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Late Holocene Paleoecology of the Southern Plains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Stephen A. Hall
Stephen A. Hall*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, North Texas State University, Denton, Texas 76203
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Abstract

Analyses of pollen and land snails from rocksheter sites in the Osage Hills of northeastern Oklahoma indicate that the period 2000-1000 yr B.P. was moister than today. During that time, colonies of the prairie vole Microtus ochrogaster were present in the Texas Panhandle. About 1000 yr B.P. the climate changed to dry conditions that have persisted to the present. Disjunct colonies of small mammals in Texas became extinct at the beginning of the dry episode, thereby establishing the composition of the modern fauna. The climatic model for the origin of the Panhandle Aspect (A.D. 1200–1500) is questioned on the grounds that the Southern Plains experienced a long period of dry climate commencing A.D. 950.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , May 1982 , pp. 391 - 407
Copyright
University of Washington

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