Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T15:18:24.035Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identification and dendrochronology of wood found at the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Colorado, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Peter M. Brown ,
Stephen E. Nash  and
Douglas Kline
Peter M. Brown*
Affiliation:
Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research, 2901 Moore Lane, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA
Stephen E. Nash
Affiliation:
Denver Museum of Nature and Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd, Denver CO 80205, USA
Douglas Kline
Affiliation:
Denver Museum of Nature and Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd, Denver CO 80205, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author.E-mail address:pmb@rmtrr.org (P.M. Brown).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over 300 wood fossils were collected from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site near Snowmass Village in central Colorado, USA. Wood fossils range from fragments of stems and branches only a few centimeters in diameter and length to whole logs >50 cm diameter and >10 m length. Many of the fossils were collected from a “beach” horizon, where they appear to have been washed up on the side of the interglacial lake and buried. The wood is mainly fir (Abies sp.) or Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), with some spruce (Picea sp.), pine (Pinus sp.), and at least one other unidentified conifer species. Douglas-fir and species of fir, spruce, and pine are common in the area today. Dendrochronological analyses compared annual growth rings in fossil wood to similar data from modern trees. Results suggest that fossil trees from the beach horizon grew under similar environmental conditions and annual climate variability as today. Three Douglas-firs and several fir logs also appear to have been alive at the same time based on crossdating of ring widths and other ring characteristics. These trees may have died at the same time, suggesting a stand mortality event in the surrounding forest that resulted in numerous logs being buried synchronously in the beach horizon.

Keywords

DendrochronologyWood identificationCrossdateFossil woodRing widths
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 82 , Issue 3 , November 2014 , pp. 575 - 579
Copyright
University of Washington

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

Anderson, R.S., Jiménez-Moreno, G., Ager, T., and Porinchu, D.F. High-elevation paleoenvironmental change during MIS 6–4 in the central Rockies of Colorado as determined from pollen analysis. Quaternary Research 82, (2014). 542–552. (in this volume) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, R.M., Honkala, B.H. Technical coordinators Silvics of North America: volume 1. Conifers. Agriculture Handbook. 654, (1990). United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Google Scholar
Douglass, A.E. Climatic cycles and tree growth, Volume III: a study of cycles. no. 289, (1936). Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication, (171 pp.)Google Scholar
Fisher, D.C., Cherney, M.D., Newton, C., Rountrey, A.N., Calamari, Z.T., Stucky, R., Lucking, C., and Petrie, L. Taxonomic overview and tusk growth analyses of Ziegler Reservoir proboscideans. Quaternary Research 82, (2014). 518–532. (in this volume) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fritts, H.C. Bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California: growth and ring width characteristics. Papers of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research 4. (1969). Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson. (44 pp.)Google Scholar
Fritts, H.C. Tree rings and climate. (1976). Academic Press, London. (567 pp.)Google Scholar
Fritts, H.C., and Shatz, D.J. Selecting and characterizing tree-ring chronologies for dendroclimatic analysis. Tree-Ring Bulletin 35, (1975). 31–40.Google Scholar
Grissino-Mayer, H.D. Evaluating crossdating accuracy: a manual and tutorial for the computer program COFECHA. Tree-Ring Research 57, (2001). 67–83.Google Scholar
Hoadley, R.B. Identifying wood. (1990). The Taunton Press, Google Scholar
Holmes, R.L. Computer-assisted quality control in tree-ring dating and measurement. Tree-Ring Bulletin 43, (1983). 69–78.Google Scholar
Mahan, S.A., Gray, H.J., Pigati, J.S., Wilson, J., Lifton, N.A., Paces, J.B., and Blaauw, M. A geochronologic framework for the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado. Quaternary Research 82, (2014). 490–503. (in this volume) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, D.M., Miller, I.M., and Jackson, S.T. Biogeography of Pleistocene conifer species from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado. Quaternary Research 82, (2014). 567–574. (in this volume) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Péwé, T.L., Berger, G.W., Westgate, J.A., Brown, P.M., and Leavitt, S.W. Eva interglaciation forest bed, unglaciated East-Central Alaska: global warming 125,000 years ago. (1997). Geological Society of America, (Special Paper No. 319) Google Scholar
Péwé, T.L., Westgate, J.A., Preece, S.J., Brown, P.M., and Leavitt, S.W. Late Pliocene Dawson Cut Forest Bed and new tephrochronological findings in the Gold Hill Loess, east-central Alaska. Geological Society of America Bulletin 121, 1–2 (2009). 294–320.Google Scholar
Pigati, J.S., Miller, I.M., Johnson, K.R., Honke, J.S., Carrara, P.E., Muhs, D.R., Skipp, G., and Bryant, B. Geologic setting and stratigraphy of the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado. Quaternary Research 82, (2014). 477–489. (in this volume) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Speer, J.H. Fundamentals of Tree-Ring Research. (2010). University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Strickland, L.E., Baker, R.G., Thompson, R.S., and Miller, D.M. Last interglacial plant macrofossils and climates from Ziegler Reservoir, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA. Quaternary Research 82, (2014). 553–566. (in this volume) CrossRefGoogle Scholar