Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T23:51:56.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Pleistocene mammoth herd structure, migration patterns, and Clovis hunting strategies inferred from isotopic analyses of multiple death assemblages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Kathryn A. Hoppe
Kathryn A. Hoppe*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064
*
Present address: Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2115. E-mail: khoppe@stanford.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many late Pleistocene fossil localities contain the remains of multiple mammoths. Some of these sites have been interpreted as representing the mass death of an entire herd, or family group, of mammoths. These assemblages have been cited as evidence of intense human predation and used to reconstruct mammoth population dynamics. However, these interpretations remain controversial because the taphonomic settings of many sites are still debated. To reconstruct the taphonomic setting of each site and the movement patterns of mammoths among sites, I used analyses of carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope ratios in mammoth tooth enamel. The carbon isotopes of fossils vary with diet and local vegetation, oxygen isotopes vary with local climate, and strontium isotopes vary with local soil chemistry. If Pleistocene mammoths traveled together in small family groups, then mammoths from sites that represent family groups should have lower isotopic variability than mammoths from sites containing unrelated individuals. I tested this conjecture by comparing the isotopic variability among mammoths from two sites—one that represents the mass death of a single herd (Waco, Texas) and one representing a time-averaged accumulation (Friesenhahn Cave, Texas)—and then used these analyses to examine mammoths from three Clovis sites: Blackwater Draw, New Mexico; Dent, Colorado; and Miami, Texas. Low levels of carbon isotope variability were found to be the most diagnostic signal of herd/family group association. Although the variability of oxygen and strontium isotope ratios proved less useful for identifying family group assemblages, these signals did provide information about the movement patterns of individuals among different sites. High levels of variability in each of the isotope systems at Clovis sites suggest that all of the sites examined represent time-averaged accumulations of unrelated individuals, rather than the mass deaths of family groups.

In addition, analyses of the mean isotope values of Clovis mammoths show that although most mammoths from Blackwater and Miami had similar values, the values of Dent mammoths were significantly different. This demonstrates that the Dent mammoths belonged to a separate population and suggests that Clovis mammoths did not routinely undertake long distance (≥600 km) migrations.

Type
Articles
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , Winter 2004 , pp. 129 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Agenbroad, L. D. 1980. Quaternary mastodon, mammoth, and men in the New World. Canadian Journal of Anthropology 1:99–101.Google Scholar
Alroy, J. 2001. A multispecies overkill simulation of the End-Pleistocene megafaunal mass extinction. Science 2001 292:1893–1896.Google ScholarPubMed
Ambrose, S. H., and Norr, L. 1993. Experimental evidence for the relationship of the carbon isotope ratios of whole diet and dietary protein to those of bone collagen and carbonate. Pp. 1–37in Lambert, J. B. and Grupe, G., eds. Prehistoric human bone: archaeology at the molecular level. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Bayer, K. G. 1983. Generalized structural lithology and physiographic provinces in the fold and thrust belts of the United States. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va.Google Scholar
Blum, J. D., and Erel, Y. 1995. A silicate weathering mechanism linking increases in marine 87Sr/86Sr with global glaciation. Nature 373:415–418.Google Scholar
Blum, M. D., Toomey, R. S., and Valastro, S. 1994. Fluvial response to Late Quaternary climactic and environmental change, Edwards Plateau, Texas. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 108:1–21.Google Scholar
Bocherens, H., Fizet, M., Mariotti, A., Gangloff, R. A., and Burns, J. A. 1994. Contribution of isotopic biogeochemistry (13C, 15N, 18O) to the paleoecology of mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius). Historical Biology 7:187–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bocherens, H., Koch, P. L., Mariotti, A., Geraads, D., and Jaeger, J. J. 1996. Isotope biogeochemistry (13C, 18O) of mammalian enamel from African Pleistocene homonid sites: implications for the preservation of paleoclimatic signals. Palaios 11:306–318.Google Scholar
Bombin, M., and Muehlenbachs, K. 1985. 13C/12C ratios of Pleistocene mummified remains from Beringia. Quaternary Research 23:123–129.Google Scholar
Bryant, J. D., and Froelich, P. N. 1995. A model of oxygen isotope fractionation in body water of large mammals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 59:4523–4537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryant, V. M. J. 1977. A 16,000 year pollen record of vegetational change in central Texas. Palynology 1:143–156.Google Scholar
Cerling, T. E., and Harris, J. M. 1999. Carbon isotope fractionation between diet and bioapatite in ungulate mammals and implications for ecological and paleoecological studies. Oecologia 120:347–363.Google Scholar
Chadwick, O. A., Derry, L. A., Vitousek, P. M., Huebert, B. J., and Hedin, L. O. 1999. Changing sources of nutrients during four million years of ecosystem development. Nature 397:491–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain, C. P., Blum, J. D., Holmes, R. T., Feng, X., Sherry, T. W., and Graves, G. R. 1996. The use of isotope tracers for identifying populations of migratory birds. Oecologia 109:132–141.Google Scholar
Churcher, C. S. 1980. Did North American mammoths migrate? Canadian Journal of Anthropology 1:103–105.Google Scholar
Clementz, M. T., and Koch, P. L. 2001. Differentiating aquatic mammal habitat and foraging ecology with stable isotopes in tooth enamel. Oecologia 129:461–472.Google Scholar
Collatz, G. J., Berry, J. A., and Clark, J. S. 1998. Effects of climate and atmospheric CO2 partial pressure on the global distribution of C4 grasses: present, past, and future. Oecologia 114:441–454.Google Scholar
Connin, S. L., Betancourt, J., and Quade, J. 1998. Late Pleistocene C4 plant dominance and summer rainfall in the southwestern United States from isotopic study of herbivore teeth. Quaternary Research 50:179–193.Google Scholar
Coplen, T. B., and Kendall, C. 2000. Stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope ratios for selected sites of the U.S. Geological Survey's NASQAN and Benchmark Surface-water Networks. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00–160:1–409.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W. 1964. Stable isotopes in precipitation. Tellus 16:436–468.Google Scholar
Davis, O. K., Mead, J. L., Martin, P. S., and Agenbroad, L. D. 1985. Riparian plants were a major component of the diet of mammoths of southern Utah. Current Research in the Pleistocene 2:81–82.Google Scholar
DeNiro, M. J., and Epstein, S. 1979. Relationship between the oxygen isotope ratios of terrestrial plant cellulose, carbon dioxide, and water. Science 204:51–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denison, R. E., Koepnick, R. B., Fletcher, A., Howell, M. W., and Callaway, W. S. 1994. Criteria for the retention of original seawater 87Sr/86Sr in ancient shelf limestones. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geosciences Section) 112:131–143.Google Scholar
Ehleringer, J. R. 1989. Carbon isotopes ratios and physiological processes in arid land plants. Pp. 41–54in Rundle, P. W., Ehleringer, J. R., and Nagy, K. A., eds. Stable isotopes in ecological research: ecological studies series. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Ehleringer, J. R., Cerling, T. E., and Heliker, B. R. 1997. C4 photosynthesis, atmospheric CO2, and climate. Oecologia 112:285–299.Google Scholar
Elias, S. A., and Van Devender, T. R. 1990. Fossil insect evidence for Late Quaternary climatic change in the Big Bend Region, Chihuahuan Desert, Texas. Quaternary Research 34:249–261.Google Scholar
Epstein, H. E., Lauenroth, W. K., Burke, I. C., and Coffin, D. P. 1997. Productivity patterns of C3 and C4 functional types in the U. S. Great Plains. Ecology 78:722–731.Google Scholar
Ezzo, J. A., Johnson, C. M., and Price, D. T. 1997. Analytical perspectives on prehistoric migration: a case study from east-central Arizona. Journal of Archeological Sciences 24:447–466.Google Scholar
Farquhar, G. D., Ehleringer, J. R., and Hubick, K. T. 1989. Carbon isotope discrimination and photosynthesis. Annual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology 40:503–537.Google Scholar
Faure, G. 1986. Principles of isotope geology. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Fisher, D. C. 1987. Mastodont procurement by Paleoindians of the Great Lakes region: hunting or scavenging? Pp. 309–421in Nitecki, M. H. and Nitecki, D. V., eds. The evolution of human hunting. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Förstel, H. 1978. The enrichment of 18O in leaf water under natural conditions. Radiation and Environmental Biophysics 15:323–344.Google Scholar
Fox, J. W., Smith, C. B., and Lintz, D. O. 1992a. Herd bunching at the Waco Mammoth Site: preliminary investigations, 1978–1987. Pp. 51–73in Fox, et al. 1992b.Google Scholar
Fox, J. W., Smith, C. B., and Wilkins, K. T., eds. 1992b. Proboscideans and Paleoindian interactions. Baylor University Press, Waco, Tex.Google Scholar
Frison, G. C. 1998. Paleoindian large mammal hunters on the plains of North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95:14576–14583.Google Scholar
Gosz, J. R., and Moore, D. I. 1989. Strontium isotope studies of atmospheric inputs to forested watersheds in New Mexico. Biogeochemistry 8:115–134.Google Scholar
Graham, R. W. 1976. Pleistocene and Holocene mammals, taphonomy, and paleoecology of the Friesenhahn Cave local fauna, Bexar, County, Texas. . University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Grayson, D. K., Alroy, J., Slaughter, R., Skulan, J., and Alroy, J. 2001. Did human hunting cause mass extinction? Science 294:1459–1462.Google Scholar
Hall, S. A., and Valastro, S. V. 1995. Grassland vegetation in the southern Great Plains during the last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Research 44:237–245.Google Scholar
Haynes, G. 1987. Proboscidean die-offs and die-outs: age profiles in fossil collections. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 14: 659–68.Google Scholar
Haynes, G. 1991. Mammoths, mastodonts, and elephants: biology, behavior, and the fossil record. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Haynes, G. 1992. The Waco mammoths: possible clues to herd size, demography, and reproductive health. Pp. 111–122in Fox, et al. 1992b.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. 1966. Elephant-hunting in North America. Scientific American 1966:104–112.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. 1995. Geochronology of paleoenvironmental change, Clovis type site, Blackwater Draw, New Mexico. Geoarchaeology 10:317–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, C. V., McFaul, M., Brunswig, R. H., and Hopkins, K. D. 1998. Kersey-Kurner Terrace investigations at the Dent and Bernhardt sites, Colorado. Geoarchaeology 13:201–218.Google Scholar
Hess, J., Bender, M. L., and Schilling, J. 1986. Evolution of the ratio of strontium-87 to strontium-86 in seawater from Cretaceous to present. Science 231:979–984.Google Scholar
Holliday, V. T., Haynes, C. V., Hofman, J. L., and Meltzer, D. J. 1994. Geoarchaeology and geochronology of the Miami (Clovis) site, southern High Plains of Texas. Quaternary Research 41:234–244.Google Scholar
Holman, J. A., Abraczinskas, L. M., and Westjohn, D. B. 1988. Pleistocene proboscideans and Michigan salt deposits. National Geographic Research 4:4–5.Google Scholar
Hoppe, K. A., and Koch, P. L.In press. The biogeochemistry of the Aucilla River fauna. in Webb, S. D., ed. The first Floridians and last mastodons: the Page-Ladson Site on the Aucilla River. Topics in Geobiology. Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Hoppe, K. A., Koch, P. L., Carlson, R. W., and Webb, S. D. 1999. Tracking mammoths and mastodons: reconstruction of migratory behavior using strontium isotope ratios. Geology 27:439–442.Google Scholar
Humphrey, J. D., and Ferring, C. R. 1994. Stable isotopic evidence for Late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic change in north-central Texas. Quaternary Research 41:200–213.Google Scholar
IAEA/WMO (International Atomic Energy Agency/World Meteorological Organisation). 2001. Global network for isotopes in precipitation. The GNIP Database. Accessible at: http://isohis.iaea.org.Google Scholar
Johnson, C. N. 2002. Determinants of loss of mammal species during the Late Quaternary ‘megafauna’ extinctions: life history and ecology, but not body size. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269:2221–2227.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., and Holliday, V. T. 1997. Analysis of Paleoindian bonebeds at the Clovis site: new data from old excavations. Plains Anthropologist 42:329–352.Google Scholar
Kendall, D., and Coplen, T. B. 2001. Distribution of oxygen-18 and deuterium in river waters across the United States. Hydrological Processes 15:1363–1393.Google Scholar
Koch, P. L. 1998. Isotopic reconstruction of past continental environments. Annual Review Earth and Planetary Science. 26:573–613.Google Scholar
Koch, P. L., Halliday, A. N., Walter, L. M., Stearley, R. F., Huston, T. J., and Smith, G. R. 1992. Sr isotopic composition of hydroxyapatite from recent and fossil salmon: the record of lifetime migration and diagenesis. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 108:227–287.Google Scholar
Koch, P. L., Heisinger, J., Moss, C., Carlson, R. W., Fogel, M. L., and Behrensmeyer, A. K. 1995. Isotopic tracking of the diet and home range of African elephants. Science 267:1340–1343.Google Scholar
Koch, P. L., Tuross, N., and Fogel, M. L. 1997. The effects of sample treatment and diagenesis on the isotopic integrity of carbonate in biogenic hydroxylapatite. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:417–429.Google Scholar
Koch, P. L., Hoppe, K. A., and Webb, S. D. 1998. The isotope ecology of Late Pleistocene mammals in North America, Part 1. Florida. Chemical Geology 152:119–138.Google Scholar
Lee-Thorp, J. A., and van der Merwe, N. J. 1991. Aspects of the chemistry of modern and fossil biological apatites. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 18:343–354.Google Scholar
Lenihan, J. M. A., Loutit, J. F., and Martin, J. H., eds. 1967. Strontium metabolism. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Longinelli, A. 1984. Oxygen isotopes in mammal bone phosphate: a new tool for paleohydrological and paleoclimatological research? Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 48:385–390.Google Scholar
Lundelius, E. L. 1972. Vertebrate remains from the Gray Sand. Pp. 148–163in Hester, J. J., Lundelius, E. L., and Fryxell, R., eds. Blackwater Locality No. 1. Fort Burgwin Research Center, Ranchos de Taos, N.M.Google Scholar
Marean, C. W., and Ehrhardt, C. L. 1995. Paleoanthropological and paleoecological implications of the taphonomy of a sabertooth's den. Journal of Human Evolution 29:515–547.Google Scholar
Marino, B. D., McElray, M. B., Salawitch, R. J., and Spaulding, W. G. 1992. Glacial-to-interglacial variations in the carbon isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2. Nature 357:461–466.Google Scholar
Martin, P. 1984. Prehistoric overkill: the global model. Pp. 354–403in Martin, and Klein, 1984.Google Scholar
Martin, P., and Klein, R. G. 1984. Quaternary extinctions: a prehistoric revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., Agenbroad, L. D., Davis, O. K., and Martin, P. S. 1986. Dung of Mammuthus in the arid Southwest, North America. Quaternary Research 25:121–127.Google Scholar
Miller, E. K., Blum, J. D., and Friedland, A. J. 1993. Determination of soil exchangeable-cation loss and weathering rates using Sr isotopes. Nature 362:438–441.Google Scholar
Moss, C. 1988. Elephant memories. William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
O'Leary, M. H. 1988. Carbon isotopes in photosynthesis. Bio-Science 38:328–336.Google Scholar
Olivier, R. C. D. 1982. Ecology and behavior of living elephants: bases for assumptions concerning the extinct woolly mammoth. Pp. 291–306in Hopkins, D. M., Mathews, J. V., Schweger, C. E., and Young, S. B., eds. Paleoecology of Beringia. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Neftel, A., Oeschger, H., Stauffelbauch, T., and Stauffer, B. 1988. CO2 record in Byrd ice core 50,000–5,000 years B.P. Nature 331:609–611.Google Scholar
Norman, G. R., and Streiner, D. L. 1992. Biostatistics: the bare essentials. Mosby, St. Louis.Google Scholar
Paruelo, J. M., and Lauenroth, W. K. 1996. Relative abundances of plant functional types in grasslands and shrublands of North America. Ecological Applications 6:1212–1224.Google Scholar
Pennycuick, C. J. 1979. Energy costs of locomotion and the concept of “foraging radius.” Pp. 164–184in Sinclair, A. R. E. and Norton-Griffiths, M., eds. Serengeti: dynamics of an ecosystem. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Price, T. D., Connor, M., and Parsen, J. D. 1985. Bone chemistry and the reconstruction of diet: strontium discrimination in white-tailed deer. Journal of Archaeological Science 12:419–442.Google Scholar
Rozanski, K., Araguas-Araguas, L., and Gonfiantini, R. 1993. Isotopic patterns in modern global precipitation. Pp. 1–35in Climate change in continental isotopic records. Geophysical Monograph 78. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Saunders, J. J. 1980. A model for man-mammoth relationships in Late Pleistocene North America. Canadian Journal of Anthropology 1:87–98.Google Scholar
Saunders, J. J. 1992. Blackwater Draw: mammoths and mammoth hunters in the terminal Pleistocene. Pp. 123–147in Fox, et al. 1992b.Google Scholar
Saunders, J. J., and Daeschler, E. B. 1994. Descriptive analyses and taphonomical observations of culturally-modified mammoths excavated at “The Gravel Pit,” near Clovis, New Mexico in 1936. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 145:1–28.Google Scholar
Saurer, M., Aellen, K., and Siegwolf, R. 1997. Correlating δ13C and δ18O in cellulose of trees. Plant Cell and Environment 20:1543–1550.Google Scholar
Sealy, J., Armstrong, R., and Schrire, C. 1995. Beyond lifetime averages: tracing life histories through isotopic analysis of different calcified tissues from archaeological human skeletons. Antiquity 69:290–300.Google Scholar
Sellards, E. H. 1952. Early man in America: a study in prehistory. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Siegenthaler, U., and Oeschger, H. 1980. Correlation of 18O in precipitation with temperature and altitude. Nature 285:314–317.Google Scholar
Soffer, O. 1985. The upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Stuart-Williams, H. L. Q., Schwarcz, H. P., White, C. D., and Spence, M. W. 1996. The isotopic composition and diagenesis of bone from Teotihuacan and Oaxaca, Mexico. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 126:1–14.Google Scholar
Sukumar, R. 1989. The Asian elephant: ecology and management. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Tieszen, L. L. 1994. Stable isotopes on the plains: vegetation analyses and diet determinations. Pp. 261–282in Owsley, D. W. and Jantz, R. L., eds. Skeletal biology in the Great Plains: a multidisciplinary view. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Tieszen, L. L., Reed, B. C., Bliss, N. B., Wylie, B. K., and DeJong, D. D. 1997. NDVI, C3 and C4 production, and distribution in Great Plains grassland land cover classes. Environmental Applications 7:59–78.Google Scholar
Teeri, J. A., and Stowe, L. G. 1976. Climatic patterns in the distribution of C-4 grasses in North America. Oecologia 23:1–12.Google Scholar
Toomey, R. S., Blum, M. S., and Valastro, S. 1993. Late Quaternary climates and environments of the Edwards Plateau, Texas. Global and Planetary Change 7:299–320.Google Scholar
van der Merwe, N. J., Lee-Thorp, J. A., Thackeray, J. F., Hall-Martin, A., Kruger, F. J., Coetzee, H., Bell, R. H. V., and Lindeque, M. 1990. Source-area determination of elephant ivory by isotopic analysis. Nature 346:744–746.Google Scholar
Vogel, J. C., Eglington, B., and Auret, J. M. 1990. Isotope fingerprints in elephant bone and ivory. Nature 346:747–749.Google Scholar