Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T14:03:14.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dung, diet, and the paleoenvironment of the extinct shrub-ox (Euceratherium Collinum) on the Colorado Plateau, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Manny Kropf ,
Jim I. Mead  and
R. Scott Anderson
Manny Kropf*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Quaternary Paleontology, Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
Jim I. Mead
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Quaternary Paleontology, Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
R. Scott Anderson
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Quaternary Paleontology, Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA Center for Environmental Sciences and Education, and Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. 780 South 9th Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85701, USA. E-mail address:[email protected] (M. Kropf).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Fossil remains of Euceratherium collinum (extinct shrub-ox) have been found throughout North America, including the Grand Canyon. Recent finds from the Escalante River Basin in southern Utah further extend the animal's range into the heart of the Colorado Plateau. E. collinum teeth and a metapodial condyle (foot bone) have been recovered in association with large distinctively shaped dung pellets, a morphology similar to a ‘Hershey's Kiss’ (HK), from a late Pleistocene dung layer in Bechan Cave. HK dung pellets have also been recovered from other alcoves in the Escalante River Basin including Willow and Fortymile canyons. Detailed analyses of the HK pellets confirmed them to be E. collinum and indicate a browser-type diet dominated (> 95%) by trees and shrubs: Artemisia tridentata (big sagebrush), Acacia sp. (acacia), Quercus (oak), and Chrysothamnus (rabbit brush). The retrieval of spring and fall pollen suggests E. collinum was a year-round resident in the Escalante River Basin.

Keywords

PleistoceneDungBechan CaveEscalante River BasinEuceratheriumPaleoenvironmentMicrohistologyPollen
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , pp. 143 - 151
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

Agenbroad, L.D., Mead, J.I., Mead, E.M., and Elder, D. Archaeology, alluvium, and cave stratigraphy: The record from Bechan Cave, Utah. Kiva 54, (1989). 335–351.Google Scholar
Anderson, R.S., Betancourt, J.L., Mead, J.I., Hevly, R.H., and Adam, D.P. Middle- and late-Wisconsin paleobotanic and paleoclimatic records from the southern Colorado Plateau, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 155, (2000). 31–57.Google Scholar
Bradley, R.S. Paleoclimatology: Reconstructing Climates of the Quaternary. 2nd edition (1999). Hartcourt/Academic Press, Burlington, MA.Google Scholar
Davis, O.K., and Anderson, R.S. Pollen in packrat (Neotoma) middens: pollen transport and the relationship of pollen to vegetation. Palynology 11, (1987). 185–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, O.K., Agenbroad, L.D., Martin, P.S., and Mead, J.I. The Pleistocene dung blanket of Bechan Cave, Utah. Genoways, H.H., and Dawson, M.R. Contributions in Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology: A Volume in Memorial to John E. Guilday. Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Special Publications No. 8. Pittsburgh. (1984). 267–282.Google Scholar
Downs, T., and White, J.A. A vertebrate faunal succession in superposed sediments from late Pleistocene to middle Pleistocene in California. Malkovsky, M., and Tejkal, J. Proceeding of XXIII International Geological Congress, Section 10, Tertiary–Quaternary Boundary. (1968). Academic Press, Prague. 41–47.Google Scholar
Eames, A.J. Report on ground sloth coprolite from Dona Ana County, New Mexico. American Journal of Science 20, (1930). 353–356.Google Scholar
Frick, C. Horned ruminants of North America. Bulletin American Museum Natural History 69, (1937). 1–699.Google Scholar
Furlong, E.L. Preptoceras, a new ungulate from Samwel Cave California. University of California Publications; Department of Geology 4, (1905). 163–169.Google Scholar
Gardner, C.J., McIvor, J.G., and Jansen, A. Passage of legume and grass seeds through the digestive tract of cattle and their survival in faeces. Journal of Applied Ecology 30, (1993). 63–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guthrie, R.D. New paleoecological and paleoethological information on the extinct helmeted muskoxen from Alaska. Annales Zoologici Fennici 28, (1992). 175–186.Google Scholar
Harris, A.H. Late Pleistocene vertebrate paleoecology of the West. (1985). University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Janis, C.M. An estimation of tooth volume and hypsodonty indices in ungulate mammals, and the correlation of these factors with dietary preference. Russell, D.E., Santoro, J.P., and Sigogneau-Russell, D. Teeth revisited: Proceedings of the VIIth International Symposium on Dental Morphology. Mémoires du Muséum national d’Histoire naturalle du Paris (série C), Paris. (1988). 367–387.Google Scholar
Janis, C.M. Correlations between craniodental morphology and feeding behavior in ungulates: reciprocal illumination between living and fossil taxa. Thomason, J. Functional Morphology in Vertebrate Paleontology. (1995). Cambridge University Press, New York. 76–98.Google Scholar
Janis, C.M., and Ehrhardt, D. Correlation of relative muzzle width and relative incisor width with dietary preference in ungulates. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 92, (1988). 267–284.Google Scholar
Kropf, M., (2005). The extinct shrub-ox (Euceratherium collinum) and its late Quaternary environment on the Colorado Plateau.. Unpublished master's thesis, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B., and Anderson, E. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. (1980). Columbia Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
Lindsay, E. Late Cenozoic vertebrate faunas, southeastern Arizona. Guidebook—New Mexico Geological Society 29, (1978). 269–275.Google Scholar
Logan, L.E. The mammalian fossils of Muskox Cave, Eddy County, New Mexico. Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress Speleology 1, (1981). 159–160.Google Scholar
Martin, P.S., Sabels, B.E., Shulter, D. Jr. Rampart Cave coprolite and ecology of the Shasta ground sloth. American Journal of Science 259, (1961). 102–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P.S., and Wright, H.E. Bestiary for Pleistocene biologists. Martin, P.S., and Wright, H.E. Pleistocene Extinctions; The Search for a Cause. (1967). Yale University Press, New Haven and London. 1–62.Google Scholar
McGuire, K.R. Cave sites, faunal analysis, and big-game hunters of the Great Basin: a caution. Quaternary Research 14, (1980). 263–268.Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., and Agenbroad, L.D. Pleistocene dung and extinct herbivores of the Colorado Plateau, Southwestern USA. Cranium 6, (1989). 29–44.Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., and Agenbroad, L.D. Isotope dating of Pleistocene dung deposits from the Colorado Plateau, Arizona and Utah. Radiocarbon 34, (1992). 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, J.I., and Lawler, M.C. Skull, mandible, and metapodials of the extinct Harrington?s mountain goat (Oreamnos harringtoni). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 14, (1994). 562–576.Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., Roth, E.L., Van Devender, T.R., and Steadman, D.W. The Late Wisconsin vertebrate fauna from Deadman Cave, southern Arizona. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 20, 14 (1984). 247–276.Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., Agenbroad, L.D., Davis, O.K., and Martin, P.S. Dung of Mammuthus in the arid Southwest North America. Quaternary Research 25, (1986). 121–127.Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., Agenbroad, L.D., Martin, P.S., Euler, R.C., Long, A., Jull, A.J.T., Toolin, L.J., Donahue, D.J., and Linick, T.W. Extinction of Harrington's mountain goat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 83, (1986). 836–839.Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., O'Rourke, M.K., and Foppe, T.M. Dung and diet of the extinct Harrington's Mountain Goat (Oreamnos harringtoni). Journal of Mammalogy 67, (1986). 284–293.Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., Agenbroad, L.D., Phillips, A.M., and Middleton, L.T. Extinct Mountain Goat (Oreamnos harringtoni) in Southeastern Utah. Quaternary Research 27, (1987). 323–331.Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., Coats, L.L., and Schubert, B.W. Late Pleistocene faunas from caves in the eastern Grand Canyon, Arizona. Schubert, B.W., Mead, J.I., and Graham, R.W. Ice Age Cave Faunas of North America. (2003). Indian University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis. 64–86.Google Scholar
Mendoza, M., Janis, C.M., and Palmqvist, P. Characterizing complex craniodental patterns related to feeding behavior in ungulates: a multivariate approach. Journal of Zoology 258, (2002). 223–246.Google Scholar
Morgan, G.S., and Lucas, S.G. Pliocene and Pleistocene vertebrate faunas from the Albuquerque Basin, New Mexico. Bulletin—New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science 16, (2000). 217–240.Google Scholar
Nelson, M.E., and Neas, J. Pleistocene musk oxen from Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 83, (1980). 215–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, S.J. Mammal remains from archaeological sites, part 1: Southeastern and Southwestern United States. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology vol. 56, no. 1, (1973). Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Opdyke, N.D., Lindsay, E.H., Johnson, N.M., and Downs, T. The paleomagnetism and magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the mammal bearing section of Anza Borrego State Park, California. Quaternary Research 7, (1977). 316–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Rourke, M.K., and Mead, J.I. Late Pleistocene and Holocene pollen records from two caves in the Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Contributions Series 16, (1985). 169–186.Google Scholar
Pérez-Barbería, F.J., Gordan, I.J., and Nores, C. Evolutionary transitions among feeding styles and habitats in ungulates. Evolutionary Ecology Research 3, (2001). 221–230.Google Scholar
Schultz, C.B., and Howard, E.B. The fauna of Burnet Cave, Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico. Proceedings of The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 87, (1935). 273–298.Google Scholar
Scott, W.B. A History of Land Mammals in the Western Hemisphere. (1962). Hafner Publishing Company, New York.Google Scholar
Simpson, G.G. A new record of Euceratherium or Preptoceras (extinct Bovidae) in New Mexico. Journal of Mammalogy 44, (1963). 583–584.Google Scholar
Sinclair, W.J. New mammalia from the Quaternary caves of California. University of California Publications; Bulletin of the Department of Geology 4, (1905). 145–161.Google Scholar
Sinclair, W.J., and Furlong, E.L. Euceratherium, a new ungulate from the Quaternary caves of California. University of California Publications; Bulletin of the Department of Geology 3, (1904). 411–418.Google Scholar
Solounias, N., Moelleken, S.M.C., and Plavcan, J.M. Predicting the diet of extinct bovids using masseteric morphology. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15, 4 (1995). 795–805.Google Scholar
Sparks, D.R., and Malechek, J.C. Estimating percentage dry weight in diets using a microscopic technique. Journal of Range Management 21, (1968). 264–265.Google Scholar
Thomas, J.W., and Toweill, D.E. Elk of North America: Ecology and management. (1982). Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Van Devender, T.R., Martin, P.S., Foppe, T., and Long, A. Shasta Ground Sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis Hoffstetter) at Shelter Cave, New Mexico: environment, diet, and extinction. Quaternary Research 14, (1980). 360–376.Google Scholar
Todd, J.W., and Hansen, R.M. Plant fragments in the feces of bighorns as indicators of food habits. Journal of Wildlife Management 37, (1973). 363–365.Google Scholar
Withers, K., and Mead, J.I. Late Quaternary vegetation and climate in the Escalante River Basin on the central Colorado Plateau. Great Basin Naturalist 53, (1993). 145–161.Google Scholar