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Wisconsinan Pre-Pleniglacial Biotic Change in Southeastern New Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Arthur H. Harris
Arthur H. Harris*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Environmental Biology, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas 79968-0519
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Abstract

Interpretation of a 1.5-m mid- to late- Wisconsinan stratigraphic sequence containing fossil vertebrates from the Animal Fair Site in Dry Cave, Eddy County, New Mexico, suggests a progression of habitats, all cooler and moister than today. Mid-Wisconsinan semiarid, moderately warm grasslands or grassy woodlands initially were replaced by cooler, more mesic, grassy woodlands; these were followed by cool, relatively dense sagebrush-grassland-woodland with elements from mixed-coniferous forest. A minor reversal of trend toward earlier, warmer conditions appears at the top of the section. Species collected from each level were basically harmonious until climatic deterioration, documented by invasion of new biotic elements at the end of the mid-Wisconsinan, permitted incursion of taxa associated with more boreal areas; these replaced most of the local fauna but failed to dislodge several taxa with southern affinities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , July 1993 , pp. 127 - 133
Copyright
University of Washington

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