Multiple studies have demonstrated that European colonization of the Americas led to the death of nearly all North American dog mitochondrial lineages and replacement with European ones sometime between AD 1492 and the present day. Historical records indicate that colonists imported dogs from Europe to North America, where they became objects of interest and exchange as early as the seventeenth century. However, it is not clear whether the earliest archaeological dogs recovered from colonial contexts were of European, Indigenous, or mixed descent. To clarify the ancestry of dogs from the Jamestown Colony, Virginia, we sequenced ancient mitochondrial DNA from six archaeological dogs from the period 1609–1617. Our analysis shows that the Jamestown dogs have maternal lineages most closely associated with those of ancient Indigenous dogs of North America. Furthermore, these maternal lineages cluster with dogs from Late Woodland, Hopewell, and Virginia Algonquian archaeological sites. Our recovery of Indigenous dog lineages from a European colonial site suggests a complex social history of dogs at the interface of Indigenous and European populations during the early colonial period.

Understanding spatial variation in origination and extinction can help to unravel the mechanisms underlying macroevolutionary patterns. Although methods have been developed for estimating global origination and extinction rates from the fossil record, no framework exists for applying these methods to restricted spatial regions. Here, we test the efficacy of three metrics for regional analysis, using simulated fossil occurrences. These metrics are then applied to the marine invertebrate record of the Permian and Triassic to examine variation in extinction and origination rates across latitudes. Extinction and origination rates were generally uniform across latitudes for these time intervals, including during the Capitanian and Permian–Triassic mass extinctions. The small magnitude of this variation, combined with the possibility of its attribution to sampling bias, cautions against linking any observed differences to contrasting evolutionary dynamics. Our results indicate that origination and extinction levels were more variable across clades than across latitudes.

Archaeologists frequently use probability distributions and null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) to assess how well survey, excavation, or experimental data align with their hypotheses about the past. Bayesian inference is increasingly used as an alternative to NHST and, in archaeology, is most commonly applied to radiocarbon date estimation and chronology building. This article demonstrates that Bayesian statistics has broader applications. It begins by contrasting NHST and Bayesian statistical frameworks, before introducing and applying Bayes's theorem. In order to guide the reader through an elementary step-by-step Bayesian analysis, this article uses a fictional archaeological faunal assemblage from a single site. The fictional example is then expanded to demonstrate how Bayesian analyses can be applied to data with a range of properties, formally incorporating expert prior knowledge into the hypothesis evaluation process.

Analysis of human remains and a copper band found in the center of a Late Archaic (ca. 5000–3000 cal BP) shell ring demonstrate an exchange network between the Great Lakes and the coastal southeast United States. Similarities in mortuary practices suggest that the movement of objects between these two regions was more direct and unmediated than archaeologists previously assumed based on “down-the-line” models of exchange. These findings challenge prevalent notions that view preagricultural Native American communities as relatively isolated from one another and suggest instead that wide social networks spanned much of North America thousands of years before the advent of domestication.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Puebloan women (if not entire families) were incorporated into Apache Dismal River communities in western Kansas. In at least one site (14SC1), Puebloan people lived in a small masonry pueblo. We evaluate the timing and nature of the Puebloan occupation at 14SC1 and its relationship to the Dismal River population at the site. We use a Bayesian analytical framework to evaluate different models of the pueblo's use history, constraining 12 radiocarbon dates by their stratigraphic data and then comparing this framework with different temporal models based on the historical record. We conclude that Dismal River people lived at 14SC1 prior to the appearance of Pueblo migrants, sometime between cal AD 1490 and 1650. Construction and early use of the pueblo by migrants from the Rio Grande valley occurred between cal AD 1630 and 1660, and the pueblo was closed by burning sometime between cal AD 1640 and 1690. Site 14SC1 lacks Rio Grande Glaze Ware, and its residents seem rarely to have engaged with the groups in the Southern Plains Macroeconomy. Our results contribute to studies of indigenous community formation and Puebloan residential mobility during the Spanish colonial period.

Weeds are the major biotic constraint to rice production. Field observations have suggested that certain fertilizer regimes could enhance infestations of particular weed species emerging with rice. The study objective was to determine the effect of surface-applied calcium phosphate on weed growth in flooded California rice systems. In field and pot studies, triple superphosphate (TSP) applied to the soil surface increased weed emergence. Surface-applied TSP increased the number of sedge and broadleaf weeds, including smallflower umbrella sedge, blue-flowered ducksalad, redstem, ricefield bulrush, waterhyssop, and California arrowhead. A laboratory study measured germination of smallflower umbrella sedge and ricefield bulrush in response to the application of phosphorus (P) and calcium (Ca), which comprise 20 and 15% of TSP, respectively. Calcium stimulated smallflower umbrella sedge germination and had no effect on ricefield bulrush germination. Phosphorus did not stimulate either smallflower umbrella sedge or ricefield bulrush germination. Results indicate that surface applications of calcium phosphate increase the growth of certain weed species and that Ca may stimulate germination of smallflower umbrella sedge. By incorporating preplant applications of calcium phosphate into the soil profile, growers can reduce weed pressure from certain species. Alternatively, surface applications of calcium phosphate may be useful to stimulate weed emergence in stale-seedbed management.

Clovis sites occur throughout the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, but are poorly documented in the central Rio Grande rift region. Here, we present data from two relatively unknown Clovis projectile point assemblages from this region: the first is from the Mockingbird Gap Clovis site and the second is from a survey of the surrounding region. Our goals are to reconstruct general features of the paleoecological adaptation of Clovis populations in the region using raw material sourcing and then to compare the point technology in the region to other Clovis assemblages in the Southwest and across the continent. Our results show that both assemblages were manufactured from similar suites of raw materials that come almost exclusively from the central Rio Grande rift region and the adjacent mountains of New Mexico. Additionally, we show that Clovis projectile points in the study region are significantly smaller than the continental average. Our results suggest that Clovis populations in this region operated within a large, well-known, and relatively high-elevation territory encompassing much of northern and western New Mexico.

Using lithic and faunal data from 33 Cody complex (10,000–8600 14C years B.P.) components from the northern Great Plains, this study explores how Paleoindian land use and foraging strategies varied in relation to resource structure at the regional scale. The analysis of regional-scale faunal and lithic data was undertaken to demonstrate how disparate but related datasets must be considered together to develop a more complete understanding of hunter-gatherer lifeways. Empirical observations from the Cody archaeological record were compared to an optimal foraging theory and temporal resource predictability theory-inspired land-use model. The model predicts, and the data support, a pattern whereby Cody groups in the resource-rich foothill-mountain zone employed a regionally restricted land-use strategy for a protracted portion of the year, made spatially limited movements during which they relied on local toolstone, and expanded diet breadth by hunting a mixture of dispersed bison herds and small-bodied animals. In the comparatively resource-poor plains grasslands and adjacent alluvial valleys, the model predicts and the data indicate that Cody groups employed a nonregionally restricted land-use strategy in which they rapidly moved through regions, relied on nonlocal toolstone sources, made many residential moves over vast areas, and relied on a narrow range ofbiotic resources (primarily bison).

The Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) Project is a consensus collaboration among many of the foremost international researchers of the physics of hot, massive stars, with the basic aim of understanding the origin, evolution and impact of magnetic fields in these objects. At the time of writing, MiMeS Large Programs have acquired over 950 high-resolution polarised spectra of about 150 individual stars with spectral types from B5-O4, discovering new magnetic fields in a dozen hot, massive stars. The quality of this spectral and magnetic matériel is very high, and the Collaboration is keen to connect with colleagues capable of exploiting the data in new or unforeseen ways. In this paper we review the structure of the MiMeS observing programs and report the status of observations, data modeling and development of related theory.

In the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains of North America, researchers have debated the degree to which Paleoindian foragers relied on large-game hunting to fulfill their subsistence needs. This study reviews the zooarchaeological record from 60 sites to test predictions drawn from prey choice models. Results indicate that different site types provide different perspectives on Paleoindian faunal use. Data from kill assemblages can only inform on the exploitation of large game, while the full variety of prey used by Paleoindian foragers is represented at camp localities. In addition, prehistoric foragers varied prey choice based on habitat setting. In the low diversity grasslands of the High Plains and Rolling Hills, prehistoric groups hunted large game almost exclusively. In the more diverse environments of the alluvial valleys and foothill/mountain environments, foragers show higher diversity of faunal use. During the early Holocene, small game made a greater contribution in the diet of Paleoindians, possibly in response to changing environmental conditions and/or increased hunting pressure.

In Byerly et al. (2005) we explored the hypothesis that the Paleoindian component at Bonfire Shelter was the result of a jump kill. Our efforts involved extensive mapping and GIS analysis, a re-examination of the Paleoindian-age bison assemblage, and consideration of the geomorphic history of the canyon in which the site is located. We concluded that the preponderance of evidence indicated the Paleoindian-age bison remains at Bonfire Shelter marked a processing site as Binford (1978) suggested, rather than a primary kill locality as originally interpreted (Dibble 1968). Bement (this issue) raises several concerns about our analysis and discussion, including that we omit pertinent information relevant to the interpretation of the site. His comments, however, result from a misreading of our discussion and a misconstrual of the data set, as we explain in this response.

The Plainview/Folsom-aged bison Bonebed 2 at Bonfire Shelter, originally excavated in the 1960s, is argued to be the earliest North American bison jump (Dibble 1970; Dibble and Lorrain 1968). Yet, it is far older than all other known jumps, and well south of where the great majority of these sites are found. Dibble (1970) reasonably argued that its age and location was not compelling evidence against it being a bison jump. However, Binford (1978) observed that the skeletal composition of Bonebed 2 did not resemble a kill. To assess whether Bonfire Shelter could have been utilized as a jump and whether it was, we explore two lines of evidence bearing on the issue, a GIS analysis of the site and upland topography, and zooarchaeological analysis of the recovered bison remains. Although our GIS analysis indicates that Bonfire Shelter meets many of the criteria of a jump locality, our reanalysis of the faunal remains suggests this was not the primary kill locus, but instead a processing area to which high-utility portions of at least 24 bison were transported and butchered. Where the bison were killed, and how, is not known.