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Western North American Naturalist Volume 62 Number 2 Article 22 5-2-2002 Full Issue, Vol. 62 No. 2 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan Recommended Citation (2002) "Full Issue, Vol. 62 No. 2," Western North American Naturalist: Vol. 62 : No. 2 , Article 22. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan/vol62/iss2/22 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Western North American Naturalist Publications at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Western North American Naturalist by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Western North American Naturalist 62(2), © 2002, pp. 129–140 LATE PLEISTOCENE MOLLUSKS FROM THE SOUTHERN BLACK HILLS, SOUTH DAKOTA Christopher N. Jass1,3, Jim I. Mead1,2, Amy D. Morrison2, and Larry D. Agenbroad1,2 ABSTRACT.—Pleistocene-age mollusks recovered from the Nelson-Wittenberg Site and Mammoth Site provide infor- mation on paleoenvironments of the southern Black Hills, South Dakota. New mollusk records for the Mammoth Site include Vertigo modesta, Catinella sp., and Gyraulus parvus. The presence of V. modesta, Columella columella alticola, and Pupilla muscorum at the Nelson-Wittenberg Site suggests cooler than modern conditions in the Black Hills during the Pleistocene. Although the majority of identified taxa are consistent with previous interpretations of an arid, shrub- steppe environment for the Black Hills during the Wisconsin Glaciation, V. modesta and C. c. alticola suggest the presence of at least some isolated, local mesic areas. Key words: Black Hills, mollusks, Late Pleistocene, paleoenvironments, Mammoth Site, Nelson-Wittenberg Site. The Black Hills of South Dakota, aptly and Holocene deposits. At present, only 2 Plei- described as “a forested island in a grassland stocene paleontological localities, Salamander sea” (Froiland 1990:1), occupy a unique phys- Cave (Mead et al. 1996) and the Mammoth iographic position within the northern Great Site (Agenbroad et al. 1990), are published Plains (Fig. 1). The Black Hills are situated from the Black Hills proper. Most paleoenvi- approximately 610–2100 m higher than the ronmental data for the northern Great Plains surrounding northern Great Plains, with the during the Late Pleistocene were derived from local vegetation containing representatives research at localities in adjacent geographic from all adjoining plant communities (Weedon areas outside the Black Hills. Using data from and Wolken 1990). Reconstructions of paleo- areas peripheral to the Black Hills, some re- environments for the northern Great Plains searchers have inferred that portions of the rarely address the Black Hills. Due to the var- Great Plains, including the Black Hills, were ied topographic and biotic nature of the Black covered with spruce (Picea) forest during the Hills, paleoenvironmental reconstructions based Late Pleistocene (see Mead et al. 1994 for dis- on data recovered from the surrounding north- cussion). Other interpretations, based on faunal ern Great Plains may not provide an accurate evidence, suggest steppe environments for por- picture of conditions within the Black Hills tions of the northern Great Plains during the during the Pleistocene (1.77 Ma [meg annum; Pleistocene (Taylor 1960, 1965, Voorhies and million years ago] to approximately 10,000 yr Corner 1985). B.P.; years before present). Although the Black Molluscan and vertebrate data from the Hills have no direct evidence of glaciation Late Pleistocene Lange-Ferguson Site (10,670 (Lemke et al. 1965), the close proximity of the yr B.P.), east of the Black Hills (Fig. 1), suggest Black Hills to the Laurentide ice cap (~240 more mesic conditions than modern, with km to the east) during the Late Pleistocene brush and/or woodlands occurring at the site surely influenced the composition of local biotic (Leonard 1982, Martin 1987). Whether Lange- communities. Ferguson fossils represent an overall “mesic” Data on Pleistocene environments in the regional trend is unknown; drier, grassland en- Black Hills are not abundant. Due to a lack of vironments may have occurred in areas away natural lakes and ponds, the potential for paly- from Lange-Ferguson (Martin 1987). nological study for the reconstruction of past To the west of the Black Hills, mammalian environments is limited. Fredlund (1996) pro- faunas are the primary source of paleoenviron- vides geomorphic evidence of latest Pleistocene mental reconstructions (Mead et al. 1994). 1Quaternary Sciences Program, Box 5644, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5644. 2Department of Geology, Box 4099, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011. 3Corresponding author. Present address: Department of Geological Sciences, Mail Code C1140, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712. 129 130 WESTERN NORTH AMERICAN NATURALIST [Volume 62 Fig. 1. Map depicting locations (triangles) of Graveyard Cave (GC), Mammoth Site of Hot Springs (HSMS), Nelson- Wittenberg Locality (NW), Salamander Cave (SC), and PaleoIndian sites (asterisks) containing mollusks, including Agate-Basin (AB) and Lange-Ferguson (LF). Alpine tundralike conditions and more equable Basin are indicative of more mesic conditions climates may have dominated much of Wyo- than today, at least in the immediate area of ming at approximately 22,000–18,000 yr B.P. the locality (Evanoff 1982). (Walker 1987). At that time boreal forest envi- Reported Pleistocene localities from the ronments were more widespread than today Black Hills include Salamander Cave (Fig. 1), (Walker 1987). Immediately west of the Black which has a minimum age of 252,000 yr B.P. Hills, faunal remains from the Late Pleis- (Mead et al. 1996), and the Mammoth Site of tocene–Early Holocene Agate Basin Site (Fig. Hot Springs (Agenbroad et al. 1990, Agenbroad 1) indicate a steppe savanna for the terminal and Mead 1994). Using faunal and limited Pleistocene (Walker 1982). Mollusks from Agate pollen data from the Mammoth Site, several 2002] PLEISTOCENE MOLLUSKS OF THE BLACK HILLS 131 authors (Czaplewski and Mead 1994, Mead et duced additional fossil mollusk taxa which are al. 1994, and others) suggested the presence of reported here (see Table 1). Recovered mol- a cold steppe-grassland in the Black Hills at lusks come from bulk samples and cannot be 26,000 yr B.P. More mesic conditions and geo- strongly correlated to a particular time or morphic stability, relative to modern, existed stratigraphic unit within the depositional in parts of the southern Black Hills during the framework established by Laury (1994). transition from Late Pleistocene to Early Holo- NELSON-WITTENBERG SITE.—The Nelson- cene (14,000 yr B.P. to 9000 yr B.P.; Fredlund Wittenberg Site is a small alluvial deposit in 1996). An interpretation of more mesic than the southern Black Hills, located west of the modern conditions from the Late Pleistocene Mammoth Site (Fig. 1). The structure of this through the Early Holocene is consistent with small deposit shows uniform, yet limited, stra- paleoenvironmental data from a variety of local- tigraphy (Mead personal observation). The ities peripheral to the Black Hills (see sum- locality appears to be a remnant drainage mary in Fredlund 1996). Fossil mollusks from channel that might have originated from a a third Pleistocene locality within the Black spring deposit, but apparently not one con- Hills, the Nelson-Wittenberg Site, provide taining any pooled water. No spring occurs in evidence for the reconstruction of past envi- the area of the locality today. A sample of fine- ronments in the southern Black Hills. Here grained sediments from around a Mammuthus we present identifications of mollusks from tusk and Bison tooth produced a thermolumi- the Nelson-Wittenberg Site as well as addi- nescence date of 37,900 ± 2900 yr B.P. (W2611). tional specimens from the Mammoth Site. We We feel this is an approximate age but verifies use these mollusks to further assess environ- assignment of the deposit to the Late Pleisto- mental conditions in the southern Black Hills cene. If the thermoluminescence date is cor- during the Late Pleistocene. rect, the locality lies well within the most recent glacial phase (Wisconsinan Glaciation) STUDY AREA and dates older than the Mammoth Site. Microfaunal elements discussed herein come Locality Descriptions from salvaged bulk sediment samples (washed Currently, Pleistocene-age fossil sites in the through 1-mm sieve). Small mammals from Black Hills are known only from the southern the locality include Lemmiscus curtatus (sage- Black Hills. brush vole; see Bell and Mead 1998 for identi- MAMMOTH SITE.—The Mammoth Site of fication of characters) and Microtus sp. (vole). Hot Springs is a 26,000-year-old deposit located in the southern Black Hills (Fig. 1). Detailed Modern Environments descriptions of the geology, chronology, and As a result of an updoming event that be- vertebrate paleontology of the Mammoth Site gan during the Laramide Orogeny, the geologic are presented in Agenbroad et al. (1990) and structure of the Black Hills region is charac- Agenbroad and Mead (1994). The Mammoth terized by a “layer cake” or anticlinal pattern Site represents an artesian spring-fed pond in which the oldest rock formations are encir- environment contained within a sinkhole (Agen- cled by younger rock formations as one pro- broad 1994). The sinkhole was likely in-filled gresses outward from the core (Froiland 1990). with sediment over a time period of 175 to The 4 major physiographic regions of the 700 years (Laury 1994). Timing of cessation of Black Hills include the Crystalline Core, Lime- spring discharge into the sinkhole is not known stone Plateau, Red Valley, and Hogback Ridge. (Laury 1994). The Mammoth and Nelson-Wittenberg sites Various aspects of the molluscan and verte- are situated on erosional remnants of the brate fauna from the Mammoth Site are dis- Permo-Triassic sediments that make up the cussed in Agenbroad and Mead (1994). Mead Red Valley. In the southern Black Hills this et al.