Late Pleistocene Western Camel (Camelops Hesternus) Hunting in Southwestern Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Kooyman ◽  
L.V. Hills ◽  
Shayne Tolman ◽  
Paul McNeil
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North America ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Large Mammal ◽  
Extinct Species ◽  
Significant Contributor ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Beach Site

AbstractLate Pleistocene large mammal extinctions in North America have been attributed to a number of factors or combination of factors, primarily climate change and human hunting, but the relative roles of these factors remain much debated. Clo-vis-period hunters exploited species such as mammoth, but many now extinct species such as camels were seemingly not hunted. Archaeological evidence from the Wally’s Beach site in southern Canada, including stone tools and butchered bone, provide the first evidence that Clovis people hunted North American camels. Archaeologists generally dismiss human hunting as a significant contributor to Pleistocene extinctions in North America, but Wally’s Beach demonstrates that human hunting was more inclusive than assumed and we must continue to consider hunting as a factor in Pleistocene extinctions.

Clovis Hunting Strategies, or How to Make out on Plentiful Resources

2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Waguespack ◽  
Todd A. Surovell
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Diet Breadth ◽  
Ecological Framework ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Large Mammal ◽  
Small Game ◽  
Terrestrial Mammals ◽  
Hunting Strategies ◽  
Alternative Diet

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.

scholarly journals Late Pleistocene horse and camel hunting at the southern margin of the ice-free corridor: Reassessing the age of Wally’s Beach, Canada

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (14) ◽  
pp. 4263-4267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Waters ◽  
Thomas W. Stafford ◽  
Brian Kooyman ◽  
L. V. Hills
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Southern Margin ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Peopling Of The Americas ◽  
Lithic Artifacts ◽  
Chronological Clustering ◽  
Beach Site

The only certain evidence for prehistoric human hunting of horse and camel in North America occurs at the Wally’s Beach site, Canada. Here, the butchered remains of seven horses and one camel are associated with 29 nondiagnostic lithic artifacts. Twenty-seven new radiocarbon ages on the bones of these animals revise the age of these kill and butchering localities to 13,300 calibrated y B.P. The tight chronological clustering of the eight kill localities at Wally’s Beach indicates these animals were killed over a short period. Human hunting of horse and camel in Canada, coupled with mammoth, mastodon, sloth, and gomphothere hunting documented at other sites from 14,800–12,700 calibrated y B.P., show that 6 of the 36 genera of megafauna that went extinct by approximately 12,700 calibrated y B.P. were hunted by humans. This study shows the importance of accurate geochronology, without which significant discoveries will go unrecognized and the empirical data used to build models explaining the peopling of the Americas and Pleistocene extinctions will be in error.

Extinct muskox and other additions to the Late Pleistocene Riddell Local Fauna, Saskatoon, Canada

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 881-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Skwara ◽  
E. G. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
North America ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Small Mammals ◽  
Castor Canadensis ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
Extinct Species ◽  
Ecological Requirements ◽  
Sand And Gravel ◽  
Gravel Deposit

Fossils recently recovered from the Riddell Member of the Floral Formation, a richly fossiliferous intertill sand and gravel deposit in the Saskatoon area, include taxa previously unknown from the Riddell Local Fauna and confirm the presence of others. Bootherium bombifrons (= Symbos cavifrons), represented by a well-preserved but incomplete skull, is new. Details of its preserved morphology support concepts of developmental variability and sexual dimorphism in the extinct species. Also new is the beaver, Castor canadensis, represented by an incomplete ulna. Additional fossils of horses indicate that at least two species, Equus niobrarensis, as well as the previously identified E. conversidens, were present. A Rancholabrean age (probably Rancholabrean II) for the fauna is confirmed by the presence of Bootherium bombifrons, a muskox known only from Illinoian and younger time in North America, but lithologic and stratigraphic relationships of tills and ecological requirements of the fauna limit the Riddell Member to the Sangamonian. Disharmonious associations of small mammals and high megafaunal diversity are consistent with the emerging picture of Pleistocene ecosystems as highly co-evolved and heterogeneous and without modern analogs.

scholarly journals Fossil and genomic evidence constrains the timing of bison arrival in North America

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (13) ◽  
pp. 3457-3462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane Froese ◽  
Mathias Stiller ◽  
Peter D. Heintzman ◽  
Alberto V. Reyes ◽  
Grant D. Zazula ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
North American ◽  
Marine Isotope Stage ◽  
Mitochondrial Genomes ◽  
Subsequent Evolution ◽  
Large Mammal ◽  
Morphological Diversification ◽  
Steppe Bison

The arrival of bison in North America marks one of the most successful large-mammal dispersals from Asia within the last million years, yet the timing and nature of this event remain poorly determined. Here, we used a combined paleontological and paleogenomic approach to provide a robust timeline for the entry and subsequent evolution of bison within North America. We characterized two fossil-rich localities in Canada’s Yukon and identified the oldest well-constrained bison fossil in North America, a 130,000-y-old steppe bison, Bison cf. priscus. We extracted and sequenced mitochondrial genomes from both this bison and from the remains of a recently discovered, ∼120,000-y-old giant long-horned bison, Bison latifrons, from Snowmass, Colorado. We analyzed these and 44 other bison mitogenomes with ages that span the Late Pleistocene, and identified two waves of bison dispersal into North America from Asia, the earliest of which occurred ∼195–135 thousand y ago and preceded the morphological diversification of North American bison, and the second of which occurred during the Late Pleistocene, ∼45–21 thousand y ago. This chronological arc establishes that bison first entered North America during the sea level lowstand accompanying marine isotope stage 6, rejecting earlier records of bison in North America. After their invasion, bison rapidly colonized North America during the last interglaciation, spreading from Alaska through continental North America; they have been continuously resident since then.

Late Pleistocene Horse Hunting at the Wally's Beach Site (DhPg-8), Canada

2006 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Kooyman ◽  
L. V. Hills ◽  
P. McNeil ◽  
S. Tolman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
North American ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Lithic Artifacts ◽  
Hunting Strategy ◽  
Beach Site

Evidence from the Wally's Beach site in southwestern Alberta indicates Pleistocene horses were hunted by Clovis age peoples. A number of artifacts are associated with a horse skeleton, including a cut-marked hyoid indicative of butchering and a flake projecting below one of the vertebrae that establishes the archaeological material is not intrusive. A large unmodified cobble apparently was used to mark the kill or anchor the cache. Six other finds of horse remains also have associated lithic artifacts. Horse behavior is explored to speculate on hunting strategy. It is concluded that humans and climate change probably contributed to the late Pleistocene extinction of North American horses.

Early Man Site Found in Highland Ecuador

Science ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 131 (3416) ◽  
pp. 1805-1806 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Mayer-Oakes ◽  
Robert E. Bell
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Southern Chile ◽  
Northern Andes ◽  
Field Investigations ◽  
Archeological Evidence ◽  
Level I

Field investigations in Ecuador have produced archeological evidence for the occupation of the northern Andes by early nomadic hunters. Surface collections and test excavations have demonstrated a complex of stone tools with typological relationships to level I at Fell's Cave in southern Chile, and technological relationships to the late Pleistocene "fluted point" complexes of North America. The date of these materials is estimated at 7000 to 8000 B.C.

Water scarcity and sustainability in the arid area of North America: Insights gained from a cross border perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Yáñez-Arancibia ◽  
John W. Day
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North America ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Economic Change ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Arid Area ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Sharp Focus ◽  
The Face

The arid border region that encompasses the American Southwest and the Mexican northwest is an area where the nexus of water scarcity and climate change in the face of growing human demands for water, emerging energy scarcity, and economic change comes into sharp focus.

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