Hostname: page-component-7f64f4797f-vhqbp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-04T08:13:02.923Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evidence for geographic variation in the diets of late Pleistocene and early Holocene Bison in North America, and differences from the diets of recent Bison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Florent Rivals ,
Nikos Solounias  and
Matthew C. Mihlbachler
Florent Rivals*
Affiliation:
ICREA-IPHES, Area de Prehistoria-Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Plaça Imperial Tarraco 1, 43005 Tarragona, Spain
Nikos Solounias
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, NY 11568-8000, USA Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA
Matthew C. Mihlbachler
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, NY 11568-8000, USA Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA
*
* Corresponding author. Fax: +34 977 55 95 97. E-mail address:florent.rivals@icrea.es (F. Rivals).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, Bison was widely dispersed across North America and occupied most regions not covered by ice sheets. A dietary study on Bison paleopopulations from Alaska, New Mexico, Florida, and Texas was performed using two methods that relate dental wear patterns to diet, mesowear analysis and microwear analysis. These data were compared to a mixed sample of extant Bison from the North American central plains, extant wood Bison from Alberta (Canada) and a variety of other modern ungulates. Mesowear relates macroscopic molar facet shape to levels of dietary abrasion. The mesowear signature observed on fossil Bison differs significantly from the hyper-abrasive grazing diet of extant Bison. Tooth microwear examines wear on the surface of enamel at a microscopic scale. The microwear signal of fossil samples resembles to modern Bison, but the fossil samples show a greater diversity of features, suggesting that fossil Bison populations regularly consumed food items that are texturally inconsistent with the short-grass diet typical of modern plains Bison. Mesowear and microwear signals of fossil Bison samples most closely resemble a variety of typical mixed feeding ungulates, all with diets that are substantially less abrasive than what is typical for modern plains Bison. Furthermore, statistical tests suggest significant differences between the microwear signatures of the fossil samples, thus revealing geographic variability in Pleistocene Bison diets. This study reveals that fossils are of value in developing an understanding of the dietary breadth and ecological versatility of species that, in recent times, are rare, endangered, and occupy only a small remnant of their former ranges.

Keywords

PaleodietMesowearMicrowearBisonPleistocenePaleoecology

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , November 2007 , pp. 338 - 346
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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Balakrishnan, M., Yapp, C.J., Meltzer, D.J., Theler, J.L.(2005). Paleoenvironment of the Folsom archaeological site, New Mexico, USA, approximately 10,500 14C yr B.P. as inferred from the stable isotope composition of fossil land snail shells.. Quaternary Research 63, 31–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, J., Cunningham, C.(1994). Bison: Mating and conservation in small populations.. Columbia Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, R., Mitchell, F.J.G.(1999). The palaeoecological approach to reconstructing former grazing-vegetation interactions.. Forest Ecology and Management 120, 3–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradshaw, R.H.W., Hannon, G.E., Lister, A.M.(2003). A long-term perspective on ungulate�"vegetation interactions.. Forest Ecology and Management 181, 267–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannon, K.P. (2001). What the past can provide: Contribution of prehistoric bison studies to modern bison management.. Great Plains Research 11, 145–174.Google Scholar
Comes, H.P., Kadereit, J.W.(1998). The effect of Quaternary climatic changes on plant distribution and evolution.. Trends in Plant Science 3, 432–438.Google Scholar
Connin, S.L., Betancourt, J., Quade, J.(1998). Late Pleistocene C4 plant dominance and summer rainfall in the Southwestern United States from isotopic study of herbivore teeth.. Quaternary Research 50, 179–193.Google Scholar
Estes, R.D. (1991). The Behavior Guide to African Mammals.. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Feranec, R.S., MacFadden, B.J.(2000). Evolution of the grazing niche in Pleistocene mammals from Florida: Evidence from stable isotopes.. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 162, 155–169.Google Scholar
Figgins, J.D. (1927). The antiquity of man in America.. Natural History 27, 229–239.Google Scholar
Fortelius, M., Solounias, N.(2000). Functional characterization of ungulate molars using the abrasion-attrition wear gradient: A new method for reconstructing paleodiets.. American Museum Novitates 3301, 1–36.Google Scholar
Franz-Odendaal, T.A., Kaiser, T.M.(2003). Differential mesowear in the maxillary and mandibular cheek dentition of some ruminants (Artiodactyla).. Annales Zoologici Fennici 40, 395–410.Google Scholar
Frison, G.C. (2004). Survival by hunting. Prehistoric human predators and animal prey.. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Godfrey, L.R., Semprebon, G.M., Jungers, W.L., Sutherland, M.R., Simons, E.L., Solounias, N.(2004). Dental use wear in extinct lemurs: Evidence of diet and niche differentiation.. Journal of Human Evolution 47, 145–169.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R.D. (1968). Paleoecology of the large-mammal community in Interior Alaska during the late Pleistocene.. The American Midland Naturalist 79, 346–363.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R.D. (1970). Bison evolution and zoogeography in North America during the Pleistocene.. The Quaterly Review of Biology 45, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guthrie, R.D. (1990). Frozen fauna of the mammoth steppe.. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Hanson, J.R. (1984). Bison ecology in the northern Plains and a reconstruction of bison patterns for the North Dakota region.. Plains Anthropologist 29, 93–113.Google Scholar
Hay, O.P., Cook, H.J.(1930). Fossil vertebrates collected near, or in association with, human artifacts at localities near Colorado, Texas, Frederick, Oklahoma, and Folsom, New Mexico.. Proceedings of the Colorado Museum of Natural History 9, 1–40.Google Scholar
Hofman, J.L., Todd, L.C.(2001). Tyranny in the archaeological record of specialized hunters.. Gerlach, S.C., Murray, M.S. People and wildlife in Northern North America: Essays in honor of R. Dale Guthrie. British Archaeological Reports, International Series vol. 944, Oxford 200–215.Google Scholar
Holliday, V.T. (2000). Folsom drought and episodic drying on the Southern High Plains.. Quaternary Research 53, 1–12.Google Scholar
Irby, L.R., Norland, J.E., Westfall, J.A., Sullivan, M.A.(2002). Evaluation of a forage allocation model for Theodore Roosevelt National Park.. Journal of Environmental Management 64, 153–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, W.G., Sharpe, S.E., Bullard, T.F., Lupo, K.(2005). Characterizing a first occurrence of bison deposits in Southeastern Nevada.. Western North American Naturalist 65, 24–35.Google Scholar
Kaiser, T.M., Fortelius, M.(2003). Differential mesowear in occluding upper and lower molars: Opening mesowear analysis for lower molars and premolars in hypsodont horses.. Journal of Morphology 258, 63–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaiser, T.M., Solounias, N.(2003). Extending the tooth mesowear method to extinct and extant equids.. Geodiversitas 25, 321–345.Google Scholar
Kaiser, T.M., Solounias, N., Fortelius, M., Bernor, R.L., Schrenk, F.(2000). Tooth mesowear analysis on Hippotherium primigenium from the Vallesian Dinotheriensande (Germany)�"A blind test study.. Carolinea 58, 103–114.Google Scholar
Knapp, A.K., Blair, J.M., Briggs, J.M., Collins, S.L., Hartnett, D.C., Johnson, L.C., Towne, E.G.(1999). The keystone role of bison in North American tallgrass prairie.. BioScience 49, 39–50.Google Scholar
Koch, P.L., Hoppe, K.A., Webb, S.D.(1998). The isotopic ecology of late Pleistocene mammals in North America. Part 1. Florida.. Chemical Geology 152, 119–138.Google Scholar
Lott, D.F. (2002). American bison: A natural history.. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
McDonald, J.N. (1981). North American bison: Their classification and evolution.. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
McDonald, J.N., Lammers, G.E.(2002). Bison antiquus from Kenora, Ontario, and notes on the evolution of North America Holocene Bison.. Emry, R.J. Cenozoic mammals of land and sea: Tributes to the career of Clayton E. Ray Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.83–97.Google Scholar
Meagher, M.M. (1978). Bison.. Schmidt, J.L., Gilbert, D.L. Big game of North America: Ecology and management Stackpole Books, Harrisburg.123–133.Google Scholar
Meagher, M. (1986). Bison bison.. Mammalian Species 266, 1–8.Google Scholar
Meltzer, D.J., Todd, L.C., Holliday, V.T.(2002). The Folsom (Paleoindian) type site: Past investigations, current studies.. American Antiquity 67, 5–36.Google Scholar
Merceron, G., Blondel, C., Brunet, M., Sen, S., Solounias, N., Viriot, L., Heintz, E.(2004). The Late Miocene paleoenvironment of Afghanistan as inferred from dental microwear in artiodactyls.. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 207, 143–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mihlbachler, M.C., Solounias, N.(2006). Coevolution of tooth crown height and diet in oreodonts (Merycoidodontidae, Artiodactyla) examined with phylogenetically independent contrasts.. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 13, 11–36.Google Scholar
Nordt, L.C., Boutton, T.W., Jacob, J.S., Mandel, R.D.(2002). C4 plant productivity and climate-CO2 variations in south-central Texas during the late quaternary.. Quaternary Research 58, 182–188.Google Scholar
Palombo, M.R., Filippi, M.L., Iacumin, P., Longinelli, A., Barbieri, M., Maras, A.(2005). Coupling tooth microwear and stable isotope analyses for palaeodiet reconstruction: The case study of Late Middle Pleistocene Elephas (Palaeoloxodon) antiquus teeth from Central Italy (Rome area).. Quaternary International 126�"128, 153–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, H.W., Hansen, R.M., Peden, D.G.(1978). Diets of the Slave River lowland bison herd, Northwest Territories, Canada.. Journal of Wildlife Management 42, 581–590.Google Scholar
Rivals, F., Mihlbachler, M.C., Solounias, N.(2007). Effect of ontogenetic-age distribution in fossil and modern samples on the interpretation of ungulate paleo-diets using the mesowear method.. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27, 763–767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Semprebon, G.M., Godfrey, L.R., Solounias, N., Sutherland, M.R., Jungers, W.L.(2004a). Can low-magnification stereomicroscopy reveal diet?.. Journal of Human Evolution 47, 115–144.Google Scholar
Semprebon, G., Janis, C., Solounias, N.(2004b). The diets of the Dromomerycidae (Mammalia: Artiodactyla) and their response to Miocene vegetational change.. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24, 427–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solounias, N., Semprebon, G.(2002). Advances in the reconstruction of ungulate ecomorphology with application to early fossil equids.. American Museum Novitates 3366, 1–49.Google Scholar
Stephenson, R.O., Gerlach, S.G., Guthrie, R.D., Harington, C.R., Mills, R.O., Hare, G.(2001). Wood bison in late Holocene Alaska and adjacent Canada: Paleontological, archaeological and historical records.. Gerlach, S.G., Murray, M.S. People and wildlife in Northern North America: Essays in honor of R. Dale Guthrie British Archaeological Reports International Series, Oxford.125–159.Google Scholar
Waggoner, V., Hinkes, M.(1986). Summer and fall browse utilization by an Alaskan bison herd.. Journal of Wildlife Management 50, 322–324.Google Scholar
Webb, S.D. (1974). Pleistocene mammals of Florida.. The University Presses of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Wilkerson, A.S. (1932). Some frozen deposits in the goldfields of interior Alaska. A study of the Pleistocene deposits of Alaska.. American Museum Novitates 525, 1–22.Google Scholar
Williams, S.H., Kay, R.F.(2001). A comparative test of adaptive explanations for hypsodonty in ungulates and rodents.. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 8, 207–229.Google Scholar
Yesner, D.R. (2001). Human dispersal into interior Alaska: Antecedent conditions, mode of colonization, and adaptations.. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 315–327.Google Scholar