Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:14:26.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Time averaging and late Quaternary ecological replacement in Don’s Gooseberry Pit, South Dakota, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2017

Melissa I. Pardi*
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, 56 College Road, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum, 207 Deike Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Russell W. Graham
Affiliation:
Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum, 207 Deike Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire, 56 College Road, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA. E-mail: [email protected] (M.I. Pardi).

Abstract

Late Quaternary small mammal faunas document ecological change and biotic responses to past climates but are especially rare in some geographic regions such as the North American Great Plains. Don’s Gooseberry Pit (DGP), a cave in the southeastern Black Hills of South Dakota, USA, contains a fauna documenting small mammal community composition shifts and environmental change over the last 18,000 yr in this data-depauperate region. Although the stratigraphy of the cave appears to be primary, disparate radiocarbon dates indicate that there is mixing of the fauna throughout. A paleoenvironmental signal consistent with regional reconstructions still emerges from an analysis of the stratigraphically ordered fauna. Dated taxa from DGP record the ecological replacement of Dicrostonyx by Myodes and later Microtus in response to late Quaternary warming. Individually dated specimens of Dicrostonyx richardsoni confirm late survival of this cold-adapted taxon in the Black Hills (17,083 cal yr BP). Our results indicate that a coarse paleoecological signal is present in DGP, and that the Black Hills served as a “high-altitude” refugium for cold-adapted species following the end of the last glacial period.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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

Banfield, A., 1974. The Mammals of Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.Google Scholar
Bell, C.J., Gauthier, J.A., Bever, G.S., 2010. Covert biases, circularity, and apomorphies: a critical look at the North American Quaternary Herpetofaunal Stability Hypothesis. Quaternary International 217, 3036.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blois, J.L., McGuire, J.L., Hadly, E.A., 2010. Small mammal diversity loss in response to late-Pleistocene climatic change. Nature 465, 771774.Google Scholar
Blois, J.L., Zarnetske, P.L., Fitzpatrick, M.C., Finnegan, S., 2013. Climate change and the past, present, and future of biotic interactions. Science 341, 499504.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bonnichsen, R., Oliver, J.S., 1986. False cougar and shield trap caves, Pryor Mountains, Montana. National Geographic Society Research Reports 2, 276290.Google Scholar
Chomko, S., Gilbert, B.M., 1987. The late Pleistocene/Holocene faunal record in the northern Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming. In: Graham, R.W., Semken, H.A., Jr., Graham, M.A. (Eds.), Late Quaternary Mammalian Biogeography and Environments of the Great Plains and Prairies. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers 22. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL, pp. 21–35.Google Scholar
Clark, J.S., Grimm, E.C., Donovan, J.J., Fritz, S.C., Engstrom, D.R., Almendinger, J.E., 2002. Drought cycles and landscape responses to past aridity on prairies of the northern Great Plains, USA. Ecology 83, 595601.Google Scholar
FAUNMAP Working Group. 1994. FAUNMAP: A Database Documenting Late Quaternary Distributions of Mammal Species in the United States. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers 25. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL.Google Scholar
Foley, R.L., 1984. Late Pleistocene (Woodfordian) vertebrates from the driftless area of southwestern Wisconsin, the Moscow fissure local fauna. Illinois State Museum Reports of Investigations 39, 150.Google 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, 105107.Google Scholar
Fulton, T.L., Norris, R.W., Graham, R.W., Semken, H.A., Shapiro, B., 2013. Ancient DNA supports southern survival of Richardson’s collared lemming (Dicrostonyx richardsoni) during the last glacial maximum. Molecular Ecology 22, 25402548.Google Scholar
Grady, F., Garton, E.R., 1981. The collared lemming Dicrostonyx hudsonius (Pallas) from a Pleistocene cave deposit in West Virginia. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Speleology. Department of Geology, Georgia Southwestern College, Americus, pp. 279–281.Google Scholar
Graham, R.W., 1987. Late Quaternary mammalian faunas and paleoenvironments of the southwestern plains of the United States. In: Graham, R.W., Semken, H.A., Jr., Graham, M.A. (Eds.), Late Quaternary Mammalian Biogeography and Environments of the Great Plains and Prairies (Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers 22Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL, pp. 2486.Google Scholar
Graham, R.W., Lundelius, E.L. Jr., 1984. Coevolutionary disequilibrium and Pleistocene extinctions. In: Martin, P.S., Klein, R.G. (Eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 223249.Google Scholar
Graham, R.W., Lundelius, E.L. Jr., Graham, M.A., Schroeder, E.K., Toomey, R.S. III, Anderson, E., Barnosky, A.D., et al., 1996. Spatial responses of mammals to late Quaternary environmental fluctuations. Science 272, 16011606.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., 2006. The Late Quaternary biogeographic histories of some Great Basin mammals (western USA). Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 29642991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grayson, D.K., 2014. Quantitative Zooarchaeology: Topics in the Analysis of Archaeological Faunas. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida.Google Scholar
Grimm, E.C., 2001. Trends and palaeoecological problems in the vegetation and climate history of the northern Great Plains, U.S.A. Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 101B, 47–64.Google Scholar
Guilday, J.E., Martin, P.S., McCrady, A.D., 1964. New Paris no. 4: a late Pleistocene cave deposit in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Bulletin of the National Speleological Society 26, 121194.Google Scholar
Higgins, K.F., Stukel, E.D., Goulet, J.M., Backlund, D.C., 2002. Wild Mammals of South Dakota. South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Pierre, SD.Google Scholar
Hoffman, G.R., Alexander, R.R., 1987. Forest Vegetation of the Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota and Wyoming: A Habitat Type Classification. U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Colorado.Google Scholar
Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Dansgaard, W., Gundestrup, N.S., Hammer, C.U., Andersen, U., Andersen, K.K., et al., l 1997. The δ18O record along the Greenland Ice Core Project deep ice core and the problem of possible Eemian climatic instability. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, 2639726410.Google Scholar
Maechler, M., Rousseeuw, P., Struyf, A., Hubert, M., Hornik, K., 2011. Cluster: Cluster Analysis Basics and Extensions. R package version 1.14.1. R Foundation for Statistical Comupting, Vienna, Austria.Google Scholar
Mead, E.M., Mead, J.I., 1989. Quaternary zoogeography of the Nearctic Dicrostonyx lemmings. Boreas 18, 323332.Google Scholar
Miller, K.G., 1987. Bush Shelter (48WA324): a multi-component dry rockshelter in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains. Wyoming Archaeologist 30, 122.Google Scholar
Patterson, B.D., Ceballos, G., Sechrest, W., Tognelli, M.F., Brooks, T., Luna, L., Ortega, P., Salazar, I., Young, B.E., 2003. Digital Distribution Maps of the Mammals of the Western Hemisphere, Version 1.0. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia.Google Scholar
R Development Core Team. 2009. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Comupting, Vienna, Austria.Google Scholar
Reimer, P., 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55, 18691887.Google Scholar
Rhodes, R.S., 1984. Paleoecology and Regional Paleoclimatic Implications of the Farmdalian Craigmile and Woodfordian Waubonsie Mammalian Local Faunas, Southwestern Iowa. Illinois State Museum Reports of Investigations 40. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL.Google Scholar
Semken, H.A. Jr., Falk, C.R., 1987. Late Pleistocene/Holocene mammalian faunas and environmental changes on the northern plains of the United States. In: Graham, R.W., Semken, H.A., Jr., Graham, M.A. (Eds.), Late Quaternary Mammalian Biogeography and Environments of the Great Plains and Prairies (Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers 22. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL, pp. 176313.Google Scholar
Semken, H.A. Jr., Graham, R.W., Stafford, T.W. Jr., 2010. AMS 14C analysis of Late Pleistocene non-analog faunal components from 21 cave deposits in southeastern North America. Quaternary International 217, 240255.Google Scholar
Stafford, T.W., Semken, H.A., Graham, R.W., Klippel, W.F., Markova, A., Smirnov, N.G., Southon, J., 1999. First accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dates documenting contemporaneity of nonanalog species in late Pleistocene mammal communities. Geology 27, 903906.Google Scholar
Stewart, J.D., 1987. Paleontology and paleoecology of the North Cove site, 25HN164. In: Adair, M.J., Brown, K.L. (Eds.), Prehistoric and Historic Cultural Resources of Selected Sites at Harlan County Lake, Harlan County, Nebraska. Final Report. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District, Kansas City, Missouri, pp. 298–335.Google Scholar
Turner, R.W., 1974. Mammals of Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History Miscellaneous Publications 60. University of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Valero-Garcés, B.L., Laird, K.R., Fritz, S.C., Kelts, K., Ito, E., Grimm, E.C., 1997. Holocene climate in the northern Great Plains inferred from sediment stratigraphy, stable isotopes, carbonate geochemistry, diatoms, and pollen at Moon Lake, North Dakota. Quaternary Research 48, 359369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voorhies, M.R., Corner, R.G., 1985. Small mammals with boreal affinities in late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) deposits of eastern and central Nebraska. In: Institute for Tertiary-Quaternary Studies TER-QUA Symposium Series. Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Lincoln, NE, pp. 125–142.Google Scholar
Walker, D.N., 1987. Late Pleistocene/Holocene environmental changes in Wyoming: the mammalian record. In: Graham, R.W., Semken, H.A., Jr., Graham, M.A. (Eds.), Late Quaternary Mammalian Biogeography and Environments of the Great Plains and Prairies. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers 22. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL, pp. 334–392.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., Wright, H.E., 1966. Late-Wisconsin pollen and seed analysis from the Nebraska Sandhills. Ecology 47, 202210.Google Scholar
Zeimens, G., Walker, D.N., 1974. Bell Cave, Wyoming: Preliminary archaeological and paleontological investigations. In: Wilson, M.V. (Ed.), Applied Archaeology and Geology: The Holocene History of Wyoming. Geological Survey of Wyoming Report of Investigations 10. Geological Survey of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, pp. 88–90.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Pardi and Russell supplementary material

Supplementary Material

Download Pardi and Russell supplementary material(File)
File 4.7 MB