BEETLE RECORDS | Late Pleistocene of North America

Author(s):  
S.A. Elias
2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman

AbstractFor more than fifty years it has been known that mammalian faunas of late-Pleistocene age are taxonomically unique and lack modern analogs. It has long been thought that nonanalog mammalian faunas are limited in North America to areas east of the Rocky Mountains and that late-Pleistocene mammalian faunas in the west were modern in taxonomic composition. A late-Pleistocene fauna from Marmes Rockshelter in southeastern Washington State has no modern analog and defines an area of maximum sympatry that indicates significantly cooler summers than are found in the area today. An earliest Holocene fauna from Marmes Rockshelter defines an area of maximum sympatry, including the site area, but contains a single tentatively identified taxon that may indicate slightly cooler than modern summers.


1940 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 334-335
Author(s):  
Vladimar Alfred Vigfusson

In recent years, the attention of some archaeologists has been directed to the Canadian Northwest with the expectation of finding some evidence or indication of the early migrations of man on this continent. That man reached North America by Bering Strait from Asia, is generally accepted, but the theory that the migrations took place in late Pleistocene times and by way of an open corridor between the Keewatin ice and the Rockies, requires confirmation. It is significant that Folsom and Yuma points from Saskatchewan, described by E. B. Howard, were found mainly in areas bordering the ancient glacial Lake Regina.As a further contribution to this problem, it seems desirable to present a brief description of a carved stone relic found in gravel in central Saskatchewan about three years ago.The stone was found about seven miles southeast of the town of D'Arcy in a gravel pit located on Sec. 9, Tp. 28, Rge. 18, W. 3rd Meridian, on the north bank of a ravine running east into Bad Lake.


2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (6) ◽  
pp. 1130-1139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Díaz-Sibaja ◽  
Eduardo Jiménez-Hidalgo ◽  
Javier Ponce-Saavedra ◽  
María Luisa García-Zepeda

AbstractBison antiquus Leidy, 1852 was one of the largest and most widely distributed megafaunal species during the Late Pleistocene in North America, giving rise to the modern plains bison in the middle Holocene. Despite the importance of the ancient bison, little is known about its feeding ecology. We employed a combination of extended mesowear, and mesowear III to infer the dietary preference and habitat use of three Mexican samples of B. antiquus. These included two northern samples—La Piedad-Santa Ana and La Cinta-Portalitos—from the Transmexican Volcanic Belt morphotectonic Province, as well as one southern sample—Viko Vijin—from the Sierra Madre del Sur morphotectonic province. We found that the northern Mexican samples were primarily nonstrict grazers, whereas the southern sample displays a pattern consistent with mixed feeding habits. This suggests variability among the diets of the bison from these samples, caused by different paleoenvironments. This evidence complements the paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the studied localities; for the northern samples, open prairies composed of patches of woodland or shrubland and, for the southern locality, a fluvial floodplain with short-lived vegetation. In both scenarios, grasses (Poaceae) were nondominant. The dietary habits of our samples of ancient bison in Mexico are the southernmost dietary inference for the species in North America and expand our knowledge of the dietary habits of B. antiquus during the Late Pleistocene.


2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Waguespack ◽  
Todd A. Surovell

Traditionally, hunter-gatherers of the Clovis period have been characterized as specialized hunters of large terrestrial mammals. Recent critiques have attempted to upend this position both empirically and theoretically, alternatively favoring a more generalized foraging economy. In this paper, the distinction between subsistence specialists and generalists is framed in terms of forager selectivity with regards to hunted prey, following a behavioral ecological framework. Faunal data are compiled from 33 Clovis sites and used to test the two alternative diet-breadth hypotheses. The data support the older “Clovis as specialist” model, although some use of small game is apparent. Furthermore, data from modern hunter-gatherers are marshaled to support the theoretical plausibility of specialized large-mammal hunting across North America during the Late Pleistocene.


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