A Paleoindian response to Younger Dryas climate change |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Geology, Babe?-Bolyai University, Kog?lniceanu 1, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania;2. Department of Biogeography and Palaeoecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Dzi?gielowa 27, 61-680 Poznan, Poland;3. School of Environment & Life Sciences, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, United Kingdom;4. Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;5. Department of Physical Geography, Goethe University, Altenhoferallee 1, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;6. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Goethe University Altenhoferallee 1, D-60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Late Quaternary changes in North American vegetation and geography reflect the influence of changing climate induced by the retreating ice sheets, orbitally-driven seasonal insolation patterns, increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, and relatively rapid internal variations. At regional scales, these climate changes resulted in ecosystem variability that impacted human access to resources. We use paleoenvironmental and archaeological records from 14,000 to 10,000 cal yr BP for New England and Maritime Canada (NE/M) to propose the impact of rapid climate change on human resource-procurement and technology. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions for the Younger Dryas chronozone (YDC; 12,900–11,600 cal yr BP) show ecologic responses to colder-than-earlier conditions. At roughly the same time (13,000–11,000 cal yr BP), we surmise that fluted points were used to hunt large mammals, including caribou, which inhabited regions with sub-arctic-like vegetation. Environmental changes, associated with rapid regional warming at the end of the YDC, coincided with the abandonment of fluting technology. As conditions warmed, vegetation changes led to shifts in animal populations, which may be reflected in the development of other point styles by Paleoindians and subsequent human groups. |
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