Aboriginal overkill in the intermountain west of North America

Zooarchaeological evidence has often been called on to help researchers determine prehistoric relative abundances of elk (Cervus elaphus) in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Some interpret that evidence as indicating elk were abundant; others interpret it as indicating elk were rare. Wildlife biologist Charles Kay argues that prehistoric faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites support his contention that aboriginal hunters depleted elk populations throughout the Intermountain West, including the Yellowstone area. To support his contention Kay cites differences between modern and prehistoric relative abundances of artiodactyls, age and sex demographics of ungulates in the prehistoric record indicating selective predation of prime-age females, and a high degree of fragmentation of artiodactyl bones indicating humans were under nutritional stress. Kay’s data on taxonomic abundances are time and space averaged and thus mask much variation in elk abundances. When these data are not lumped they suggest that elk were at some times, in some places, as abundant as they are today. Data on the age-sex demography of artiodactyl prey are ambiguous or contradict Kay’s predictions. Bone fragmentation data are variously nonexistent or ambiguous. The zooarchaeological implications of Kay’s aboriginal overkill hypothesis have not yet undergone rigorous testing. Insightful comments of two anonymous reviewers helped improve this paper. Lyman earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Washington in 1982. His research interests include the cultural and natural history of the Pacific northwestern United States. He is presently a professor in, and chair of, the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri-Columbia.     

Reproductive Adaptations to Breeding in the North

The paper discusses how birds by changing their responses tothe critical daylength can adjust the time for the initiationof the gonadal growth to more northern latitudes. Some remarksare also given on how changes in an individual's sensitivitytowards non-photoperiodic factors, such as, for example thetemperature, play an important role in adapting the gonadalgrowth rate to the flexibility of the local environment. Specialattention has been given studies on swans and great tits.     

Holocene Man in North America: The Ecological Setting and Climatic Background

Abstract

Patterns of human occupation and vegetation are delineated on maps of North America for one thousand year intervals through the Holocene. The raw data for this review include radiocarbon-dated pollen cores and archaeological information and treering records. Dynamic changes in the Laurentide Ice limits and major ecotones are observed through the middle Holocene, when both features reach essentially post-glacial stability. Significant changes in the vegetation boundaries continue to the present, but the scale of change is much diminished.

Early Holocene occupation apparently expanded from Alaska south to California, then east, parallel to the southern boundary of the grasslands, to the Mississippi River and northeastward to the east coast. The absence of occpuation in late-Atlantic time is noted through much of the Great Plains and continued until about 4,000 BP. Within the next millennium, evidence of human occupation virtually covered the United States (except for the northwest) and much of coastal Canada.

Environmental conditions and occupation over North America are reviewed within the framework of Holocene climatic episodes.     

Ecological Adaptations of Mandibular Form in Fissiped Carnivora

Among mammals, Carnivora presents an ideal group for investigating the complex interplay between functional adaptation and phylogenetic history. Here we explore mandibular form and its relationship to ecology and phylogeny using geometric morphometrics applied to mandibles of extant Carnivora. Both mandibular size and shape discriminate carnivoran ecological adaptations (diet, membership to small or large predatory guilds), but the interplay of morphology with phylogenetic history is profound. In general, families do not overlap in mandible shape; however, Viverridae, Herpestidae, Canidae, and Mustelidae exhibit functional and morphological convergence. Mandibular allometric trajectories are distinct among families and ecological categories. Our findings suggest that variability in mandibular form among Carnivora is primarily influenced by major evolutionary changes occurring at the family level and less, but significantly so, by ecological adaptations. Small generalist feeders (insectivores, omnivores) exhibit stronger convergence in mandibular shape than highly specialized predators; bigger taxa, such as bears, evolved unique morphologies constrained by allometric scaling. Thus, the findings of this study serve to demonstrate how ecological factors mold anatomical structures in similar ways to serve similar functions. As such, carnivoran species can be usefully grouped into functional ‘guilds’ in eco-morphological studies irrespective of their phylogenetic history.     

Herbivory in Crabs: Adaptations and Ecological Considerations

Plant material is the major source of nutrition for many speciesof crabs in both marine and terrestrial habitats. Physical andchemical characteristics of plants can lead to difficultiesin harvesting and ingestion, to low digestability, unpalatabilityand toxicity, and to deficiencies in specific nutrients, especiallynitrogen, vitamins and fatty acids. We describe the range ofherbivory in crabs, as well as the anatomical, physiologicaland behavioral adaptations that enhance nutrient acquisitionfrom plant material. We assess the impact of herbivory by crabson plant communities, and highlight topics for further research.     

Archaeoparasitology in North America

The study of prehistoric parasitism through analysis of coprolites, mummies, skeletons, and latrine soils is rapidly growing. Its development in North America is interdisciplinary and is derived from the fields of physical anthropology, parasitology, and archaeology. The various parasite finds from North America are reviewed. The data show that prehistoric peoples in North America suffered from a variety of parasitic diseases. The validity of the findings are then considered. Although most finds of parasites from prehistoric contexts result from human infections, some finds cannot be verified as such. However, in combination with data from South America, it is clear that prehistoric peoples in the Americas were host to a variety of human parasites, some of which were not previously thought to be present before historic times.     

Cord-Roughened Pottery in North Central North America

Abstract

Basic data are offered on 2 pottery bearing localities in the Souris Basin, North Dakota. Additional data from adjacent areas are introduced to support the assertion that there was a relatively heavy occupation of the Northern Plains by a number of closely related groups which manufactured only slightly differentiated cordroughened pottery. The presence of this pottery reveals that the Woodland occupation of the Northern Plains was far more intensive and extensive than might be suspected from the extant literature.     

Festuca auriculata in North America

Festuca auriculata Drob., published by Alexeev from one place in Alaska and besides known from the Arctic part of Asia, is shown to occur in several localities in Alaska and the north–western part of Yukon, Canada.     

Ecological comparisons between Eastern Asia and North America: historical and geographical perspectives

The close floristic affinities between eastern Asia and North America have long been recognized and intensively studied, however, the ecological and biogeographical consequences of such a floristic relationship between these two remotely separated regions has been largely neglected until recently. Quantitative investigations of such relationships could greatly improve our understanding of many global and historical aspects of species diversity, vegetation dynamics, and biogeography, especially with the rapid developments of cladistic methods of phylogenetic reconstruction. All comparisons and predictions will depend on understanding past and present physical and biological processes (i.e. geological history of the continents and the evolutionary history of organisms), as well as human impacts in both regions. Both species level (life history characteristics, distribution, ecological functions) and community level (species composition, structure, endemism) variables should be investigated. Comparisons should be conducted spatially across vegetation zones and temporally through geological episodes. Emphases on the phylogeny and geological history of component taxa by analysing and synthesizing multidisciplinary data would be helpful, especially with regard to the current trends in global climate change. Diversity measured on different scales (i.e. α-, β, and g-diversity) could provide invaluable information about local-regional relationships and their ecological implications in continental or even global biodiversity patterns.     

Teparies in southwestern North America

Ethnohistorically, wild and domesticated teparies (Phaseolus acutifolius: Leguminosae) are significant native food crops in southwestern North America. Their value rests in adaptations to arid environments, and high protein content and productivity. Use of wild teparies appears to be discontinued, but certain domesticated varieties are still grown by local commercial and subsistence farmers. The recent subsidence of tepary cultivation is related to breakdown of traditional economies and land use, and to the introduction of energy-intensive irrigated agriculture. An earlier and unsuccessful attempt to introduce teparies into modern agriculture was poorly timed. Teparies have considerable potential for low maintenance agriculture in arid and semi-arid lands.     

Ecological niche modeling as a predictive tool: silver and bighead carps in North America

The silver carp and bighead carp (Cyprinidae), native to eastern Asia, have been introduced into the United States in attempts to improve water quality in aquaculture ponds, reservoirs, and sewage pools. Escaped or released specimens from fish farms have been reported in many states, and both species are already locally established and spreading further. We used the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction (GARP) to model the niches of these two carps in their native ranges using hydrologic and general environmental parameters in concert with native distributional data. The results accurately predicted native occurrence data withheld from the modeling process (P < 0.01). We then projected the niche models onto the North American landscape. Native niche range models significantly predicted known occurrence data from North American introductions (P < 0.001). Further, the models suggest that both species have the potential of spreading throughout the eastern U.S. and selected areas of the West Coast.     

Toward an Ecological Model of African Plio-Pleistocene Hominid Adaptations

What was the environmental complex in which the Plio-Pleistocene hominids were evolving? What situations selected f o r increasing variation in hominid morphology? A n ap-preciation of ecological dynamics is important to develop answers to those questions. The circumstances that accompany periodically more severe semiarid successions appear to have promoted a shqt in early australopithecine morphology toward hyper-robust forms. Successional dynamics (including ameliorated conditions) may have resulted in repeated sympat y of potentially competing lines. Through the process of character divergence, some earliergracile populations appear to have emerged more Homo-like by the end of the Pliocene. Palaeodemographic analysis combined with detailed ecological modeling offers new possibilities f o r explorato y retrodictions concerned with common and divergent hominid adaptations. [australopithecines. palaeoecology, early Homo]