Date of Award
12-1981
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Department of Geology
First Advisor
Judith Schiebout
Abstract
This thesis describes the late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) vertebrate paleontology of Louisiana through the use of vertebrates as paleoenvironmental indicators. This method of interpretation is established through morphological description and evaluation, taphonomy, systematic paleontology, and in some cases, the use of modern analogs.
This study compares and contrasts Louisiana with other southeastern states during the late Pleistocene. This comparison shows that Louisiana did not vary significantly from the rest of the southeastern United States during the late Rancholabrean. This work also shows that the most common habitats of Louisiana at this time were open temperate woods, grasslands, and marshes. Geographically, most of the taxa studied are defined as southeastern types. Northern types in the late Pleistocene southeastern United States can be explained by the southern migration of northern types, establishment of local isolated habitats in south and the reduction of continentality in the Pleistocene. Also, this study shows that Pleistocene extinctions could have occurred 1,000 - 3,000 years later in the southeastern United States than it did in northern regions of North America.
Finally, this study shows that the late Pleistocene Rancholabrean mammalian faunas of the southeastern United States, varied little from the present.
Recommended Citation
Rice, Linda L., "The Vertebrate Paleontology of Late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) Mammalian Sites of Louisiana" (1981). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 8404.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/8404