| Description |
Climate variability has been found to have a significant impact on terrestrial animals, altering the landscape around them, often drastically throughout time. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a major source of climatic fluctuation, and has widespread control over terrestrial animals. Previous analysis of the small mammal record from a trans-Holocene deposit in Baja California, the site Abrigo de los Escorpiones, and paleo-ENSO records, has documented strong correlations between Holocene El Niño variation and the relative abundance of mesic and xeric lagomorphs. This site was formed over the last 11, 000 years by the deposition of bones from both raptor and anthropogenic sources. The well-dated site represents a fine-grained record of faunal change in relation to past climate. Preliminary work with Abrigo de los Escorpiones indicates that Neotoma (woodrats) are abundant throughout the site, with the potential to further examine climatic fluctuations through tracking species relative abundance in relation to El Niño. However, past research has failed to establish methods to securely identify the two species of Neotoma that occur in the study area: Neotoma macrotis and Neotoma bryanti. This study is focused on defining dental criteria for taxonomic identification of these two species using the technique of geometric morphometrics. Preliminary results with reference material indicates successful taxonomic identifications, and allows for the method to be applied to the archaeological site for further analysis. |
