Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:38:16.617Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Morphological Chronoclines among Late Pleistocene Muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus: Muridae, Rodentia) from Northern Florida

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Matthew C. Mihlbachler ,
C. Andrew Hemmings  and
S. David Webb
Matthew C. Mihlbachler*
Affiliation:
Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York, 10024
C. Andrew Hemmings
Affiliation:
Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida, 32611
S. David Webb
Affiliation:
Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida, 32611
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]. Fax: 212 769 5842.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) is presumed to have undergone a rapid phyletic size decrease near the end of the Pleistocene. Evolutionary changes in the size of middle to late Wisconsinan (ca. 32,000–12,300 14C yr B.P.) muskrats from the Aucilla River, Jefferson County, Florida, were reconstructed by examining length and width of the lower first molar (m1). Body mass, estimated from m1 length, was relatively stable from 32,000 to 16,000 14C yr B.P. and decreased only slightly by 12,300 14C yr B.P. If the size trend found in the Aucilla River material is characteristic of the southeastern United States, a body size decrease after 12,300 14C yr B.P. is needed to explain the smaller size of modern populations. It was previously thought that the length/width (l/w) ratio of the muskrat m1 was a paleoenvironmental indicator based on its presumed correlation with latitude in modern populations. We examined the length and width of modern muskrats from several geographic regions and found only a very weak trend in the size of the m1 between northern and southern populations; however, highly significant differences were found between regions of similar latitude. Our data indicate that chronoclines in the m1 of the Aucilla muskrat material and other such documented trends among fossil muskrats have paleoenvironmental significance, but it is not yet clear which environmental variables can best be predicted from them.

Keywords

Ondatramuskratrodentevolutionlate PleistoceneWisconsinanFloridaAucilla Riverchronocline
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , November 2002 , pp. 289 - 295
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

Boyce, M.S. Climatic variability and body size variation in the muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) of North America. Oecologia 36, (1978). 1 19.Google Scholar
Bullen, R.P. Six sites near the Chattahoochee River in the Jim Woodruff Reservoir Area, Florida. Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology 269, (1958). 321 357.Google Scholar
Crowley, T.J., and North, G.R. Paleoclimatology. (1991). Oxford Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
Dunbar, J.S., Webb, S.D., and Cring, D. Culturally and naturally modified bones from a Paleoindian site in the Aucilla River, North Florida. Bonnichsen, R. Bone Modification. (1990). Univ. of Maine at Orono Press, Orono. 473 497.Google Scholar
Galbreath, E.C. Growth and development of teeth in the muskrat. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Sciences 57, (1954). 238 241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillette, D.D. Late Quaternary mammals from the St. Marks River Wakulla County, Florida. Florida Scientist 39, (1976). 120 122.Google Scholar
Hemmings, C.A. Probable association of Paleoindian artifacts and mastodon remains, Sloth Hole, Aucilla River, North Florida. Current Research in the Pleistocene 15, (1998). 16 18.Google Scholar
Johnson, E., Lewis, P.J., Strauss, R., and Clark, J.A. Early Holocene muskrat in Wisconsin. Current Research in the Pleistocene 17, (2000). 125 127.Google Scholar
LaBarbera, M. Analyzing body size as factor in ecology and evolution. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 20, (1989). 97 117.Google Scholar
Lawrence, B. The muskrat in Florida. Proceedings of the New England Zoological Club 19, (1941). 17 19.Google Scholar
Lewis, P.J., and Johnson, E. Climate and muskrats of Lubbock Lake. Current Research in the Pleistocene 14, (1997). 145 147.Google Scholar
Lewis, P.J., and Johnson, E. Biogeography and paleoenvironments of late-Pleistocene muskrats on the Southern Plains. Southwestern Naturalist 47, (2002). 121 125.Google Scholar
Marshall, L.G., and Corruccini, R.S. Variability, evolutionary rates, and allometry in dwarfing lineages. Paleobiology 4, (1978). 101 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, R.A. Patterns of variation and speciation in Quaternary rodents. Martin, R.A., and Barnosky, A.D. Morphological Change in Quaternary Mammals of North America. (1993). Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge. 226 280.Google Scholar
Martin, R.A. Dental evolution and size change in the North American muskrat: Classification and tempo of a presumed phyletic sequence. Stewart, K.M., and Seymour, K.L. Palaeoecology and Palaeoenvironments of Late Cenozoic Mammals: Tributes to the Career of C.S. (Rufus) Churcher. (1996). Univ. of Toronto Press, Toronto. 431 457.Google Scholar
Martin, R.A., and Webb, S.D. Late Pleistocene mammals from the Devil's Den fauna, Levy County. Webb, S.D. Pleistocene Mammals of Florida. (1974). Univ. of Florida Press, Gainesville. 114 148.Google Scholar
Mihlbachler, M.C. Late-Pleistocene mastodon and digesta from Little River, north Florida. Current Research in the Pleistocene 15, (1998). 116 118.Google Scholar
Muniz, M.P. Preliminary results of excavations and analysis of little river rapids: A prehistoric inundated site in North Florida. Current Research in the Pleistocene 15, (1998). 48 49.Google Scholar
Nelson, R.S., and Semken, H.A. Paleoecological and stratigraphic significance of the muskrat in Pleistocene deposits. Geological Society of America Bulletin 81, (1970). 3733 3738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newsom, L.A., Webb, S.D., and Dunbar, J.S. History and geographic distribution of Curcurbita pepo gourds in Florida. Journal of Ethnobiology 13, (1993). 75 97.Google Scholar
Nowak, R.M. Walker's Mammals of the World. (1999). Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Packard, G.C., and Boardman, T.J. The misuse of ratios, indices, and percentages in ecophysiological research. Physiological Zoology 61, (1988). 1 9.Google Scholar
Proulx, G., and Buckland, B.M.L. Productivity and mortality rates of southern Ontario pond- and stream-dwelling muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus, populations. The Canadian Field Naturalist 100, (1986). 378 380.Google Scholar
Semken, H.A. Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the McPherson Beds (Sandhal local fauna) McPherson County, Kansas. University of Michigan, Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology 20, (1966). 121 128.Google Scholar
Simpson, G.G. Additions to the Pleistocene of Florida. American Museum Novitates 406, (1930). 1 14.Google Scholar
Simpson, G.G., Roe, A., and Lewontin, R.C. Quantitative Zoology. (1960). Harcourt Brace, New York.Google Scholar
Virgil, J.A., and Messier, F. Population structure, distribution, and demography of muskrats during the ice-free period under contrasting water fluctuations. Ecoscience 3, (1996). 54 62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viriot, L., Chaline, J., Schaaf, A., and le Boulenge, E. Ontogenetic change of Ondatra zibethicus (Arvicolidae, Rodentia) cheek teeth analyzed by digital processing. Martin, R.A., and Barnosky, A.D. Morphological Change in Quaternary Mammals of North America. (1993). Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge. 373 391.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., and Hansen, B.C.S. Environments of Florida in the Late Wisconsinan and Holocene. Purdy, B. Wet Site Archaeology. (1988). Telford Press, Caldwell. 307 323.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., Hansen, B.C.S., and Grimm, E.C. Camel Lake: A 40,000-yr record of vegetational history from northwest Florida. Ecology 73, (1992). 1056 1066.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, S.D. Underwater paleontology of Florida's rivers. National Geographic Research Reports 10, (1976). 479 481.Google Scholar
Webb, S.D., Dunbar, J., and Newsom, L.A. Mastodon digesta from North Florida. Current Research in the Pleistocene 9, (1991). 114 116.Google Scholar
Webb, S.D., Hemmings, C.A., and Muniz, M.P. New Radiocarbon dates for Vero Tapir and stout-legged Llama from Florida. Current Research in the Pleistocene 15, (1998). 127 128.Google Scholar
Willner, G.R., Feldhammer, G.A., Zucker, E.E., and Chapman, J.A. Ondatra zibethicus . Mammalian Species 141, (1980). 1 8.Google Scholar