RUI: Late Pleistocene Animal and Plant Associations and Extinctions on the Central Colorado Plateau

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This is a proposal to study the relationships between animals and plants and their interactions with the earth during the late Pleistocene and at the time of megafaunal extinctions on the Colorado Plateau. Two study areas in the central Colorado Plateau will be investigated: Forty Mile Canyon (containing principally BF Alcove and Grobot Grotto) and White Canyon (Bare Ladder Ruin). Drug of mammals (mammoth, cf. camel, cf. shrub-ox, mountain goat, bison, among others), dating +39,000 to 11,000 yr. B.P., will be analyzed for radiocarbon, size-weight ratio, size-fractional content, pollen, microhistology, and biochemical data. These data will provide producer identifications, age, and diet. Independent paleoenvironmental reconstruction will generated with the analysis of sedimentary history (23 m of stratified sediments in one alcove), pollen from stratified alluvium and cave sediments (regional and local environments), and packrat middens (macrofossil; local communities). The multidisciplinary approach will produce plant and animal data in direct association with each other. Diets of extinct mammals will be documented, as will the time of their local extinction. Northern Arizona University will provide: 1) the salary of J.I. Mead (half-time academic) and L.D. Agenbroad, 2) the Bilby Research Center laboratory facilities, 3) curatorial space for dung and hair remains, 4) modern comparative collections of dung and hair, 5) the salary for chemist D. Russell, and 6) a modern organic chemistry laboratory.