Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qs9v7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T20:31:13.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Small-Mammal Data on Early and Middle Holocene Climates and Biotic Communities in the Bonneville Basin, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Dave N. Schmitt ,
David B. Madsen  and
Karen D. Lupo
Dave N. Schmitt*
Affiliation:
Environmental Sciences, Utah Geological Survey, P.O. Box 146100, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84114 Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, P.O. Box 644910, Pullman, Washington, 99164
David B. Madsen
Affiliation:
Environmental Sciences, Utah Geological Survey, P.O. Box 146100, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84114
Karen D. Lupo
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, P.O. Box 644910, Pullman, Washington, 99164
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. 415 E. Maxwell, Palouse, WA 99161. E-mail: taphos@gte.net.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeological investigations in Camels Back Cave, western Utah, recovered a series of small-mammal bone assemblages from stratified deposits dating between ca. 12,000 and 500 14C yr B.P. The cave's early Holocene fauna includes a number of species adapted to montane or mesic habitats containing grasses and/or sagebrush (e.g., Lepus townsendii, Marmota flaviventris, Reithrodontomys megalotis, and Brachylagus idahoensis) which suggest that the region was relatively cool and moist until after 8800 14C yr B.P. Between ca. 8600 and 8100 14C yr B.P. these mammals became locally extinct, taxonomic diversity declined, and there was an increase in species well-adapted to xeric, low-elevation habitats, including ground squirrels, Lepus californicus and Neotoma lepida. The early small-mammal record from Camels Back Cave is similar to the 11,300–6000 14C yr B.P. mammalian sequence from Homestead Cave, northwestern Utah, and provides corroborative data on Bonneville Basin paleoenvironments and mammalian responses to middle Holocene desertification.

Keywords

Small mammalsearly Holocenemiddle HoloceneBonneville Basinenvironmental changetaxonomic diversity
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , November 2002 , pp. 255 - 260
Copyright
University of Washington

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

Andrews, P. Owls, Caves and Fossils. (1990). Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Best, T.L. Lepus californicus . Mammalian Species 530, (1996). 1 10.Google Scholar
Brown, J.H. Mammals on mountaintops: Nonequilibrium insular biogeography. American Naturalist 105, (1971). 21 33.Google Scholar
Carroll, L.E., and Genoways, H.H. Lagurus curtatus . Mammalian Species 124, (1980). 1 6.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. A. (1975). Sylvilagus nuttallii. Mammalian Species . 56, 1–3.Google Scholar
Currey, D.R. Quaternary palaeolakes in the evolution of semidesert basins, with special emphasis on Lake Bonneville and the Great Basin, U.S.A. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 76, (1990). 189 214.Google Scholar
Dunn, J.P., Chapman, J.A., and Marsh, R.E. Jackrabbits: Lepus californicus and allies. Chapman, J.A., and Feldhamer, G.A. Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Economics. (1982). John Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore. 124 145.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. Quantitative Zooarchaeology. (1984). Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. Danger Cave, Last Supper Cave, and Hanging Rock Shelter: The Faunas. (1988). Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. The Desert's Past: A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin. (1993). Random House/Smithsonian Institution Press, New York.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. Moisture history and small mammal community richness during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene, northern Bonneville Basin, Utah. Quaternary Research 49, (1998). 330 334.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. The Homestead Cave mammals. Madsen, D.B. Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin. (2000). Utah Geological Survey Bulletin 130, Salt Lake City. 67 89.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. Mammalian responses to middle Holocene climatic change in the Great Basin of the western United States. Journal of Biogeography 27, (2000). 181 192.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., and Madsen, D.B. Biogeographic implications of recent low-elevation recolonization by Neotoma cinerea in the Great Basin. Journal of Mammalogy 81, (2000). 1100 1105.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, J. S., and Flinders, J. T. (1980). Brachylagus idahoensis. Mammalian Species . 125, 1–4.Google Scholar
Hall, E.R. Mammals of Nevada. (1946). Univ. of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Hockett, B.S. Comparison of leporid bones in raptor pellets, raptor nests, and archaeological sites in the Great Basin. North American Archaeologist 16, (1995). 223 238.Google Scholar
Hockett, B.S. Paleobiogeographic changes at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary near Pintwater Cave, southern Nevada. Quaternary Research 53, (2000). 263 269.Google Scholar
Huckleberry, G., Beck, C., Jones, G.T., Holmes, A., Cannon, M., Livingston, S., and Broughton, J.M. Terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene environmental change at the Sunshine Locality, north-central Nevada, U.S.A. Quaternary Research 55, (2001). 303 312.Google Scholar
Katzner, T.E., and Parker, K.L. Vegetative characteristics and size of home ranges used by pygmy rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) during winter. Journal of Mammalogy 78, (1997). 1063 1072.Google Scholar
Lawlor, T. Biogeography of Great Basin mammals: Paradigm lost?. Journal of Mammalogy 79, (1998). 1111 1130.Google Scholar
Lyman, R.L. Applied zooarchaeology: The relevance of faunal analysis to wildlife management. World Archaeology 28, (1996). 110 125.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B. Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin. (2000). Utah Geological Survey Bulletin 130, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., Rhode, D., Grayson, D.K., Broughton, J.M., Livingston, S.D., Hunt, J.M., Quade, J., Schmitt, D.N., Shaver, M.W. III Late Quaternary environmental change in the Bonneville Basin, western U.S.A. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 167, (2001). 243 271.Google Scholar
Mock, C.J., and Bartlein, P.J. Spatial variability of late Quaternary paleoclimates in the western United States. Quaternary Research 44, (1995). 425 433.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., Currey, D.R., and Sack, D. Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Bonneville, eastern Great Basin, U.S.A. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 99, (1992). 225 241.Google Scholar
Rhode, D. Holocene vegetation history in the Bonneville Basin. Madsen, D.B. Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin. (2000). Utah Geological Survey Bulletin 130, Salt Lake City. 149 163.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., and Juell, K.E. Toward the identification of coyote scatological faunal accumulations in archaeological contexts. Journal of Archaeological Science 21, (1994). 249 262.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., and Lupo, K.D. The Camels Back Cave mammalian fauna. Schmitt, D.N., and Madsen, D.B. The Archaeology of Camels Back Cave. (2002). Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City. 183 219.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., and Madsen, D.B. The Archaeology of Camels Back Cave. (2002). Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., Shaver, M.W., and Hunt, J.M. From here to antiquity: Holocene human occupation on Camels Back Ridge, Tooele County, Utah. Utah Archaeology 7, (1994). 35 50.Google Scholar
Trent, T.T., and Rangstad, O.J. Home range and survival of cottontail rabbits in Wisconsin. Journal of Wildlife Management 38, (1974). 459 472.Google Scholar
Webster, W. D., and Jones, J. K. Jr., 1982. Reithrodontomys megalotis. Mammalian Species167, 1–5.Google Scholar