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Spawning sockeye salmon fossils in Pleistocene lake beds of Skokomish Valley, Washington

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gerald R. Smith ,
David R. Montgomery ,
N. Phil Peterson  and
Bruce Crowley
Gerald R. Smith
Affiliation:
Museum of Zoology, 1039A Ruthven Museum, 1109 Geddes Ave., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079, USA
David R. Montgomery*
Affiliation:
Quaternary Research Center and Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Box 351310, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1310, USA
N. Phil Peterson
Affiliation:
Forest and Channel Metrics, Inc., 606 Columbia Street NW, Suite 221, Olympia, WA 98501, USA
Bruce Crowley
Affiliation:
Burke Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
*
*Corresponding author.E-mail address:[email protected] (D.R. Montgomery).
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Abstract

An assemblage of fossil sockeye salmon was discovered in Pleistocene lake sediments along the South Fork Skokomish River, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. The fossils were abundant near the head of a former glacial lake at 115 m elevation. Large adult salmon are concentrated in a sequence of death assemblages that include individuals with enlarged breeding teeth and worn caudal fins indicating migration, nest digging, and spawning prior to death. The specimens were 4 yr old and 45–70 cm in total length, similar in size to modern sockeye salmon, not landlocked kokanee. The fossils possess most of the characteristics of sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, but with several minor traits suggestive of pink salmon, O. gorbuscha. This suggests the degree of divergence of these species at about 1 million yr ago, when geological evidence indicates the salmon were deposited at the head of a proglacial lake impounded by the Salmon Springs advance of the Puget lobe ice sheet. Surficial geology and topography record a complicated history of glacial damming and river diversion that implies incision of the modern gorge of the South Fork Skokomish River after deposition of the fossil-bearing sediments.

Keywords

Fossil salmonSockeyeSkokomish RiverWashington
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 68 , Issue 2 , September 2007 , pp. 227 - 238
Copyright
University of Washington

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