, Teratornis merriami, and the mammalian herbivores, Oreamnos harringtoni, Camelops cf. hesternus, Equus sp., and Nothrotheriops shastense. There is no apparent abrupt end to the late Pleistocene as observed in the Grand Canyon fossil faunal or floral record. Animal and plant taxa of the Grand Canyon responded individually to the changes in climate of the last 30,000 yr. Both animal and plant fossil assemblages indicate that a pre-full glacial, a full glacial, and a late glacial woodland community with many less dominant desert taxa were slowly replaced by a Holocene desert community. All woodland taxa were absent from the lower elevations of the Grand Canyon by 8500 yr B.P.     

Palynofloral study of the intertrappean bed exposed at a new locality in Kutch district,Gujarat and its implications on palaeoenvironment and age

A palynofloral assemblage has been recorded from the intertrappean bed exposed at a new locality, near Naredi, on Naliya-Narayan Sarovar Road in western Kutch, Gujarat. This intertrappean bed (ca. 0.6 m thick) of grey laminated clay is underlain and overlain by the volcanic traps. The assemblage recovered from this bed includes algal and fungal remains, pteridophytic spores, angiospermous pollen as well as cuticles of terrestrial plants. Important palynotaxa recovered are Azolla sp., Lygodiumsporites lakiensis, Polypodiaceaesporites intrapunctatus, Compositoipollenites argutus, C. conicus, Graminidites media, Ladakhipollenites minutus, Lakiapollis ovatus, Matanomadhiasulcites sp., etc. Besides, a variety of fungal remains belonging to the genera Dictyosporites, Frasnacritetrus (Tetraploa), Kutchiathyrites, Palaeomycites (VAM fungi), Papulosporonites, Parmathyrites, Phragmothyrites, Polycellaesporonites (Alternaria), etc have been recorded. It has been deduced that this intertrappean bed was deposited in a shallow depression over the trap during short interval of quiescence in a tropical-subtropical climate. The age of the intertrappean bed is suggested as Early Palaeocene.     

A late Pleistocene steppe bison (Bison priscus) partial carcass from Tsiigehtchic, Northwest Territories, Canada

A partial steppe bison (Bison priscus) carcass was recovered at Tsiigehtchic, near the confluence of the Arctic Red and Mackenzie Rivers, Northwest Territories, Canada in September of 2007. The carcass includes a complete cranium with horn cores and sheaths, several complete post-cranial elements (many of which have some mummified soft tissue), intestines and a large piece of hide. A piece of metacarpal bone was subsampled and yielded an AMS radiocarbon age of 11,830 ± 45 ¹⁴C yr BP (OxA-18549). Mitochondrial DNA sequenced from a hair sample confirms that Tsiigehtchic steppe bison (Bison priscus) did not belong to the lineage that eventually gave rise to modern bison (Bison bison). This is the first radiocarbon dated Bison priscus in the Mackenzie River valley, and to our knowledge, the first reported Pleistocene mammal soft tissue remains from the glaciated regions of northern Canada. Investigation of the recovery site indicates that the steppe bison was released from the permafrost during a landslide within unconsolidated glacial outwash gravel. These data indicate that the lower Mackenzie River valley was ice free and inhabited by steppe bison by 11,800 ¹⁴C years ago. This date is important for the deglacial chronology of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the opening of the northern portal to the Ice Free Corridor. The presence of steppe bison raises further potential for the discovery of more late Pleistocene fauna, and possibly archaeological evidence, in the region.     

Middle Holocene Bison diet and mobility in the eastern Great Plains (USA) based on δC, δO, and Sr/Sr analyses of tooth enamel carbonate

During the Holocene, bison (Bison bison) were key components of the Great Plains landscape. This study utilizes serial stable isotope analyses (tooth enamel carbonate) of 29 individuals from five middle Holocene (∼ 7–8.5 ka) archaeological sites to address seasonal variability in movement patterns and grazing behavior of bison populations in the eastern Great Plains. Stable carbon isotopes (δ¹³C) indicate a bison diet that is similar to the C3/C4 composition of modern tallgrass prairies, while ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values generally indicate very little seasonal movement (< 50 km) and relatively limited inter-annual movement (< 500 km) over the course of 4–5 yr. Analyses of variability in serial stable oxygen isotope samples (δ¹⁸O) further substantiate a model of localized bison herds that adhered to upland areas of the eastern Plains and prairie–forest border.     

Identifying remains of extinct kangaroos in Late Pleistocene deposits using collagen fingerprinting

Our knowledge of past animal populations, including the geographical ranges of extinct species, has largely been derived from morphological analyses of skeletal fossil remains. However, a major barrier to the identification of the remains of extinct megafaunal species in archaeological and palaeontological sites is the highly fragmented nature of the material, which often precludes confident taxonomic identifications based on morphology. Biomolecular techniques are able to go beyond these limitations and are increasingly being used to make such identifications. Protein analysis offers a promising alternative to DNA techniques because they can be much cheaper, more amenable to high‐throughput processing and work on much older specimens. Here we demonstrate the potential of collagen fingerprinting in an Australian context by extracting collagen from 50‐ka kangaroo fossils from two caves in Tasmania, and identify several species including the extinct short‐faced kangaroo Simosthenurus occidentalis . Importantly, of the five fossil bones sampled that had hitherto been ascribed morphology‐based identifications below the family level, three had been incorrectly identified during an initial assessment of photographs taken in the field. Our results highlight the utility of using protein‐based methods for making genus‐level identification of marsupial bone, especially those that may form a basis for broader arguments such as that of late‐surviving megafaunal species.

     

Late Quaternary Bison diminution on the Great Plains of North America: evaluating the role of human hunting versus climate change

Body size changes of Bison and mortality age structure data document the effects of climate-driven environmental change and human hunting pressure on large mammals in North America. Morphometric and mortality data are drawn from 58 archaeological and 9 paleontological localities dating between 37,000 and 250 calBP. Proxy information on body size is based on measurements recorded on 901 adult calcanei (os calcis) and 1026 humeri. In addition, published mortality profiles from 24 archaeological faunal assemblages spanning the last 14,000 years were used to approximate the age structure of bison populations. These results suggest that dramatic diminution in bison body size occurred in several short bursts, rather than a continuous gradual decline. These periods of rapid size reduction correlate with times of ecological reorganization, when aridity-driven changes in grasslands decreased forage quality and availability. Mortality age data indicate that the decrease in body size occurred in a context where there was no evidence for a progressively severe juvenile bias in bison populations. Overall, it appears that the changes in body size were a reaction to environmental conditions rather than the result of human predation pressure.     

Florisbad—New investigations at a middle stone age Hominid Site in South Africa

First results of renewed excavations at the Middle Stone Age spring site of Florisbad are reported. Seven meters of deposits dating possibly from the later mid-Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene contain several cultural phases and record alternating periods of increased spring flow versus more stabilized conditions. The archaic Homo sapiens cranium discovered in 1932 and the Florisian Land Mammal Age fauna retrieved from the springs are argued to derive from the earliest deposits, estimated to be ca. 100,000–200,000 years old. In an Upper Pleistocene layer beyond the range of Carbon-14 dating, a Middle Stone Age occupation floor has been excavated. This we interpret as a multiple-occupation kill, butchery, or scavenging site. The presence of a hearth, of chipping debris under 10 mm in size, and the limited displacement of artifacts which have been refitted as conjoining pieces demonstrate a minimally disturbed, primary context site.     

Late-Quaternary diminution and abundance of prehistoric bison (Bison sp.) in eastern Washington state, U.S.A.

Bison (Bison spp.) occurred in eastern Washington state during the late Quaternary. This area is considered to be peripheral to the center of this taxon's natural range. Bison in the plains east of the Rocky Mountains, the heart of this range, underwent diminution during the late Quaternary, and apparently also did so in other, peripheral areas. A ratio diagram of measurement data derived from eight zooarchaeological collections of bison remains recovered from eastern Washington, in combination with the presence of both sexes and all age classes of individuals, indicate that local bison may have also undergone diminution there. There are, however, a relative paucity of bison remains during the middle Holocene and an apparent 2000-year absence of bison from eastern Washington at this time. As a result, the hypothesis that bison became smaller elsewhere and then immigrated to eastern Washington cannot be falsified. Both the diminution and the fluctuating abundance of bison appear to be responses to forage quality and quantity.     

Late Pleistocene Vertebrates and Other Fossils from Epiguruk, Northwestern Alaska

Sediments exposed at Epiguruk, a large cutbank on the Kobuk River about 170 km inland from Kotzebue Sound, record multiple episodes of glacial-age alluviation followed by interstadial downcutting and formation of paleosols. Vertebrate remains from Epiguruk include mammoth, bison, caribou, an equid, a canid, arctic ground squirrel, lemmings, and voles. Radiocarbon ages of bone validated by concordant ages of peat and wood span the interval between about 37,000 and 14,000 yr B.P. The late Pleistocene pollen record is dominated by Cyperaceae, with Artemisia, Salix, Betula, and Gramineae also generally abundant. The fossil record from Epiguruk indicates that the Kobuk River valley supported tundra vegetation with abundant riparian willows during middle and late Wisconsin time. Large herbivores were present during the height of late Wisconsin glaciation as well as during its waning stage and the preceding interstadial interval. The Kobuk River valley would have been a favorable refugium for plants, animals, and possibly humans throughout the last glaciation.     

Abnormal animal behaviour as a precursor of the 7 December 1988 Spitak,Armenia, earthquake

This paper relates some facts about abnormal animal behaviour prior to several Armenian earthquakes. The catastrophic Spitak, northern Armenia, earthquake of 7 December 1988, M = 7, I ₀ = X, was preceded by extensive occurrences of abnormal animal behaviour. Proof was established by questioning residents in the area and by distributing specially prepared questionnaires shortly after the event. Approximately 200 reports from 50 sites were examined. The raw data recorded included lists of different types and locations of species that have shown abnormal responses to an impending earthquake, distribution of anomalous occurrences over the area, and precursor times. It is concluded that specially conducted observations of animal behaviour as a possible premonitory phenomenon is both useful and necessary.     

Problems in the interpretation of Brazilian archaeofaunas: Different contexts and the important role of taphonomy

Studies on Brazilian archaeofauna from prehistoric and historic sites have attempted to explain human settlement and cultural trajectories in different geographical regions. However, only since 1999 have taphonomical criteria been developed during Brazilian zooarchaeological investigations. Wide ecosystem diversity results in the differential preservation of faunal remains. Until the end of the 20th century, many zooarchaeological studies presented insufficient information on complex predator–prey interaction systems in many regions, mostly from the Amazonian lowlands and the highlands of the Central Plateau. Animal remains might have been the result of natural predation, and they are often found mixed within anthropic material that could distort interpretation of deposits. Thus, there are major problems in defining diagnostic criteria to distinguish natural from cultural marks.Taphonomic analyses are needed to explain faunal remains in order to understand the particularities of human–animal relationships in Brazilian prehistory. Zooarchaeological and taphonomical data are presented from five human occupation sites dating from 9000 to 1000 BP to verify human–fauna relationships and natural deposits in three different regions of Brazil. These sites illustrate both natural and anthropic contexts.     

Non-linear diffusion: Bison on the hoof and on the rail in the United States

This paper puts forth a non-linear, post-structural conception of geographical diffusion by utilizing the example of American bison. In doing so, this approach stands in contrast to canonical theories of diffusion (notably neoclassical economics and political economy), which portray diffusion as a steady progression of development. In reviewing the history of bison diffusion during the 20th century, the impact of several factors is evident. These include environmental, cultural, economic, governmental, health and material factors. Each of these variables has taken several distinct forms, thereby enlarging the number of actors involved in the species’ redistribution. The impact of each variable has waxed and waned over the years. Consequently, a series of heterogeneous networks has formed, which have simultaneously undercut the importance of certain variables and formed the basis for new channels of bison diffusion. The non-linear nature of diffusion emerges from the different temporalities of these networks. In an alternating fashion, this process of network-building has guided bison onto public, private, and tribal lands.     

Canyon Creek: A late Pleistocene vertebrate locality in interior Alaska

The Canyon Creek vertebrate-fossil locality is an extensive road cut near Fairbanks that exposes sediments that range in age from early Wisconsin to late Holocene. Tanana River gravel at the base of the section evidently formed during the Delta Glaciation of the north-central Alaska Range. Younger layers and lenses of fluvial sand are interbedded with arkosic gravel from Canyon Creek that contains tephra as well as fossil bones of an interstadial fauna about 40,000 years old. Solifluction deposits containing ventifacts, wedge casts, and rodent burrows formed during a subsequent period of periglacial activity that took place during the maximum phase of Donnelly Glaciation about 25,000–17,000 years ago. Overlying sheets of eolian sand are separated by a 9500-year-old paleosol that may correlate with a phase of early Holocene spruce expansion through central Alaska. The Pleistocene fauna from Canyon Creek consists of rodents (indicated by burrows), Mammuthus primigenius (woolly mammoth), Equus lambei (Yukon wild ass), Camelops hesternus (western camel), Bison sp. cf. B. crassicornis (large-horned bison), Ovis sp. cf.O. dalli (mountain sheep), Canis sp. cf. C. lupus (wolf), Lepus sp. cf. L. othus or L. arcticus (tundra hare), and Rangifer sp. (caribou). This assemblage suggests an open landscape in which trees and tall shrubs were either absent or confined to sheltered and moist sites. Camelops evidently was present in eastern Beringia during the middle Wisconsin interstadial interval but may have disappeared during the following glacial episode. The stratigraphic section at Canyon Creek appears to demonstrate that the Delta Glaciation of the north-central Alaska Range is at least in part of early Wisconsin age and was separated from the succeeding Donnelly Glaciation by an interstadial rather than interglacial episode.     

Steppe lion remains imported by Ice Age spotted hyenas into the Late Pleistocene Perick Caves hyena den in northern Germany

Upper Pleistocene remains of the Ice Age steppe lion Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) have been found in the Perick Caves, Sauerland Karst, NW Germany. Bones from many hyenas and their imported prey dating from the Lower to Middle Weichselian have also been recovered from the Perick Cave hyena den. These are commonly cracked or exhibit deep chew marks. The absence of lion cub bones, in contrast to hyena and cave bear cub remains in the Perick Caves, and other caves of northern Germany, excludes the possibility that P. leo spelaea used the cave for raising cubs. Only in the Wilhelms Cave was a single skeleton of a cub found in a hyena den. Evidence of the chewing, nibbling and cracking of lion bones and crania must have resulted from the importation and destruction of lion carcasses (4% of the prey fauna). Similar evidence was preserved at other hyena den caves and open air sites in Germany. The bone material from the Perick and other Central European caves points to antagonistic hyena and lion conflicts, similar to clashes of their modern African relatives.     

New evidence for the presence of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) on the Iberian Peninsula in the Pleistocene: an archaeopalaeontological and chronological reassessment

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) populations reached the Iberian Peninsula during the end of the Middle Pleistocene and there are numerous examples of this species from Late Pleistocene Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic sites. In this paper, new evidence of reindeer in the east Cantabrian region is presented that further supports the timing of this species’ first appearance, and previous assessments are updated. To date, the presence of this species has been identified at 55 sites in the Iberian Peninsula, nearly as many as those of mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) combined. Most of the sites with presence of reindeer (50) are located in the Cantabrian region with a clear increase in the density of sites and remains towards the Pyrenees. The remaining five sites with evidence of reindeer are located on the other side of the Pyrenees in the NW corner of Catalonia. In contrast, archaeological evidence of reindeer in the form of art (both parietal and portable) is more scarce and scattered. Evidence for the representation of these animals has been found outside the northern fringe of the Iberian Peninsula, which could reflect either long‐distance cultural communication or the movement of human groups.     

What does the occurrence of Sporormiella (Preussia) spores mean in Australian fossil sequences?

Understanding the loss of the final few species of Australian megafauna is beset by a paucity of data on human arrival, well‐provenanced megafauna, human/megafauna population range and distribution (coexistence and interaction), and the range, scale and impact of environmental changes spanning the human–megafauna period. To overcome these shortcomings, the occurrence and decline of coprophilous fungal spores of Sporormiella in sediments have been used as a proxy for extinct megaherbivores. The Sporormiella evidence is presented as the key indicator of extinction timing and these reports are often from locations where there is no known archaeological record or megafauna remains. However, interpreting fungal spore occurrence is not straightforward, as demonstrated by studies investigating taphonomy, taxonomy and the types of animal dung where Sporormiella occurs. No detailed studies on these problems exist for Australia and no evidence supporting the use of Sporormiella as a valid proxy has been reported. Here we examine the occurrence of Sporormiella spores from Cuddie Springs in south‐eastern Australia. Despite a well‐preserved suite of megafauna fossils, Sporormiella occurrence is sporadic and frequencies are low. We conclude that using Sporormiella alone as an indicator for the presence of megafauna is premature for the Australian context.     

Overcoming disciplinary solitude: The archaeology and geology of native copper in Eastern North America

Although native copper has attracted the scholarly attention of both geologists and archaeologists since the middle of the 19th century, it is only recently that native copper studies have benefited from interdisciplinary research. This history of disciplinary solitude can be traced to the professionalization of the two fields in the early 20th century, an era in which crossdisciplinary communication began to wane. The effects of this phenomena resulted in the development of a model of aboriginal native copper procurement by archaeologists that did not take into account the geological literature, which had long identified numerous—rather than a single—source of native copper in North America. In this article, the author discusses how this disciplinary solitude developed and how it resulted in the creation of a dominant model for native copper procurement that constrained our understanding of aboriginal lifeways for generations. The author also considers how increasing collaboration between geologists and archaeologists since the 1970s has led to the reevaluation of an old model of native copper procurement that has been uncritically accepted by most archaeologists for over a century and a half. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Distinguishing bioturbation and trampling using pottery sherd measures,Tell Fendi,Jordan

In the Levant, the blind mole‐rat (Spalax ehrenbergi) is responsible for much disturbance at archaeological sites, but its potential destructiveness is often ignored when cultural remains are interpreted. The effects of mole‐rat burrowing on artifact distributions were evaluated through a study of mole‐hill contents and by doing a vertical particle‐size analysis of ceramic materials drawn from Tell Fendi, a Late Chalcolithic (6600–5500 B.P.) site in the Jordan Valley. While the general effects of animal burrowing are predictable to some degree, stratigraphic units affected by burrowing may not be immediately obvious to the archaeologist. The problem of identification is compounded because other disturbance processes produce similar effects. This study proposes a method for identifying bioturbation layers and for distinguishing these layers from both trampled surfaces and in situ contexts by means of pottery sherd measures. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.