Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T22:18:06.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Wisconsin mammalian faunas and environmental gradients of the eastern United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Russell W. Graham
Russell W. Graham*
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences. The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas 78712
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Small mammal species distribution, density, and composition of modern and Pleistocene faunas from the eastern United States provide information about environmental gradients. Higher summer temperatures and less effective moisture along a transect from the northeast to the southwest can be correlated with the distribution of small mammals as well as decreases in the total number of shrew and vole species. Relative frequencies of “boreal”, “deciduous”, and “steppe” species are more equal in late Wisconsin than modern faunas which are predominantly composed of only one group. A higher vole species density is prevalent in each late Wisconsin fauna and eleven of twelve of these faunas have a higher shrew species density than the corresponding modern fauna. Many shrew and vole species that are today endemic to the boreal provinces were cosmopolitan during the late Wisconsin. Moderate environmental gradients of the equable late Wisconsin climates allowed integration of boreal species with resident species in the south.

Type
Research Article
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , Fall 1976 , pp. 343 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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

Literature Cited

Blair, W. F. 1958. Distributional patterns of vertebrates in the southern United States in relation to past and present environments. pp. 433–468. In: Hubbs, Carl L., ed. Zoogeography. 509 pp.Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci.; Wash., D. C.Google Scholar
Blair, W. F. 1965. Amphibian speciation. pp. 543–556. In: Wright, H. E. Jr. and Frey, D. G., eds. The Quaternary of the United States. 922 pp.Princeton Univ. Press; Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Bryson, R. A. and Wendland, W. M. 1967. Tentative climatic patterns for some late glacial and post glacial episodes in Central North America. pp. 271–298. In: Mayer-Oakes, William J., ed. Land, Water, and Life. 416 pp.Univ. of Manitoba Press; Winnipeg, Manitoba.Google Scholar
Bryson, R. A., Baerreis, D. A., and Wendland, W. M. 1970. The character of late glacial and post glacial climatic changes. pp. 53–74. In: Dort, Wakefield Jr. and Knox Jones, J. Jr., eds. Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains. Univ. Press of Kansas. Spec. Publ. 3. 433 pp.Google Scholar
Burt, W. H. and Grossenheider, R. P. 1952. A Field Guide to the Mammals. 284 pp. Houghton Mifflin Company; Boston, Mass.Google Scholar
Cook, R. E. 1969. Variation in species diversity in North American birds. Syst. Zool. 18:63–84.Google Scholar
Dalquest, W. W. 1965. New Pleistocene formation and local fauna from Hardeman County, Texas. J. Paleontol. 39:63–79.Google Scholar
Dalquest, W. W., Roth, E., and Judd, F. 1969. The mammal fauna of Schulze Cave, Edwards County, Texas. Bull. Florida State Mus. 13:205–276.Google Scholar
Dansereau, P. 1957. Bioclimatology. pp. 56–123. In: Biogeography—An Ecological Perspective. 394 pp.The Ronald Press Company; New York.Google Scholar
Genoways, H. and Choate, J. R. 1972. A multivariate analysis of systematic relationships among populations of the short-tailed shrew (Genus: Blarina) in Nebraska. Syst. Zool. 21:106–116.Google Scholar
Graham, R. W. and Semken, H. A. Jr. 1976. Paleoecological significance of the short-tailed shrew (genus: Blarina) with a systematic discussion of Blarina ozarkensis. J. Mammal. 57:433–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guilday, J. E. 1962. The Pleistocene local fauna of Natural Chimneys, Augusta County, Virginia. Ann. Carnegie Mus. 36:87–122.Google Scholar
Guilday, J. E., Martin, P. S., and McCrady, A. D. 1964. New Paris No. 4: A late Pleistocene cave deposit in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Natl. Speleol. Soc. Bull. 26:121–194.Google Scholar
Guilday, J. E. and Parmalee, P. W. 1974. Quaternary periglacial records of the voles of the genus Phenacomys Merriam (Cricetidae: Rodentia). Quaternary Res. 2:170–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagmeier, E. M. and Stults, C. D. 1964. A numerical analysis of the distribution patterns of North American mammals. Syst. Zool. 13:125–155.Google Scholar
Hall, E. R. and Kelson, K. 1959. The Mammals of North America. Vol I and II. 1083 pp. The Ronald Press Company; New York.Google Scholar
Hallberg, G. R., Semken, H. A., and Davis, L. C. 1974. Quaternary records of Microtus xanthognathus (Leach), the yellow-cheeked vole, from northwestern Arkansas and southwestern Iowa. J. Mammal. 55:640–645.Google Scholar
Hibbard, C. W. 1970. Pleistocene mammalian local faunas from the Great Plains and Central Lowland Provinces of the United States. pp. 395–433. In: Dort, Wakefield Jr. and Knox Jones, J. Jr., eds. Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the central Great Plains. Univ. Press of Kansas. Spec. Publ. 3. 433 pp.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, R. S. and Knox Jones, J. Jr. 1970. Influence of late glacial and post glacial events on the distribution of recent mammals on the northern Great Plains. pp. 355–394. In: Dort, Wakefield Jr. and Knox Jones, J. Jr., eds. Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains. Univ. Press of Kansas. Spec. Publ. 3. 433 pp.Google Scholar
Kapp, R. O. 1970. Pollen analysis of prewisconsin sediments from the Great Plains. pp. 143–155. In: Dort, Wakefield Jr. and Knox Jones, J. Jr., eds. Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains. Univ. Press of Kansas. Spec. Publ. 3. 433 pp.Google Scholar
Kiester, A. R. 1971. Species density of North American amphibians and reptiles. Syst. Zool. 20:127–137.Google Scholar
Lundelius, E. L. Jr. 1967. Late Pleistocene and Holocene history of Central Texas. pp. 288–319. In: Martin, P. S. and Wright, H. E. Jr., eds. Pleistocene Extinctions—A Search For A Cause. 453 pp.Yale Univ. Press; New Haven, Conn.Google Scholar
Lundelius, E. L. Jr. 1974. The last fifteen thousand years of faunal change in North America. pp. 141–160. In: Black, Craig C., ed. History and Prehistory of the Lubbock Lake Site. The Mus. J. 15:1–160.Google Scholar
Mehringer, P. J. Jr., King, J. E. and Lindsay, E. H. 1970. A record of Wisconsin age vegetation and fauna from the Ozarks of Western Missouri. pp. 173–184. In: Dort, Wakefield Jr. and Knox Jones, J. Jr., eds. Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains. Univ. Press of Kansas. Spec. Publ. 3. 433 pp.Google Scholar
Oesch, R. D. 1967. A preliminary investigation of a Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from Crankshaft Pit, Jefferson County, Missouri. Natl. Speleol. Soc. Bull. 29:163–185.Google Scholar
Parmalee, P. W. 1967. A Recent cave bone deposit in southwestern Illinois. Natl. Speleol. Soc. Bull. 29:119–147.Google Scholar
Parmalee, P. W., Oesch, R. D., and Guilday, J. E. 1969. Pleistocene and Recent vertebrate faunas from Crankshaft Pit Cave, Missouri. Rep. Invest. Ill. State Mus. 14:1–37.Google Scholar
Pianka, E. R. 1966. Latitudinal gradients in species diversity: a review of concepts. Am. Nat. 100:33–46.Google Scholar
Semken, H. A. Jr. 1974. Micromammal distribution and migration during the Holocene. Am. Quaternary Assoc. 3rd Bienn. Meet. Univ. of Wis., 1974:25.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1964. Species density of North American Recent mammals. Syst. Zool. 13:57–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slaughter, B. H. 1975. An ecological interpretation of the Brown Sand Wedge Local Fauna, Black Water Draw, New Mexico: A hypothesis concerning the Late Pleistocene extinction. pp. 179–192. In: Wendorf, F. and Hester, J. J., eds. Late Pleistocene Environments of the Southern High Plains. Fort Bergwin Res. Center 9:1–290.Google Scholar
Slaughter, B. H. and Hoover, B. R. 1963. Sulphur River Formation and the Pleistocene mammals of the Ben Franklin local fauna. J. Grad. Res. Cent. 21:132–148.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III and Bryson, R. A. 1972. Late and post glacial climatic changes in the northern midwest USA: Quantitative estimates derived from fossil pollen spectra by multivariate statistical analysis. Quaternary Res. 2:70–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittaker, R. H. 1967. Gradient analysis of vegetation. Biol. Rev. 42:207–264.Google Scholar
Wright, H. E. Jr. 1970. Vegetational history of the Central Great Plains. pp. 157–173. In: Dort, Wakefield Jr. and Knox Jones, J. Jr., eds. Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Great Plains. Univ. Press of Kansas. Spec. Publ. 3. 433 pp.Google Scholar