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Science 13 March 1964:
Vol. 143. no. 3611, pp. 1171 - 1173
DOI: 10.1126/science.143.3611.1171
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Articles

Pleistocene Wood Rat Middens and Climatic Change in Mohave Desert: A Record of Juniper Woodlands

Philip V. Wells 1 and Clive D. Jorgensen 2

1 Department of Botany, University of Kansas, Lawrence
2 Department of Zoology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

Leafy twigs and seeds of juniper are abundant in nine ancient Neotoma middens discovered in low, arid, desert ranges devoid of junipers, near Frenchman Flat, Nevada. Existing vegetation is creosote bush and other desert shrubs. Twelve radiocarbon dates suggest that the middens were deposited between 7800 to more than 40,000 years ago. Dominance of Utah juniper and absence of pinyon pine in most deposits indicates a local Pleistocene woodland climate more arid than the usual pinyon-juniper climate.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Evolution of Body Size in the Woodrat over the Past 25,000 Years of Climate Change.
F. A. Smith, J. L. Betancourt, and J. H. Brown (1995)
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Holocene Vegetation in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
J. L. Betancourt, J. L. BETANCOURT, and T. R. VAN DEVENDER (1981)
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Radioactive Waste Disposal in Thick Unsaturated Zones.
I. J. Winograd and I. J. Winogard (1981)
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Photosynthetic Mechanisms and Paleoecology from Carbon Isotope Ratios in Ancient Specimens of C4 and CAM Plants.
J. H. Troughton, J. H. Troughton, P. V. Wells, and H. A. Mooney (1974)
Science 185, 610-612
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Postglacial Vegetational History of the Great Plains.
P. V. Wells and P. V. Wells (1970)
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Late Pleistocene History of Coniferous Woodland in the Mohave Desert.
P. V. Wells, P. V. Wells, and R. Berger (1967)
Science 155, 1640-1647
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Late Pleistocene Vegetation and Degree of Pluvial Climatic Change in the Chihuahuan Desert.
P. V. Wells and P. V. Wells (1966)
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