Skip to Content

The Late Pleistocene Fauna of the Wally's Beach Site

Type de publication:

Conference Paper

Source:

Banff (2001)

Résumé (en anglais):

The fauna, comprised of trace and skeletal remains occurs in eolian sands and silts and loess. These sediments occupied a glacial lake marginal position and overlie glacio-lacustrine deltic sediments. Radiocarbon dates on bone indicate that the deposits range in age from 11,000 to 11,350 years B.P. The trace fossils include tracks of Mammuthus, Equus, Camelops, and Rangifer tarandus. Skeletal fossils include Bison, helmuted muskoxen, caribou, horse, badger, canids (2), and a diversity of ground squirrels. Juxtaposition of the various tracks indicates that the track makers were contemporaneous. Skeletal remains indicate that the horse was Equus conversidens. Comparison of the mammoth tracks with those of modern elephants indicates that all age groups from juveniles to adults were present, however, the paucity of juveniles indicates that the population was stressed. The data, however, do not indicate whether or not this stress was related to environmental changes that were taking place as both the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets retreated, human predation, or possibly environmental change and human exploitation combined. Flakes and flake tools were recovered in association with the horse and muskoxen remains. The temporal distributions of some of the faunal species in North America do indicate a movement of these species northwards.