MAMMALIAN CAVE FAUNA FROM THE LATE PLEISTOCENE OF THE WESTERN OZARK PLATEAU, OKLAHOMA

• Main Author: De Smet, Jessica
• Other Authors: Cifelli, Richard, Westrop, Steven, Czaplewsk, Nicholas
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: mammals; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11244/299875

The Ozarks are a highland system riddled with caves across multiple states within the South-Central United States. During the late Pleistocene retreat of the North American Laurentide ice sheet, habitat and species composition of this region was indicative of a more temperate climate. Many studies have ascertained a strong boreal influence on late Pleistocene mammalian faunas in the central Ozarks, but less is known of this period in the highland region of Eastern Oklahoma. This study focuses on a site designated as AD-14 located within the Duncan Field Cave Complex of Adair County, Oklahoma which straddles the border of Oklahoma and Missouri and represents the westernmost edge of the Ozark Plateau. Material was collected from muddy deposits in the cave floor where bones were visibly accumulated as a lag deposit. Preliminary dating yielded a conventional radiocarbon age of 12,304± 50 years for this site. Further radiocarbon analysis is needed to determine if this is a temporally mixed or contemporaneous deposit. Here, we introduce the mammalian fauna found in this late Pleistocene accumulation, which is dominated by small mammalian remains. As the Duncan Cave Complex is currently regarded one of the most biologically rich cave an analysis of species has indicated key differences between current and late Pleistocene environments. Extralocal taxa such as bog lemmings, star-nosed moles, meadow jumping mice, and southern red-backed voles were all cohabiting the Ozark Highland ecoregion during this time, indicative of a cooler climate than modern day and giving insight into future species reactions to anthropogenic climate change.