Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T05:17:38.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Petaloid Organs Preserved in an Arctic Plant Macrofossil Assemblage from Full-Glacial Sediments in Southeastern Minnesota

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. G. Baker ,
J. A. Mason  and
L. J. Maher Jr.
R. G. Baker
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242
J. A. Mason
Affiliation:
Conservation and Survey Division, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68588-0517
L. J. Maher Jr.
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A small suite of plant macrofossils indicates that southeastern Minnesota supported subarctic to arctic vegetation 18,700 yr B.P. Fossil tepals of Polygonum viviparum are exceptionally well preserved; they occur with more fragmentary remains of Dryas integrifolia, Vaccinium uliginosum var. alpinum, and probable species of arctic Salix, S. cf. herbacea, and S. cf. arctica. The pollen spectrum from this site is dominated by Picea, Pinus, and Cyperaceae, which are typical of midwestern full-glacial sequences. Tundra-like conditions with permafrost were present in southeastern Minnesota during full-glacial time. Local environments 18,700 yr B.P. reconstructed from both physical and paleobotanical evidence include wind-swept ridge tops with thin loess, outcrops of dolostone and sandstone on valley walls, colluvial slopes, sandy to gravelly floodplains, shallow floodplain pools, wet meadows, and peaty turfs, all in a treeless or nearly treeless environment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , November 1999 , pp. 388 - 392
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

Baker, R.G. (1965). Late-glacial pollen and plant macrofossils from Spider Creek, southern St. Louis County, Minnesota. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 76, 601–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, R.G., Rhodes, R.S. II, Schwert, D.P., Ashworth, A.C., Frest, R.J., Hallberg, G.R., Janssen, J.A. (1986). A full-glacial biota from southeastern Iowa, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science. 1, 91–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettis, E.A. III, Hallberg, G.R. (1985). The Savanna (Zwingle) Terrace and red clays in the Upper Mississippi River valley: Stratigraphy and chronology. Lively, R.S. Pleistocene Geology and Evolution of the Upper Mississippi Valley: A Working Conference, Abstracts, and Field Guide. Minnesota Geological Survey, St. Paul., 41–43.Google Scholar
Birks, H.J.B. (1976). Late-Wisconsin vegetational history at Wolf Creek, central Minnesota. Ecological Monographs. 46, 395–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birks, H.J.B. (1981). Late Wisconsin vegetation and climatic history at Kylen Lake, northeastern Minnesota. Quaternary Research. 16, 395–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faegri, K., Kaland, P.E., Krzywinski, K. (1989). Textbook of Pollen Analysis. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Flock, M.A. (1983). The late Wisconsinan Savanna Terrace in tributaries to the upper Mississippi River. Quaternary Research. 20, 165–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, R.L., Raue, L.E. (1987). Lemmus sibiricus from the late Quaternary of the Midwestern United States. Current Research in the Pleistocene. 4, 105–107.Google Scholar
Garry, C.E., Schwert, D.P., Baker, R.G., Kemmis, T.J., Horton, D.G., Sullivan, A.E. (1990). Plant and insect remains from the Wisconsinan interstadial/stadial transition at Wedron, north-central Illinois. Quaternary Research. 33, 387–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaser, P.H. (1981). Transport and deposition of leaves and seeds on tundra: A late-glacial analog. Arctic and Alpine Research. 13, 173–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holyoak, D.T. (1984). Taphonomy of prospective plant macrofossils in a river catchment on Spitsbergen. New Phytologist. 98, 405–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, S.T., Overpeck, J.T., Webb, T. III, Keattch, S.E., Anderson, K.H. (1997). Mapped plant-macrofossil and pollen records of late Quaternary vegetation change in eastern North America. Quaternary Science Reviews. 16, 1–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maher, L.J. Jr., Miller, N.G., Baker, R.G., Curry, B.B., Mickelson, D.M. (1998). Paleobiology of the sand beneath the Valders Diamicton at Valders, Wisconsin. Quaternary Research. 49, 208–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, J.A., Knox, J.C. (1997). Age of colluvium indicates accelerated late Wisconsinan hillslope erosion in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Geology. 25, 267–270.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, J.A., Nater, E.A., Hobbs, H.C. (1994). Transport direction of Wisconsinan loess in southeastern Minnesota. Quaternary Research. 41, 44–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwert, D.P. (1992). Faunal transitions in response to an ice age: The late Wisconsinan record of Coleoptera in the north-central United States. Coleopterist's Bulletin. 46, 68–94.Google Scholar
Schwert, D.P., Torpen-Kreft, H.J., Hajic, E.R. (1997). Characterization of the Late-Wisconsinan tundra/forest transition in midcontinental North America using assemblages of beetle fossils. Quaternary Proceedings. 5, 237–243.Google Scholar
Walters, J. (1992). Prairie Lakes excavation site. Anderson, W., Smith, D.D., Walters, J. Tropical Seas to Prairies, a Natural History Field Trip in Black Hawk and Bremer Counties, Iowa. 13–18.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III, Bartlein, P.J., Harrison, S.P., Anderson, K.H. (1993). Vegetation, lake levels, and climate in eastern United States for the past 18,000 year. Wright, H.E. Jr., Kutzbach, J.E., Webb, T. III, Ruddiman, W.F., Street-Perrott, F.A., Bartlein, P.J. Global Climates since the Last Glacial Maximum. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis., 415–467.Google Scholar
West, R.G., Andrew, R., Pettit, M. (1993). Taphonomy of plant remains on floodplains of tundra rivers, present and Pleistocene. New Phytologist. 123, 203–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodman, N., Schwert, D. P., Frest, T. J. and Ashworth, A. C.(1996). Paleoecology of Subarctic Faunal Assemblages from the Woodfordian Age (Pleistocene: Wisconsinan) Elkader Site. Northeastern Iowa, Occasional Papers of the Natural History Museum. University of Kansas, 178, pp. 1–33.Google Scholar
Wright, H. E. and Watts, W. A.(1969). Glacial and Vegetational History of Northeastern Minnesota. Minnesota Geological Survey Special Publication 11. pp. 1–59.Google Scholar