RUI: Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology and Biogeography of Southeast Alaska

University Of South Dakota Main Campus, Vermillion SD

Investigators

Abstract

RUI: Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology and Biogeography of Southeast Alaska Timothy H. Heaton University of South Dakota EAR-0208247 Southeast Alaska occupies a critical position in understanding the human and animal history of North America. During glacial epochs of the recent Ice Age, central Alaska was connected to Asia by the Bering Land Bridge, and the barriers to intercontinental travel were the large ice sheets that covered most of Canada. Coastal Alaska was a logical route for travel between ice-free areas because the Pacific Ocean kept the region relatively warm and provided a constant source of food. Until recently Quaternary fossils were unknown from Southeast Alaska, and geologists and biologists believed that the coast had been completely overridden with ice. But a decade of research has demonstrated that Southeast Alaska was home to an arctic community of mammals and birds that thrived even during the coldest period of the Last Glacial Maximum. Beginning in 1990, limestone caves containing Ice Age fossil remains were discovered on northern Prince of Wales Island. The most productive of these was On Your Knees Cave, which contained a nearly complete fossil record spanning the last 50,000 years as well as the most extensive archaeological record of Southeast Alaska (spanning the last 10,000 years). The next step is to excavate caves on multiple islands and on the mainland of Southeast Alaska to gain a complete biogeographic history of the region during and following the Last Glacial Maximum. Promising sites containing vertebrate fossils have been located on the outermost islands (Dall, Heceta, and Coronation Islands) and on the mainland near the town of Wrangell. Other regions being explored are karst areas of northern Chichagof Island and Glacier Bay National Park. The objectives of this project are to locate and conduct small-scale excavations at many sites in hopes of finding other fossil deposits of similar antiquity to On Your Knees Cave. It is also hoped that additional archaeological records can be located that will help determine the antiquity of humans in the region and assess the possibility that Southeast Alaska was a corridor for travel between Asia and North America during the Ice Age.