Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-14T00:49:17.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mastodon herbivory in mid-latitude late-Pleistocene boreal forests of eastern North America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2012

Chelsea L. Teale  and
Norton G. Miller
Chelsea L. Teale*
Affiliation:
Biological Survey, Research and Collections, New York State Museum, Albany, NY 12230-0001, USA Department of Geography, 302 Walker Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16801, USA
Norton G. Miller
Affiliation:
Biological Survey, Research and Collections, New York State Museum, Albany, NY 12230-0001, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author at: Biological Survey, Research and Collections, New York State Museum, Albany, NY 12230-0001, USA. Email Address:cteale@mail.nysed.gov
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Skeletal remains of the extinct American mastodon have often been found with deposits of short, decorticated twigs intermixed with plant fragments presumed to be gastrointestinal or fecal material. If such deposits are digesta, paleobotanical evidence may be used to analyze mastodon foraging strategy, with implications for assessing habitat selection, ecological roles, and response to environmental change. To identify components of mastodon diet in mid-latitude late-Pleistocene boreall forests of eastern North America, plant macrofossils and pollen from a molar socket (Hyde Park site, New York) were compared with dispersed deposits associated with skeletal remains (Hiscock and Chemung sites, New York). Similar macrofossil condition and twig morphology among samples, but difference from a modern boreal fen analog, confirmed the deposits were digesta. Comparison of twigs with material from other paleontological sites and modern elephants suggested dimensions generally indicative of digesta. Picea formed the bulk of each sample but Pinus may have been locally important. Wintertime browsing of Salix and Populus, and springtime consumption of Alnus, were indicated. Evidence for Cyperaceae, Gramineae, and Compositae was ambiguous. If conifers, broadleaf trees, shrubs, and herbs were necessary to fulfill dietary requirements, mastodons would have been nutritionally stressed by rapid late-Pleistocene decrease in vegetational diversity.

Keywords

Mastodon herbivoryPleistocene megafaunal extinctionYounger Dryas chronozoneVegetation historyTaphonomyAlnusHiscock SiteChemung SiteHyde Park mastodonNortheastern United States
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , July 2012 , pp. 72 - 81
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allmon, W.D., and Nester, P.L. Mastodon paleobiology, taphonomy, and paleoenvironment in the late Pleistocene of New York state: studies of the Hyde Park, Chemung, and North Java Sites. Palaeontographica Americana 61, (2008). Google Scholar
Babin, J.-S., Fortin, D., Wilmshurst, J.F., and Fortin, M.-E. Energy gains predict the distribution of plains bison across populations and ecosystems. Ecology 92, (2011). 240–252.Google Scholar
Barnosky, A.D., Koch, P.L., Feranec, R.S., Wing, S.L., and Shabel, A.B. Assessing the causes of late Pleistocene extinctions on the continents. Science 306, (2004). 70–75.Google Scholar
Bishop, S.C. The Temple Hill (Orange County, N.Y.) mastodon. Science 54, (1921). 170 Google Scholar
Bryant, J.P., and Kuropat, P.J. Selection of winter forage by subarctic browsing vertebrates: the role of plant chemistry. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11, (1980). 261–285.Google Scholar
Davis, M.B. Holocene vegetation history of the eastern United States. Wright, H.E. Jr. Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States. The Holocene vol. 2, (1983). University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 166–181.Google Scholar
Davis, O.K. Editorial: feces in the geologic record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 237, (2006). 1–3.Google Scholar
Dreimanis, A. Mastodons, their geologic age and extinction in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 4, (1967). 663–675.Google Scholar
Fægri, K., and Iversen, J. Textbook of Pollen Analysis. 3rd Edition (1975). Scandinavian University Books, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Fisher, D.C. Taphonomy and paleobiology of the Hyde Park mastodon. Allmon, W.D., and Nester, P.L. Mastodon Paleobiology, Taphonomy, and Paleoenvironment in the Late Pleistocene of New York State: Studies of the Hyde Park, Chemung, and North Java Sites. Palaeontographica Americana 61, (2008). 197–289.Google Scholar
Fisher, D.C., and Fox, D.L. Season of death and terminal growth histories of Hiscock mastodons. Laub, R.S. The Hiscock Site: Late Pleistocene and Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of Western New York State. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 37, (2003). 83–101.Google Scholar
Furlow, J.J. Betulaceae. Flora of North America Editorial Committee, Flora of North American North of Mexico vol. 3, (1997). Oxford University Press, New York. 507–516.Google Scholar
Gobetz, K.E., and Bozarth, S.R. Implications for late Pleistocene mastodon diet from opal phytoliths in tooth calculus. Quaternary Research 55, (2001). 115–122.Google Scholar
Graham, R.W., Lundelius, E.L. Jr. Coevolutionary disequilibrium and Pleistocene extinctions. Martin, P.S., and Klein, R.G. Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. (1984). The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 223–249.Google Scholar
Green, J.L., Semprebon, G.M., and Solounias, N. Reconstructing the palaeodiet of Florida Mammut americanum via low-magnification stereomicroscopy. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 223, (2005). 34–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griggs, C.B., and Kromer, B. Wood macrofossils and dendrochronology of three mastodon sites in upstate New York. Allmon, W.D., and Nester, P.L. Mastodon Paleobiology, Taphonomy, and Paleoenvironment in the Late Pleistocene of New York State: Studies of the Hyde Park, Chemung, and North Java Sites. Palaeontographica Americana 61, (2008). 49–61.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R.D. Mosaics, allelochemics and nutrients. Martin, P.S., and Klein, R.G. Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. (1984). The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 259–298.Google Scholar
Hartnagel, C.A., and Bishop, S.C. The mastodons, mammoths and other Pleistocene mammals of New York state — being a descriptive record of all known occurrences. New York State Museum Bulletin 241–242, (1922). University of the State of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Hoppe, K.A., and Koch, P.L. Reconstructing the migration patterns of late Pleistocene mammals from northern Florida, USA. Quaternary Research 68, (2007). 347–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C.N. Ecological consequences of Late Quaternary extinctions of megafauna. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276, (2009). 2509–2519.Google Scholar
Kapp, R.O. Late-glacial pollen and macrofossils associated with the Rappuhn mastodont (Lapeer County, Michigan). The American Midland Naturalist 116, (1986). 368–377.Google Scholar
King, J.E., and Saunders, J.J. Environmental insularity and the extinction of the American mastodont. Martin, P.S., and Klein, R.G. Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. (1984). The University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 315–339.Google Scholar
Koch, P.L. The isotopic ecology of Pleistocene proboscideans. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 11, (1991). 40A Google Scholar
Koch, P.L., Hoppe, K.A., and Webb, S.D. The isotopic ecology of late Pleistocene mammals in North America. Part 1. Florida. Chemical Geology 152, (1998). 119–138.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B., and Anderson, E. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. (1980). Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Laub, R.S. The Hiscock Site: Late Pleistocene and Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of Western New York State. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 37, (2003). Google Scholar
Laub, R.S. The Pleistocene fauna of the Hiscock Site. Laub, R.S. The Hiscock Site: Late Pleistocene and Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of Western New York State. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 37, (2003). 69–82.Google Scholar
Laub, R.S., Miller, N.G., and Steadman, D.W. Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Paleoecology and Archeology of the Eastern Great Lakes Region. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 33, (1988). Google Scholar
Laub, R.S., Dufort, C.A., and Christensen, D.J. Possible mastodon gastrointestinal and fecal contents from the late Pleistocene of the Hiscock Site, western New York State. Landing, E. Studies in Stratigraphy and Paleontology in Honor of Donald W. Fisher. New York State Museum Bulletin 481, (1994). 135–148.Google Scholar
Lepper, B.T., Frolking, T.A., Fisher, D.C., Goldstein, G., Sanger, J.E., Wymer, D.A., Ogden, J.G. III, and Hooge, P.E. Intestinal contents of a late Pleistocene mastodont from midcontinental North America. Quaternary Research 36, (1991). 120–125.Google Scholar
Mayle, F.E., Levesque, A.J., and Cwynar, L.C. Alnus as an indicator taxon of the Younger Dryas cooling in eastern North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 12, (1993). 295–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAndrews, J.H. Postglacial ecology of the Hiscock Site. Laub, R.S. The Hiscock Site: Late Pleistocene and Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of Western New York State. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 37, (2003). 190–198.Google Scholar
McAndrews, J.H., Berti, A.A., and Norris, G. Key to Quaternary Pollen and Spores of the Great Lakes Region. (1973). Royal Ontario Museum Life Sciences Miscellaneous Publication, Google Scholar
Mead, J.I., Haynes, C.V., and Huckell, B.B. A late Pleistocene mastodon (Mammut americanum) from the Lehner Site, southeastern Arizona. The Southwestern Naturalist 24, (1979). 231–238.Google Scholar
Mihlbachler, M.C. Mastodon and digesta from Little River, North Florida. Current Research in the Pleistocene 15, (1998). 116–118.Google Scholar
Miller, W.E. Mammut americanum, Utah's first record of the American mastodon. Journal of Paleontology 61, (1987). 168–183.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G. The late Quaternary Hiscock Site, Genesee County, New York: paleoecological studies based on pollen and plant macrofossils. Laub, R.S., Miller, N.G., and Steadman, D.W. Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Paleoecology and Archeology of the Eastern Great Lakes Region. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 33, (1988). 83–93.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G. Contemporary and prior environments of the Hyde Park, New York, mastodon on the basis of associated plant macrofossils. Allmon, W.D., and Nester, P.L. Mastodon Paleobiology, Taphonomy, and Paleoenvironment in the Late Pleistocene of New York State: Studies of the Hyde Park, Chemung, and North Java Sites. Palaeontographica Americana 61, (2008). 151–181.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G., and Futyma, R.P. Extending the paleobotanical record at the Hiscock Site, New York: correlations among stratigraphic pollen assemblages from nearby lake and wetland basins. Laub, R.S. The Hiscock Site: Late Pleistocene and Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of Western New York State. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 37, (2003). 43–62.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G., and Nester, P.L. Paleoecology of a late Pleistocene wetland and associated mastodon remains in the Hudson Valley, southeastern New York State. Greb, S.F., DiMichele, W.A. Wetlands through Time: Geological Society of America Special Paper 399, (2006). 291–304.Google Scholar
Newsom, L.A., and Mihlbachler, M.C. Mastodons (Mammut americanum) diet foraging patterns based on analysis of dung deposits. Webb, S.D. First Floridians and Last Mastodons: The Page–Ladson Site in the Aucilla River. Topics in Geobiology 26, (2006). 263–331.Google Scholar
Oltz, D.F., and Kapp, R.O. Plant remains associated with mastodon and mammoth remains in central Michigan. The American Midland Naturalist 70, (1963). 339–346.Google Scholar
Overpeck, J.T. A pollen study of a late Quaternary peat bog, south-central Adirondack Mountains, New York. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 96, (1985). 145–154.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overpeck, J.T., Webb, R.S., Webb, T. III Mapping eastern North American vegetation change over the past 18,000 years: no analogs and the future. Geology 20, (1992). 1071–1074.Google Scholar
Owen-Smith, N. Pleistocene extinctions: the pivotal role of megaherbivores. Paleobiology 13, (1987). 351–362.Google Scholar
Petersen, K.L., Mehringer, P.J. Jr., and Gustafson, C.E. Late-glacial vegetation and climate at the Manis mastodon site, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. Quaternary Research 20, (1983). 215–231.Google Scholar
Ponomarenko, E., and Telka, A. Geochemical evidence of a salt lick at the Hiscock Site. Laub, R.S. The Hiscock Site: Late Pleistocene and Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology of Western New York State. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 37, (2003). 199–211.Google Scholar
Richard, P., (1970). Atlas pollinique des arbres et de quelques arbustes indigénes du Quebec I. Introduction générale. II. Gymnospermes. Le Naturaliste Canadien, 97: 1–34; —III. Angiospermes (Salicacées, Myriacées, Juglandacées, Corylacées, Ulmacées). Ibid. 97, 97–161; —IV. Angiospermes (Rosacées, Anacardiacées, Acéracées, Rhamnacées, Tiliacées, Cornacées, Oléacées, Caprifoliacées). Ibid. 97, 241–306.Google Scholar
Saunders, J.J. North American Mammutidae. Shoshani, J., and Tassy, P. The Proboscidea: Evolution and Palaeoecology of Elephants and Their Relatives. (1996). Oxford University Press, Oxford. 271–279.Google Scholar
Saunders, J.J., Grimm, E.C., Widga, C.C., Campbell, G.D., Curry, B.B., Grimley, D.A., Hanson, P.R., McCullum, J.P., Oliver, J.S., and Treworgy, J.D. Paradigms and proboscideans in the southern Great Lakes region, USA. Quaternary International 217, (2010). 175–187.Google Scholar
Shuman, B., Webb, T. III, Bartlein, P., and Williams, J.W. The anatomy of a climatic oscillation: vegetation change in eastern North America during the Younger Dryas chronozone. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, (2002). 2194–2206.Google Scholar
Stodder, C. (From the minutes of the June 24, 1874 meeting). Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History 17, (1875). 91–92.Google Scholar
Thompson, L.M., McIntosh, G.C., and Allmon, W.D. Discoveries of the American mastodon (Mammut americanum) in New York state: 1922–2007. Allmon, W.D., and Nester, P.L. Mastodon Paleobiology, Taphonomy, and Paleoenvironment in the Late Pleistocene of New York State: Studies of the Hyde Park, Chemung, and North Java Sites. Palaeontographica Americana 61, (2008). 25–41.Google Scholar
Warren, J.C. The Mastodon giganteus of North America. (1855). John Wilson and Son, Boston.Google Scholar
Webb, S.D., Dunbar, J., and Newsom, L. Mastodon digesta from North Florida. Current Research in the Pleistocene 9, (1992). 114–116.Google Scholar
Whitehead, D.R., Jackson, S.T., Sheehan, M.C., and Leyden, B.W. Late-glacial vegetation associated with caribou and mastodon in central Indiana. Quaternary Research 17, (1982). 241–257.Google Scholar
Williams, J.W., Shuman, B.N., Webb, T. III, Bartlein, P.J., and LeDuc, P.L. Late-Quaternary vegetation dynamics in North America: scaling from taxa to biomes. Ecological Monographs 74, (2004). 309–334.Google Scholar