|
...proboscideans , Dr. Shoshani supervised multidisciplinary excavations of mastodont sites in southeastern Michigan (e.g., Shoshani et al. 1989). This approach has allowed him to discuss the food web of the the mastodont-dominated community as well as the paleoecology of the associated fauna and flora. This paper provides an update to Holman et al. (1986), but the main contribution of the paper reflects on the 5:1 dominance in Michigan of mastodont fossils over mammoths, and suggests that mastodonts were ecological generalists, better adapted to a diversity of habitats than the mammoth, which was more of a specialist. The author postulates that the more or less treeless habitats which the mammoth required were not common enough to support very large populations in Michigan and contrasts Michigan with the Nebr aska plains where the mammoths outnumbered mastodonts about 8 to 1.
INTRODUCTION
Elephants, mammoths, and mastodons (order Proboscidea) have fascinated mankind since the dawn of prehistory. The first report of the American mastodon (Mammut americanum) in Michigan was during the nineteenth century (Lanman 1839). In the intervening 150 years, people have continued to find bones and teeth of the extinct American mastodon and mammoths (Mammuthus sp.). Most of these finds were bones and tooth fragments, and only very few complete or partially complete specimens were discovered. Presently, there are two mounted skeletons of the American mastodon in Michigan; one, probably a female, is at the Exhibit Museum of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Dorr and Eschman 1970), and the other, probably a male, is at the Highland Lakes Campus of Oakland Community College, Union Lake (Dorr et al. 1982).
The vast majority of these proboscidean materials came from occasional
surface finds reported by farmers or amateur collectors (see for example Dorr and Eschman 1970, and Holman et al. 1986, and Appendix A in this paper). When locations are precisely documented, surface finds provide us with important information about past inhabitants and their paleoecology, but only bones and teeth collected in well-defined strarigraphic context can be dated and associated with particular environmental features.
The two mastodons focused upon here were uncovered at the Shelton Mastodon Site (SMS), a well-documented Michigan locality (Shoshani et al., 1989; Shoshani and Zawiskie, unpublished ins.). Field work at the SMS was carried out during the summer months of 1983-1987, following standard techniques as described byJoukowsky (1980), Kummel and Raup (1965), and Rixon (1976). A detailed account of the findings at this site during the years 1983-1986 appears in Shoshani etal. (1989). In this paper, I shall provide a timely summary of the uncovered fauna and macro flora for the entire excavation period and briefly review the significance of the findings. The mastodons listed in Appendix A (which is an update to Holman et al. 1986), provide the basis for my discussion on the numbers of mammoths and mastodons in Michigan.
THE SHELTON MASTODON SITE
The SMS is located in southeastern Michigan, northern Oakland County (Brandon Township SE 1/4 of SE 1/4 of Section 26, T5N R9E, 82[degrees] 20' W longitude, 42[degrees] 50' N latitude, at an elevation of 317 m (1040 ft.) above sea level (Figure 1). During the Port Bruce Stade, Oakland County was covered with a continental ice sheet; subsequent retreat of the Saginaw and Huron-Erie lobes resulted in the deposition of a portion of the Defiance Morainic System in northern Oakland County approximately 14,500 years ago (Farrand and Eschman 1974; Evenson et al. 1976; Eschman and Mickelson 1986). According to Mozola (1954), intermorainal areas contain related till and outwash plains. The Shelton vertebrate faunule was derived from sediments that mantle the Oxford outwash plain. Radiocarbon dates that bracket this faunule indicate correlation with the forest bed of the Twocreekan Substage at the type locality in Wisconsin (Morgan and Morgan 1979). Sediments that overlie the vertebrate-bearing forest bed span the Plei stocene-Holocene boundary.
Material and data collected at the SMS have been the subject of intensive multidisciplinary investigation. Following is the roster of studies that have been conducted: the fauna and flora up to the 1986 season and its paleoecology (Shoshani et al. 1989), palynology (Snyder and Shoshani, in preparation), wood anatomy (Newsom and Shoshani, in preparation), fish (Smith and Shoshani, in preparation), amphibians (DeFauw and Shoshani 1991), co-leopteran insects (Morgan et al., in preparation), molluscans (Thurlow and Shoshani, submitted), diatoms (Stoermeret al. 1988), Early Archaic projectile points (Shoshani et al. 1989), and stratigraphy and paleoecology (Shoshani and Zawiskie, unpulished ms.). Figures 2 and 3 provide a summary of our finds during the five field sessions.
A typical cross-section at the site reveals three distinctive units above the glacial deposits (Figure 2). This figure also incorporates six of the twelve radiocarbon dates (all given as years "before present" =...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
More articles from Michigan Academician
New records of Michigan Pleistocene vertebrates with comments on the M..., September 22, 2003
Pleistocene Proboscidean sites in Michigan: new records and an update ..., September 22, 2003
Michigan's ice age behemoths.(mammoths and mastodons), September 22, 2003
The status of Emydoidea hutchisoni Holman, 1995 (Testudines: Emydidae)..., September 22, 2003
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
