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Late Wisconsin Macrofossil Records of Desert Vegetation in the American Southwest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

W. Geoffrey Spaulding
W. Geoffrey Spaulding*
Affiliation:
Department of Botany and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 USA
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Abstract

Until recently, the oldest-known packrat (Neotoma spp.) midden records of desert scrub vegetation were less than 10,500 yr old and were restricted to altitudes below 300 m in the northern Sonoran Desert. Recent discovery of macrofossil assemblages in the Mojave Desert extends the record of desert vegetation back to 14,800 yr ago and to altitudes as high as 910 m. Although xerophytic conifer woodland was widespread in current desert habitats during the Late Wisconsin and early Holocene, the development of extensive desert vegetation was not delayed until the beginning of the middle Holocene. A regional vegetation mosaic of desert scrub and woodland existed at altitudes below 1000 m in the Mojave Desert during the last part of the Late Wisconsin.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , March 1983 , pp. 256 - 264
Copyright
University of Washington

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