MASTODONS (Mammut americanum) AND THE LATE-GLACIAL VEGETATION OF THE EASTERN USA
2018-11
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MASTODONS (Mammut americanum) AND THE LATE-GLACIAL VEGETATION OF THE EASTERN USA
Published Date
2018-11
Publisher
Geological Society of America
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Presentation
Abstract
Numerous studies of tooth plaques and remains of gut contents of have confirmed that mastodon diet
was composed of woody browse species, forbs, nuts, and fruits. However, fossil gut contents also suggest
that mastodon diet included significant amounts of spruce, even though spruce is a low-quality,
chemically-defended food. Most extant large mammals only browse on spruce when all other food
sources are exhausted, and mastodon tusk growth increments indicate that mastodons were not food
limited as they moved toward extinction (Fisher, 2009). Here we review the vegetation associated with
mastodon habitat from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, USA, over the period 18-10 ka cal BP using
pollen assemblage data from 29 sites located near proboscidean fossil remains. Pollen data were
acquired from the Neotoma Database and pollen abundance was converted into species biomass
abundance using the Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm (LRA) of Sugita (2004a, 2004b). Although
spruce was the dominant conifer throughout the Great Lakes Region until ca. 10 ka cal BP, deciduous
species such as ash, oak, and elm comprised 50% or more of the vegetation assemblages even at the
earliest and northernmost sites, and remained at similar levels until mastodon extinction. Many of these
species have been found in mastodon gut contents. These vegetation assemblage reconstructions
support the suggestion that mastodons were not food limited as they neared extinction. Moreover, these
analyses of landscapes surrounding mastodon sites strongly suggest that the contemporaneous forest,
composed of large amounts of spruce intermixed with ash, elm, and oak, was unlike the forests found in
much of eastern North America today.
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The abstract was published by the Geological Society of America and the poster was presented at the Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, IN, in Nov. 2018. Lead author is a grad student and Swartz, David, Bopray, Jaksa, and Messer are undergraduates.
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10.1130/abs/2018AM-323853
Previously Published Citation
Drazan, J.L., Mooers, H.D., Moen, R., Pastor, J., Larson, P.C., Swartz, J.A., David, M.K., Bopray, C.K., Jaksa, M.P., and Messer, B.S. Mastodons (Mammut Americanum) and the Late-Glacial Vegetation of the Eastern USA. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 50, No. 6, ISSN 0016-7592, doi: 10.1130/abs/2018AM-32385
Suggested citation
Drazan, Jacqueline L; Mooers, Howard D; Moen, Ron; Pastor, John; Larson, Phillip C; Swartz, Jennifer A; David, Mady K; Bopray, Croix K; Jaksa, Michael P; Messer, Blake S. (2018). MASTODONS (Mammut americanum) AND THE LATE-GLACIAL VEGETATION OF THE EASTERN USA. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, 10.1130/abs/2018AM-323853.
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