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Chronology And Ecology Of Late Pleistocene Megafauna In The Northern Willamette Valley, Oregon, Daniel Mcgowan Gilmour, Virginia L. Butler, Jim E. O'Conner, Edward Byrd Davis, Brendan J. Culleton, Douglas J. Kennett, Gregory Hodgins

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Since the mid-19th century, western Oregon's Willamette Valley has been a source of remains from a wide variety of extinct megafauna. Few of these have been previously described or dated, but new chronologic and isotopic analyses in conjunction with updated evaluations of stratigraphic context provide substantial new information on the species present, timing of losses, and paleoenvironmental conditions. Using subfossil material from the northern valley, we use AMS radiocarbon dating, stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) analyses, and taxonomic dietary specialization and habitat preferences to reconstruct environments and to develop a local chronology of events that we then compare with continental …