Chironomid (midge) remains analyzed from an 8.95-m-long sediment core from Marion Lake reveal successional changes over the last 12,000 yr since deglaciation. A late-glacial Heterotrissocladius-dominated association characterizes the earliest sediments. Succeeding this community, at the onset of the Holocene, is a Tanytarsini-dominated assemblage. The transition between these communities occurs during a time of rapid climatic amelioration, preceding an early Holocene xerothermic interval. The late-glacial fossil fauna is suggestive of more northerly affinities. Similar sequences have been reported in late-glacial lake sediments elsewhere in North America and in Europe. The composite picture of these chironomid assemblages suggests the gradual retreat of a formerly widely distributed, cold stenothermous fauna. The response of the chironomid community accords well with paleoclimatic inferences based on pollen data at the lake. Subsequent postglacial changes are less pronounced and most are probably attributable to the gradual shallowing of the basin. Chironomid remains from shallow, weakly stratified lakes may yield valuable paleoclimatological data.

Sediment, pollen, and plant macrofossil stratigraphies from two small oligotrophic Chamaedaphne-Sphagnum peatlands provide data about local hydrologic changes in northern Michigan during the Holocene. Gleason Bog started about 8000 yr B.P. as a shallow pond that supported rich fen vegetation. After it was partly filled with peat and sand (about 4000 yr B.P.), the vegetation changed to oligotrophic bog. At Gates Bog paludification starting about 3800 yr B.P. caused peat accumulation over sand without an initial pond phase. The onset of peat accumulation at both sites is attributed to a rise in the water table resulting from the onset of cool and moist late Holocene climates. The water table of Gleason Bog is linked to the water level of adjacent Douglas Lake, which may have undergone a simultaneous rise. The results emphasize the individuality of hydrological conditions and hydroseral development in northern Michigan peatlands.

Detailed study of gastropods recovered from the Lake Theo Site, Briscoe County, Texas, has revealed a progressive decline in species diversity from early Holocene to the present. Knowledge of the microhabitats preferred by the recovered species allows a partial reconstruction of environments required to produce such communities. Since the early Holocene, the Lake Theo area has experienced a progressive loss of deciduous riparian gallery woodland habitat. Alteration in plant communities was caused by a dramatic decrease in effective precipitation. Analysis of the sequence of local extirpation of the various snail species indicates that the decrease in precipitation and increase in temperature probably were not concurrent.

The extinct Harrington's mountain goat (Oreamnos harringtoni Stock) is predominantly known from dry cave localities in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, in addition to two sites in the Great Basin, Nevada, and from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. A dry shelter in Natural Bridges National Monument, on the central Colorado Plateau, southeastern Utah, preserves numerous remains of the extinct mountain goat in addition to pack rat middens. Remains from a 100-cm stratigraphic profile indicate that O. harringtoni lived on the plateau >39,800 yr B.P., the oldest directly dated find of extinct mountain goat. Plant macrofossils indicate that Engelmann's spruce (Picea engelmannii), limber pine (Pinus flexilis), rose (Rosa cf. woodsii), and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) grew during the late Pleistocene where a riparian and a pinyon-juniper (Pinus edulis-Juniperus osteosperma) community now predominates; Douglas fir are found only in mesic, protected, north-facing areas. Limber pine, Douglas fir, bark, and grasses were the major dietary components in the dung. A springtime diet of birch (Betula) is determined from pollen clumps in dung pellets.