Non-Pollen Palynomorphs Reveal Environmental Fluctuations in the Terminal Pleistocene Southeastern United States

Summary

Paleobotanists and palynologists must be able to identify various types of plant remains from archaeological sites. Because of the difficulty of becoming familiar with the vast array of microfossils found in a typical pollen sample, non-pollen palynomorphs (such as fungal spores) are often overlooked in traditional palynological analyses. However, they can be indicators of various environmental changes such as fluctuations in plant and animal communities, erosion and fire events. This paper demonstrates the utility of fungal spores as paleoenvironmental proxies at two submerged sites in the Southeastern United States: Page-Ladson, Florida and White Pond, South Carolina. Non-pollen palynomorph assemblages at these sites provide evidence of considerable disturbances to vegetation, including fires, grazing and browsing regimes, and periods of erosion. Of particular interest are the coprophilous fungal spores, which indicate a decline in megaherbivores at both sites by ~12,600 cal BP. The information provided by non-pollen palynomorphs can enhance other paleoenvironmental data to further contextualize cultural adaptations of Terminal Pleistocene peoples.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22324