Middle Woodland Ceremonialism at Pinson Mounds, Tennessee

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Mainfort

Located on the West Tennessee Coastal Plain, Pinson Mounds is one of the largest Middle Woodland ceremonial centers in eastern North America. The site includes at least 12 mounds, a geometric embankment, and associated temporary habitation areas within an area of approximately 160 ha. Of particular significance is the presence of five large platform mounds ranging in height from 3 to 22 m. A series of two dozen radiocarbon determinations indicate that the Pinson Mounds site was constructed and used between approximately A.D. 1-500.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0250840
Author(s):  
John M. O’Shea ◽  
Ashley K. Lemke ◽  
Brendan S. Nash ◽  
Elisabeth P. Sonnenburg ◽  
Jeffery R. Ferguson ◽  
...  

Obsidian, originating from the Rocky Mountains and the West, was an exotic exchange commodity in Eastern North America that was often deposited in elaborate caches and burials associated with Middle Woodland era Hopewell and later complexes. In earlier times, obsidian is found only rarely. In this paper we report two obsidian flakes recovered from a now submerged paleolandscape beneath Lake Huron that are conclusively attributed to the Wagontire obsidian source in central Oregon; a distance of more than 4,000 km. These specimens, dating to ~ 9,000 BP, represent the earliest and most distant reported occurrence of obsidian in eastern North America.


1993 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 1064-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Bollinger ◽  
M. C. Chapman ◽  
M. S. Sibol

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between earthquake magnitude and the size of damage areas in the eastern and western United States. To quantify damage area as a function of moment magnitude (M), 149 MMI VI and VII areas for 109 earthquakes (88 in the western United States, 21 in the eastern United States and Canada) were measured. Regression of isoseismal areas versus M indicated that areas in the East were larger than those in the West, at both intensity levels, by an average 5 × in the M 4.5 to 7.5 range. In terms of radii for circles of equivalent area, these results indicate that damaging ground motion from shocks of the same magnitude extend 2 × the epicentral distance in eastern North America compared to the West. To determine source and site parameters consistent with the above results, response spectral levels for eastern North America were stochastically simulated and compared with response spectral ordinates derived from recorded strong ground motion data in the western United States. Stress-drop values of 200 bars, combined with a surficial 2-km-thick low velocity “sedimentary” layer over rock basement, produced results that are compatible with the intensity observations, i.e., similar response spectral levels in the east at approximately twice their epicentral distance in the western U.S. distance. These results suggest that ground motion modeling in eastern North America may need to incorporate source and site parameters different from those presently in general use. The results are also of importance to eastern U.S. hazard assessments as they require allowance for the larger damage areas in preparedness and mitigation programs.


1990 ◽  
Vol 122 (6) ◽  
pp. 1267-1268
Author(s):  
P.M. Sanborne

In 1983, while sorting Campopleginae in the Canadian National Insect Collection, Biosystematics Research Centre, Ottawa, Ont., I discovered two females of a species of Nemeritis Holmgren. In North America this genus was previously known only from the west (Townes 1970) so it was surprising to see specimens collected in Maine (Sherman Mills, 24.VI–4.VII.1973, G. Heinrich). A survey of the genus showed that these specimens are indistinguishable from the European species N. lativentris Thompson. It is impossible to determine whether or not this is a recently established species as I have been unable to locate more specimens.


1928 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. S. Blatchley

My last general paper on Florida Coleoptera was prepared in the autumn of 1924, and appeared in the Canadian Entomologist for July, 1925. Since that was written my time has been largely devoted to the final preparation and publication of the “Heteroptera of Eastern North America.” During the three years which have elapsed I have spent the winters at Dunedin on the west coast of Florida, but have made three additional collecting trips, of three or four weeks each, to Royal Palm Park. One of these was in December, the other two in March and April. This park comprises an area of 4,000 acres lying in extreme southern Florida, about 40 miles northeast of Cape Sable.


2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Lupia

Fossil megaspore floras from the Late Cretaceous of North America have been studied extensively, but primarily from the Western Interior Basin. Two new megaspore floras are described from eastern North America along the Gulf Coastal Plain. Cumulatively, 10 genera and 16 species of megaspores are recognized from Allon, Georgia and along Upatoi Creek, Georgia (both late Santonian in age, ~84 Ma). Megaspores identified have affinities to both heterosporous lycopsids, e.g., Erlansonisporites, Minerisporites, and Paxillitriletes, and to heterosporous ferns, e.g., Ariadnaesporites, and Molaspora. Lycopsid megaspores are more diverse than fern megaspores in the Allon and the Upatoi Creek floras. Two new species—Erlansonisporites confundus n. sp. and Erlansonisporites potens n. sp.—are proposed.


PeerJ ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. e1509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Czaplewski ◽  
Gary S. Morgan

A new species of Apatemyidae,Sinclairella simplicidens, is based on four isolated teeth that were screenwashed from fissure fillings at the late Oligocene Buda locality, Alachua County, Florida. Compared to its only congenerSinclairella dakotensis, the new species is characterized by upper molars with more simplified crowns, with the near absence of labial shelves and stylar cusps except for a strong parastyle on M1, loss of paracrista and paraconule on M2 (paraconule retained but weak on M1), lack of anterior cingulum on M1–M3, straighter centrocristae, smaller hypocone on M1 and M2, larger hypocone on M3, distal edge of M2 continuous from hypocone to postmetacrista supporting a large posterior basin, and with different tooth proportions in which M2 is the smallest rather than the largest molar in the toothrow. The relatively rare and poorly-known family Apatemyidae has a long temporal range in North America from the late Paleocene (early Tiffanian) to early Oligocene (early Arikareean). The new species from Florida significantly extends this temporal range by roughly 5 Ma to the end of the Paleogene near the Oligocene-Miocene boundary (from early Arikareean, Ar1, to late Arikareean, Ar3), and greatly extends the geographic range of the family into eastern North America some 10° of latitude farther south and 20° of longitude farther east (about 2,200 km farther southeast) than previously known. This late occurrence probably represents a retreat of this subtropically adapted family into the Gulf Coastal Plain subtropical province at the end of the Paleogene and perhaps the end of the apatemyid lineage in North America.


1986 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 689-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellis L. Yochelson ◽  
William T. Kirchgasser

This is the first report of styliolines in the Angola Shale Member of the West Falls Formation in western New York. These specimens are of late Frasnian age and are the youngest individuals known from the Appalachian Region. This upward extension of range places the extinction of styliolines in eastern North America more in accord with their time of extinction in Europe. Nowakiids have also been found in the younger Hanover Shale Member, in the upper part of the Java Formation, also of late Frasnian age. These are the youngest known nowakiids from the Appalachians. Within the limits of preservation, the external characters and wall structure of the Angola styliolines are comparable with those of older specimens. The associated rare small annulated nowakiids and homotcenids have a laminated wall structure fundamentally different from that of the styliolines.


1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark F. Seeman

During the Middle Woodland period in eastern North America, modified human skulls are interjected into a broader pattern of "trophy"-artifact manufacture. Interpretations of these human trophies have resulted in a polarity of opinion-that they are the remains of (1) revered ancestors, or (2) defeated enemies. Both previous investigations of the problem support exclusively the "revered-ancestor" interpretation. Results of the present study, which makes use of a six-site Ohio Hopewell sample and stylistic and biological analyses, do not support this position, and are seen as reflecting a competitive component in Hopewell society.


1981 ◽  
Vol 59 (10) ◽  
pp. 2001-2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross D. James

Tape recordings of the primary song of eight subspecies of solitary vireo were examined sonagraphically. Within one population all birds sing a small number of song phrases in common but each bird has a slightly different repertoire of additional phrases. Populations closest together share the most phrases, but even among widely separate groups or subspecies a few of the same phrases may be found. Song learning appears to maintain local uniformity of song while, with drift and recombination, providing opportunities for the development of new song phrases. Only in eastern North America are primary song phrases pure in tone with a gradual shift of frequency-modulated phrases in both grayish and yellowish subspecies in the west. The presence of pure tone phrases in eastern North America probably contributes to and is maintained by the need for species isolation from yellow-throated vireos and does not indicate that eastern and western birds may be separate species. Climate and habitat appear to have little influence on song variability among subspecies.


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