Calibrating the data logger…
AbstractThe Upper Gunnison Basin (UGB), Colorado, is a montane region characterized by unusual physiography and topographic isolation. Excavations of three caves in the UGB provide one of the most diverse records of high-elevation late Quaternary vertebrates in North America. The localities, Haystack Cave (2450 m above sea level [m asl]), Cement Creek Cave (2860 m asl), and Signature Cave (3055 m asl), together provide a near-continuous record of vertebrate communities that extends from before the last glacial maximum to the present. These communities largely represent a sagebrush (Artemisiaspp.) steppe-tundra environment that prevailed throughout the UGB in the late Pleistocene. At least five taxa of extinct large mammals disappear from the UGB by the Early Holocene; one small mammal (the short-faced skunkBrachyprotomacf.B.brevimala) also became extinct. The fossil record further indicates that only four small extant mammals (Sorex preblei,Dicrostonyxsp.,Lemmiscus curtatus, andUrocitellus elegans) were extirpated from the UGB by the Early Holocene, in part because of community restructuring and loss of open habitats with expansion of forests to higher elevations. An analysis of taxonomic richness and evenness at Cement Creek Cave indicates high resilience in the small mammal community despite major climate shifts over the past 40,000+ yr.
Knowledge graph centered on Late Quaternary vertebrates from the Upper Gunniso with 10 nodes and 20 connections. Top connected: small mammals, Palynology of Pinedale Sediments, Devlins Park, Bo, Climate in the southern Sawatch Range and Elk Moun, Cosmogenic 10Be and 36Cl ages from late Pleistocen, Notes on the Ecology of Weasels in Gunnison County.
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