Archaeological Implications of Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Paleoceanographic Change in the Cedros Island Region, Mexico
Author(s): Samantha Stone
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Late Pleistocene Archaeology of the Northern Pacific Rim" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
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The Late Pleistocene to early Holocene (~20,000-7000 cal BP) was marked by warming climates, rapidly rising sea levels, shifting oceanic conditions, and profound paleolandscape changes along North America’s Pacific coast. Dramatic transformations in the coastal environments of Baja California’s Cedros Island influenced the human ecology of early foragers. Our research presents new insights into the paleoenvironmental context of Cedros Island, focusing on paleolandscape evolution under extreme marine transgression and corresponding changes in marine productivity and ocean temperatures recorded in shell carbonate δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup> 18</sup>O. Geographic Information Systems modeling reveals that the most significant landscape changes occurred during the Bølling-Allerød Interstadial (~14,700-12,900 cal BP), with continued, though decelerated, marine transgression during the Younger Dryas and early Holocene, with inundation of the land connection between Cedros Island and Punta Eugenia ~10,000 cal BP. Marine shell isotope records from early Cedros Island sites show a corresponding evolution in marine productivity. These changes accompany tremendous coastal landscape shifts due to marine transgression and enhance our understanding of human ecology on Cedros Island.
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Cite this Record
Archaeological Implications of Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene Paleoceanographic Change in the Cedros Island Region, Mexico. Samantha Stone. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 509881)
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Abstract Id(s): 52669