Late Glacial to Early Holocene Vegetation Reconstruction from the Wenas Creek Mammoth Site in Washington State

2026/02/16 by Megan Walsh, Patrick M. Lubinski, Linda Scott Cummings +1 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Archaeology and Natural History #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies

paper · doi:10.1080/20555563.2026.2614206

Abstract

The Wenas Creek Mammoth site pollen record, which extends from ∼20,000–10,000 cal yr BP, is significant given that few eastern Cascade paleoecological records span the Late Glacial to Early Holocene. A Bayesian age-depth model applied to 24 pollen samples show the site remained a sagebrush steppe throughout, supporting grazing animals like mammoth and bison recovered in excavations. Arboreal pollen trends confirm the upward movement of conifers during the post-glacial period as documented in previous studies.

Discussions

• Happy #FossilFriday here is a wee climate paper that I coauthored. We found that 20kya eastern Washington was drying and warming up and chasing away all the pesky pine trees (ew, trees). As usual wi [bsky, 18 points, 1 comments]

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