Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T00:46:30.130Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Within-taxon morphological diversity in late-Quaternary Neotoma as a paleoenvironmental indicator, Bonneville Basin, Northwestern Utah, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. Lee Lyman  and
Michael J. O'Brien
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ecological data indicate that as the amount of precipitation in an arid areas increases, so too does mammalian taxonomic richness. This correspondence has been found in two late-Quaternary mammalian faunas from Utah, one from Homestead Cave in the Bonneville Basin. We use the remains of two species of woodrat (Neotoma cinerea and Neotoma lepida) from Homestead Cave to test the hypothesis that as the amount of precipitation in an arid area increases, so too does morphological diversity within individual mammalian taxa. Morphological diversity is measured as corrected coefficients of variation and as richness of size classes of mandibular alveolar lengths. Coefficients of variation for N. cinerea are few and coincide with moisture history if temporally successive small samples are lumped together. More abundant coefficients of variation for N. lepida coincide only loosely with moisture history, likely because such coefficients measure dispersion but not necessarily other aspects of variation. Richness of size classes of N. lepida is high during the early and late Holocene when moisture was high, and lowest during the middle Holocene when climate was most arid.

Keywords

Bonneville BasinMorphological diversityNeotoma spp.Percentage-stratigraphy graphWoodrat
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , May 2005 , pp. 274 - 282
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

Abramsky, Z., Rosenzweig, M.L., (1984). Tilman's predicted productivity–diversity relationship shown by desert rodents. Nature 309, 150–151.Google Scholar
Andrews, P., (1990). Owls, Caves and Fossils. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Barnosky, A.D., (1987). Punctuated equilibrium and phyletic gradualism: some facts from the Quaternary mammalian record. Current Mammalogy 1, 109–147.Google Scholar
Barnosky, A.D., (1990). Evolution of dental traits since latest Pleistocene in meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) from Virginia. Paleobiology 16, 370–383.Google Scholar
Barnosky, A.D., (1993). Mosaic evolution at the population level in Microtus pennsylvanicus . Martin, R.A., Barnosky, A.D., Morphological Change in Quaternary Mammals of North America Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge., 24–59.Google Scholar
Barnosky, A.D., (1994). Defining climate's role in ecosystem evolution: clues from late Quaternary mammals. Historical Biology 8, 173–190.Google Scholar
Broughton, J.M., (2000). The Homestead Cave ichthyofauna. Madsen, D.B., Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin 103–121.Google Scholar
Broughton, J.M., Madsen, D.B., Quade, J., (2000). Fish remains from Homestead Cave and lake levels of the past 13,000 years in the Bonneville Basin. Quaternary Research 53, 392–401.Google Scholar
Brown, J.H., (1973). Species diversity of seed-eating desert rodents in sand dune habitats. Ecology 54, 775–787.Google Scholar
Brown, J.H., (1975). Geographic ecology of desert rodents. Cody, M.L., Diamond, J.M., Ecology and Evolution of Communities Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA., 315–341.Google Scholar
Brown, J.H., Gibson, A.C., (1993). Biogeography. Mosby, St. Louis.Google Scholar
Brown, J.H., Lee, A.K., (1969). Bergmann's rule and climatic adaptation in woodrats (Neotoma). Evolution 23, 329–338.Google Scholar
Brown, J.H., Lomolino, M.V., (1998). Biogeography. third ed. Sinauer, Sunderland, MA.Google Scholar
Brown, W.L., Wilson, E.O., (1956). Character displacement. Systematic Zoology 5, 49–64.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N., (1974). Character displacement in evolutionary time. American Zoologist 14, 1083–1097.Google Scholar
Foote, M., (1997). The evolution of morphological diversity. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 28, 129–152.Google Scholar
Graham, R.W., (1976). Late Wisconsin mammalian faunas and environmental gradients of the eastern United States. Paleobiology 2, 343–350.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (1983). The paleontology of Gatecliff Shelter. Thomas, D.H., The Archaeology of Monitor Valley 2: Gatecliff Shelter Anthropological Papers 59, American Museum of Natural History, New York., 99–126.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (1984). Quantitative Zooarchaeology. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (1988). Danger cave, last supper cave, and hanging rock shelter: the faunas. American museum of natural history. Anthropological Papers 66, 1–130.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (1998). Moisture history and small mammal community richness during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene, northern Bonneville Basin, Utah. Quaternary Research 49, 330–334.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (1999). Bushy-tailed woodrat: Neotoma cinerea . Wilson, D.E., Ruff, S., The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC., 598–600.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (2000a). Mammalian responses to Middle Holocene climatic change in the Great Basin of the western United States. Journal of Biogeography 27, 181–192.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (2000b). The Homestead Cave mammals. Madsen, D.B., Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin, Bulletin 130 Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City., 67–89.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., (2002). Great Basin mammals and late Quaternary climate history. Hershler, R., Madsen, D.B., Currey, D.R., Great Basin Aquatic Systems History, Contributions to Earth Sciences No. 33 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.., 369–385.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., Madsen, D.B., (2000). Biogeographic implications of recent low-elevation recolonization by Neotoma cinerea in the Great Basin. Journal of Mammalogy 81, 1100–1105.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., Livingston, S.D., Rickart, E., Shaver, M.W. III, (1996). Biogeographic significance of low-elevation records for Neotoma cinerea from the northern Bonneville Basin, Utah. Great Basin Naturalist 56, 191–196.Google Scholar
Hadly, E.A., (1997). Evolutionary and ecological response of pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides) to late-Holocene climatic change. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 60, 277–296.Google Scholar
Hadly, E.A., Kohn, M.H., Leonard, J.A., Wayne, R.K., (1998). A genetic record of population isolation in pocket gophers during Holocene climatic change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95, 6893–6896.Google Scholar
Hall, E.R., (1981). The Mammals of North America. 2nd ed. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Harris, A.H., (1984). Neotoma in the late Pleistocene of New Mexico and Chihuahua. Genoways, H.H., Dawson, M.R., Contributions in Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology: a Volume in Memorial to John E. Guilday Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 8, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania., 164–178.Google Scholar
Koch, P.L., (1986). Clinical geographic variation in mammals: implications for the study of chronoclines. Paleobiology 12, 269–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Livingston, S.D., (2000). The Homestead cave avifauna. Madsen, D.B., Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin, Bulletin 130 Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City., 91–102.Google Scholar
Lyman, R.L., (1994). Vertebrate Taphonomy. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lyman, R.L., Lyman, R.J., (2003). Lessons from temporal variation in the mammalian faunas from two collections of owl pellets in Columbia County, Washington. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13, 150–156.Google Scholar
Lyman, R.L., Wolverton, S., O'Brien, M.J., (1998). Seriation, superposition, and interdigitation: a history of Americanist graphic depictions of culture change. American Antiquity 63, 239–261.Google Scholar
MacMillen, R.E., (1999). Desert woodrat: Neotoma lepida . Wilson, D.E., Ruff, S., The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC., 604–606.Google Scholar
Madsen, D.B., (2000). Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin. Utah Geological Survey 130.Google Scholar
Meserve, P.L., Glanz, W.E., (1978). Geographical ecology of small mammals in the northern Chilean arid zone. Journal of Biogeography 5, 135–148.Google Scholar
Purdue, J.R., (1980). Clinical variation of some mammals during the Holocene in Missouri. Quaternary Research 13, 242–258.Google Scholar
Rensberger, J.M., Barnosky, A.D., (1993). Short-term fluctuations in small mammals of the late Pleistocene from eastern Washington. Martin, R.A., Barnosky, A.D., Morphological Change in Quaternary Mammals of North America Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge., 299–342.Google Scholar
Rhode, D., (2000). Holocene vegetation history in the Bonneville basin. Madsen, D.B., Late Quaternary Paleoecology in the Bonneville Basin, Bulletin 130 Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City., 149–163.Google Scholar
Rhode, D., Madsen, D.B., (1995). Late Wisconsin/early Holocene vegetation in the Bonneville basin. Quaternary Research 44, 246–256.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M.L., (1992). Species diversity gradients: we know more and less than we thought. Journal of Mammalogy 73, 715–730.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M.L., (1995). Species Diversity in Time and Space. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M.L., Abramsky, Z., (1993). How are diversity and productivity related?. Ricklefs, R.E., Schluter, D., Species Diversity in Ecological Communities Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago., 52–65.Google Scholar
Roughgarden, J., (1972). Evolution of niche width. American Naturalist 106, 683–718.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D.N., Madsen, D.B., Lupo, K.D., (2002). Small-mammal data on early and middle Holocene climates and biotic communities in the Bonneville Basin, USA. Quaternary Research 58, 255–260.Google Scholar
Simpson, G.G., Roe, A., Lewontin, R., (1960). Quantitative Zoology. Harcourt Brace, New York., Revised edition.Google Scholar
Smith, F.A., (1997). Neotoma cinerea . Mammalian Species 564, 1–8.Google Scholar
Smith, F.A., Betancourt, J.L., (1998). Response of bushy-tailed woodrats (Neotoma cinerea) to late quaternary climatic change in the Colorado Plateau. Quaternary Research 50, 1–11.Google Scholar
Smith, F.A., Betancourt, J.L., (2003). The effect of Holocene temperature fluctuations on the evolution and ecology of Neotoma (woodrats) in Idaho and northwestern Utah. Quaternary Research 59, 160–171.Google Scholar
Smith, F.A., Betancourt, J.L., Brown, J.H., (1995). Evolution of body size in the woodrat over the past 25,000 years of climate change. Science 270, 2012–2014.Google Scholar
Smith, F.A., Browning, H., Shepherd, U.L., (1998). The influence of climate change on the body mass of woodrats (Neotoma) in an arid region of New Mexico, USA. Ecography 21, 140–148.Google Scholar
Sokal, R.R., Rohlf, F.J., (1995). Biometry. 3rd ed. W.H. Freeman, New York.Google Scholar
Van Valen, L., (1965). Morphological variation and width of the ecological niche. American Naturalist 94, 377–390.Google Scholar
Verts, B.J., Carraway, L.N., (2002). Neotoma lepida . Mammalian Species 699, 1–12.Google Scholar
Wigand, P.E., Rhode, D., (2002). Great Basin vegetation history and aquatic systems: The last 150,000 years. Hershler, R., Madsen, D.B., Currey, D.R., Great Basin Aquatic Systems History, Contributions to Earth Sciences No. 33 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.., 309–367.Google Scholar
Zakrzewski, R.J., (1993). Morphological change in woodrat (Rodentia: Cricetidae) molars. Martin, R.A., Barnosky, A.D., Morphological Change in Quaternary Mammals of North America Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge., 392–409.Google Scholar