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Biodiversity Response to Climate Change in the Middle Pleistocene – The Porcupine Cave Fauna from Colorado - California Scholarship Online
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Biodiversity Response to Climate Change in the Middle Pleistocene: The Porcupine Cave Fauna from Colorado

Anthony Barnosky

Abstract

This book chronicles the discovery and analysis of animal fossils found in one of the most important paleontological sites in the world: Porcupine Cave, located at an elevation of 9,500 feet in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. With tens of thousands of identified specimens, this site has become the key source of information on the fauna of North America's higher elevations between approximately 1 million and 600,000 years ago, a period that saw the advance and retreat of glaciers numerous times. Until now, little has been understood about how this dramatic climate change affected life during the ... More

Keywords: animal fossils, Porcupine Cave, Colorado Rocky Mountains, middle Pleistocene, environmental concerns, global climate change, life on earth

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2004 Print ISBN-13: 9780520240827
Published to California Scholarship Online: March 2012 DOI:10.1525/california/9780520240827.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

Anthony Barnosky, editor

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

[UNTITLED]

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter Appendixes

Figures

Tables

Abbreviations and Definitions

Part One The Discovery and Distribution of Fossils

One Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Health

Anthony D. Barnosky

Two The Pleistocene Fossils of Porcupine Cave, Colorado

Anthony D. Barnosky, Christopher J. Bell, Robert G. Raynolds, and Louis H. Taylor

Three The Modern Environment, Flora, and Vegetation of South Park, Colorado

David J. Cooper

Four The Historical Context of Porcupine Cave

Geraldine J. Rasmussen, Kirk Branson, and John O. Mckelvy

Five The Geology and Speleogenesis of Porcupine Cave

Robert G. Raynolds

Six Magnetostratigraphic Constraints on the Age of Pleistocene Fossiliferous Strata in Porcupine Cave’s DMNH Velvet Room Excavation

S.Julio Friedmann, and Robert G. Raynolds

Seven Age and Correlation of Key Fossil Sites in Porcupine Cave

Anthony D. Barnosky, and Christopher J. Bell

Eight Biology of Wood Rats as Cave Dwellers and Collectors

Robert B. Finley Jr.

Nine Paleopathology and Taphonomic Modification of Mammalian Bones from Porcupine Cave

C. Suzane Ware, and Elaine Anderson

Part Two: Systematic Accounts of Taxa

Ten: A Summary of Fossilized Species in Porcupine Cave

Anthony D. Barnosky

Eleven Synopsis of the Herpetofauna from Porcupine Cave

Christopher J. Bell, Jason J. Head, and Jim I. Mead

Twelve The Early and Middle Pleistocene Avifauna from Porcupine Cave

Steven D. Emslie

Thirteen The Carnivora from Porcupine Cave

Elaine Anderson

Fourteen Middle Pleistocene (Irvingtonian) Ochotona (Lagomorpha: Ochotonidae) from Porcupine Cave

Jim I. Mead, Margarita Erbajeva, and Sandra L. Swift

Fifteen Leporidae of the DMNH Velvet Room Excavations and Mark’s Sink

Colleen N. Baxter

Sixteen Identification of Miscellaneous Mammals from the Pit Locality: Including Soricidae, Leporidae, Geomyoidea

Anthony D. Barnosky, and Samantha S. B. Hopkins

SEVENTEEN Systematics and Faunal Dynamics of Fossil Squirrels from Porcupine Cave

H. Thomas Goodwin

Eighteen Fossil Wood Rats of Porcupine Cave: Tectonic or Climatic Controls?

Charles A. Repenning

Nineteen Arvicoline Rodents from Porcupine Cave

Christopher J. Bell, Charles A. Repenning, and Anthony D. Barnosky

Twenty Pliocene and Pleistocene Horses from Porcupine Cave

Eric Scott

Twenty-One Pleistocene (Irvingtonian) Artiodactyla from Porcupine Cave

Jim I. Mead, and Louis H. Taylor

Part Three Effect of Environmental Change on the Porcupine Cave Fauna

Twenty-Two Irvingtonian Mammals from the Badger Room in Porcupine Cave: Age, Taphonomy, Climate, and Ecology

Alan B. Shabel, Anthony D. Barnosky, Tonya Van Leuvan, Faysal Bibi, and Matthew H. Kaplane

Twenty-Three Faunal Dynamics of Small Mammals through the Pit Sequence

Anthony D. Barnosky

Twenty-Four Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Marmot Cheek Teeth from the Pit Locality

Robert S. Feranec

Twenty-Five Assessing the Effect of Middle Pleistocene Climate Change on Marmota Populations from the Pit Locality

Anthony D. Barnosky, Matthew H. Kaplan, and Marc A. Carrasco

Twenty-Six Effect of Climate Change on Terrestrial Vertebrate Biodiversity

Jeff Barnosky

End Matter

Literature Cited

Contributors

Index