ORI GIN AL PA PER Would North American Paleoindians have Noticed Younger Dryas Age Climate Changes?

• Main Authors: Abstract Paleoindian, North America, Younger Dryas, D. J. Meltzer, V. T. Holliday
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Greenland; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.695.7699; http://www.argonaut.arizona.edu/articles/2011_Update/Meltzer_Holliday2010_JWP.pdf

Chronozone. It is often assumed that cooling temperatures during this interval, and the impact these would have had on biotic communities, posed significant adaptive challenges to those groups. That assessment of the nature, severity and abruptness of Younger Dryas changes is largely based on ice core records from the Greenland ice sheet where changes were indeed dramatic. This paper reviews climatic and environmental records from this time period in continental North America. We conclude that, on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountains, conditions were in reality less extreme. It therefore follows that con-ditions during the Younger Dryas interval may not have measurably added to the challenge routinely faced by Paleoindian groups who, during this interval, successfully (and perhaps rapidly) dispersed across the diverse habitats of Late Glacial North America.