Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-20T17:11:57.921Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Isotope Dating of Pleistocene Dung Deposits From the Colorado Plateau, Arizona and Utah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Jim I. Mead  and
Larry D. Agenbroad
Larry D. Agenbroad
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Quaternary Studies Program, Box 6030, Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, Arizona 86011 USA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Identified dung and keratinous remains of large mammals are considered the most reliable materials to 14C date, when the initial question includes the application of the date to the time of local extirpation and extinction. The Colorado Plateau provides a unique preservation habitat (desiccation), found in greater abundance of deposits than anywhere else in North America. We review 20 localities from the Colorado Plateau that contain dung of megaherbivores. Seven species of herbivores were identified utilizing dung: Bison (bison), Equus (horse), “Euceratherium“ (shrubox), Mammuthus (mammoth), Nothrotheriops (ground sloth), Oreamnos (mountain goat) and Ovis (bighorn), and 79 14C dates were measured from the sites. Most sites contain additional associated 14C and U/Th dates on skeletal and botanical remains.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , 1992 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Agenbroad, L. D. and Mead, J. I. 1987 Late Pleistocene alluvium and megafauna dung deposits of the central Colorado Plateau. In Davis, G. and VandenDolder, E., eds., Geologic diversity of Arizona and its margins: excursions to choice areas. Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology Special Paper 5: 68–85.Google Scholar
Agenbroad, L. D. and Mead, J. I. 1989 Quaternary geochronology and distribution of Mammuthus on the Colorado Plateau. Geology 17: 861–864.Google Scholar
Agenbroad, L. D., Mead, J. I., Mead, E. M. and Elder, D. 1989 Archaeology, alluvium, and cave stratigraphy: the record from Bechan Cave, Utah. The Kiva 4: 335–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cole, K. L. (ms.) 1981 Late Quaternary environments in the eastern Grand Canyon: Vegetational gradients over the last 25,000 years. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Cole, K. L. (ms.) 1982 Late Quaternary zonation of vegetation in the Grand Canyon. Science 217: 1142–1145.Google Scholar
Cole, K. L. (ms.) 1990 Late Quaternary vegetation gradients through the Grand Canyon. In Betancourt, J. L., Van Devender, T. R. and Martin, P. S., eds., Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change. Tucson, The University of Arizona Press: 240–256.Google Scholar
Cole, K. L. and Mead, J. I. 1981 Late Quaternary animal remains from packrat middens in the eastern Grand Canyon, Arizona. Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science 16: 24–25.Google Scholar
Davis, O. K., Agenbroad, L. D., Martin, P. S. and Mead, J. I. 1984 The Pleistocene dung blanket of Bechan Cave, Utah. In Genoways, H. H. and Dawson, M. R., eds., Contributions in Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology: A Volume in Memorial to John E. Guilday. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication 8: 267–282.Google Scholar
Davis, O. K., Mead, J. I., Martin, P. S. and Agenbroad, L. D. 1985 Riparian plants were a major component of the diet of mammoths of southern Utah. Current Research in the Pleistocene 2: 81–82.Google Scholar
Emslie, S. D. 1987 Age and diet of fossil California condors in Grand Canyon, Arizona. Science 237: 768–770.Google Scholar
Davis, O. K., Mead, J. I., Martin, P. S. and Agenbroad, L. D. 1988 Vertebrate paleontology and taphonomy of caves in Grand Canyon, Arizona. National Geographic Research 4: 128–142.Google Scholar
Euler, R. C. 1984 The archaeology, geology, and paleobiology of Stanton's Cave. Grand Canyon Natural History Association Monograph 6: 141 p.Google Scholar
Grayson, D. K. 1989 The chronology of North American late Pleistocene extinctions. Journal of Archaeological Science 16: 153–165.Google Scholar
Grayson, D. K. 1991 Late Pleistocene mammalian extinctions in North America: taxonomy, chronology, and explanations. Journal of World Prehistory 5: 193–231.Google Scholar
Hansen, R. M. 1978 Shasta ground sloth food habits, Rampart Cave, Arizona. Paleobiology 4: 302–319.Google Scholar
Hansen, R. M. 1980 Late Pleistocene plant fragments in the dungs of herbivores at Cowboy Cave. In Jennings, J. D., ed., Cowboy Cave. University of Utah, Anthropological Papers 104: 179–189.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V., Damon, P. E. and Grey, D. C. 1966 Arizona radiocarbon dates VI. Radiocarbon 8: 1–21.Google Scholar
Jennings, J. D., ed. 1980 Cowboy Cave. University of Utah, Anthropological Papers 104: 224 p.Google Scholar
Laudermilk, J. D. and Munz, P. A. 1938 Plants in the dung of Nothrotherium from Rampart and Muav caves, Arizona. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication 487: 271–281.Google Scholar
Long, A., Hansen, R. M. and Martin, P. S. 1974 Extinction of the Shasta ground sloth. Geological Society of America Bulletin 85: 1843–1848.Google Scholar
Long, A. and Martin, P. S. 1974 Death of American ground sloths. Science 186: 638–640.Google Scholar
Lull, R. S. 1930 The ground sloth, Nothrotherium. American Journal of Science 20: 344–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P. S. 1987 Late Quaternary extinctions: the promise of TAMS 14C dating. Nuclear Instruments and Methods B29: 179–186.Google Scholar
Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G. 1984 Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson, The University of Arizona Press. 892 p.Google Scholar
Martin, P. S., Sabels, B. E. and Shutler, D. 1961 Rampart Cave coprolite and ecology of the Shasta ground sloth. American Journal of Science 259: 102–127.Google Scholar
Martin, P. S. and Sharrock, F. W. 1964 Pollen analysis of prehistoric human feces: a new approach to ethnobotany. American Antiquity 30: 168–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P. S., Thompson, R. S. and Long, A. 1985 Shasta ground sloth extinction: a test of the blitzkrieg model. In Mead, J. I. and Meltzer, D. J. eds., Environments and Extinctions: Man in Late Glacial North America. Orono, University of Maine. 5–14.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I. (ms.) 1983 Harrington's extinct mountain goat (Oreamnos harringtoni) and its environment in the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I. and Agenbroad, L. D. 1989 Pleistocene dung and the extinct herbivores of the Colorado Plateau, southwestern USA. Cranium 6: 29–44.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., Agenbroad, L. D., Davis, O. K. and Martin, P. S. 1986a Dung of Mammuthus in the arid Southwest, North America. Quaternary Research 25: 121–127.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., Agenbroad, L. D., Martin, P. S. and Davis, O. K. 1984 The mammoth and sloth dung from Bechan Cave in southern Utah. Current Research in the Pleistocene 1: 79–80.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., Agenbroad, L. D., Phillips, A. M. and Middleton, L. T. 1987 Extinct mountain goat (Oreamnos harringtoni) in southeastern Utah. Quaternary Research 27: 323–331.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., Martin, P. S., Euler, R. C., Long, A., Jull, A. J. T., Toolin, L. J., Donahue, D.J. and Linick, T. W. 1986b Extinction of Harrington's mountain goat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 83: 836–839.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I. and Meltzer, D. J. 1984 North American late Quaternary extinctions and the radiocarbon record. In Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G., eds., Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson, The University of Arizona Press: 440–450.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., Meltzer, D. J., Vogel, J. C. and Lawler, M. C. 1991 Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of late Pleistocene Ovis and Oreamnos from the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Abstract. Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science, Supplement : 28 p.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., O'Rourke, M. K. and Foppe, T. M. 1986 Dung and diet of the extinct Harrington's mountain goat (Oreamnos harringtoni). Journal of Mammalogy 67: 284–293.Google Scholar
Mead, J. I., Sharpe, S. E. and Agenbroad, L. D. 1991 Holocene bison from Arches National Park, southeastern Utah. The Great Basin Naturalist 51: 336–342.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D. J. and Mead, J. I. 1985 Dating late Pleistocene extinctions: theoretical issues, analytical bias, and substantive results. In Mead, J. I. and Meltzer, D. J., eds., Environments and Extinctions: Man in Late Glacial North America. Orono, University of Maine: 145–173.Google Scholar
O'Rourke, M. K. and Mead, J. I. 1985 Late Pleistocene and Holocene pollen records from two caves in the Grand Canyon. In Fall, P., Jacobs, B. and Davis, O. K., eds., American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists 16: 169–186.Google Scholar
Phillips, A. M. (ms.) 1977 Packrats, plants and the Pleistocene in the lower Grand Canyon. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Arizona.Google Scholar
Phillips, A. M. (ms.) 1984 Shasta ground sloth extinction. In Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G., eds., Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson, The University of Arizona Press: 148–158.Google Scholar
Phillips, A. M. and Van Devender, T. R. 1974 Pleistocene packrat middens from the lower Grand Canyon of Arizona. Journal of the Arizona Academy of Science 9: 117–119.Google Scholar
Robbins, E. I., Martin, P. S. and Long, A. 1984 Paleoecology of Stanton's Cave, Grand Canyon, Arizona. In Euler, R. C., ed., The archaeology, geology, and paleobiology of Stanton's Cave. Grand Canyon Natural History Association 6: 115–130.Google Scholar
Schwartz, D. W., Lange, A. L. and DeSaussure, R. 1958 Split-twig figurines in the Grand Canyon. American Antiquity 23: 264–274.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. S., Van Devender, T. R., Martin, P. S., Foppe, T. and Long, A. 1980 Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastense Hoffstetter) at Shelter Cave, New Mexico: Environment, diet, and extinction. Quaternary Research 14: 360–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Devender, T. R., Phillips, A. M. and Mead, J. I. 1977 Late Pleistocene reptiles and small mammals from the lower Grand Canyon of Arizona. Southwestern Naturalist 22: 49–66.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. W. 1942 Preliminary study of the fauna of Rampart Cave, Arizona. Contributions to Paleontology, Carnegie Institution Publication 530: 169–185.Google Scholar
Withers, K. (ms.) 1989 Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of Forty-Mile Canyon and Willow Gulch, in the central Colorado Plateau. M.S. thesis, Northern Arizona University.Google Scholar
Withers, K. and Mead, J. I. (ms.) Late Quaternary vegetation and climate in the Escalante River Basin, on the central Colorado Plateau. Submitted to Great Basin Naturalist .Google Scholar