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Late Quaternary vertebrates from the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, and small-mammal community resilience to climate change since the last glacial maximum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2019

Steven D. Emslie Open the ORCID record for Steven D. Emslie [Opens in a new window]  and
David J. Meltzer
Steven D. Emslie*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403, USA
David J. Meltzer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas 75275, USA
*
*Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected] (S.D. Emslie).
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Abstract

The Upper Gunnison Basin (UGB), Colorado, is a montane region characterized by unusual physiography and topographic isolation. Excavations of three caves in the UGB provide one of the most diverse records of high-elevation late Quaternary vertebrates in North America. The localities, Haystack Cave (2450 m above sea level [m asl]), Cement Creek Cave (2860 m asl), and Signature Cave (3055 m asl), together provide a near-continuous record of vertebrate communities that extends from before the last glacial maximum to the present. These communities largely represent a sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) steppe-tundra environment that prevailed throughout the UGB in the late Pleistocene. At least five taxa of extinct large mammals disappear from the UGB by the Early Holocene; one small mammal (the short-faced skunk Brachyprotoma cf. B. brevimala) also became extinct. The fossil record further indicates that only four small extant mammals (Sorex preblei, Dicrostonyx sp., Lemmiscus curtatus, and Urocitellus elegans) were extirpated from the UGB by the Early Holocene, in part because of community restructuring and loss of open habitats with expansion of forests to higher elevations. An analysis of taxonomic richness and evenness at Cement Creek Cave indicates high resilience in the small mammal community despite major climate shifts over the past 40,000+ yr.

Keywords

Haystack CaveCement Creek CaveSignature CaveHigh-elevation vertebratesCommunity reorganizationRichnessEvenness
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 92 , Issue 2 , September 2019 , pp. 388 - 407
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

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