Late Pleistocene Mammals of Alabama: A Comprehensive Faunal Review with 21 Previously Unreported Taxa.

Ebersole, Jun A.; Ebersole, Sandy M.

Presented here is a comprehensive study of Late Pleistocene mammals from Alabama that reviews taxa from both Pleistocene and archaeological sites. Over 50 Late Pleistocene localities have been identified in Alabama, most of which are concentrated in the Black Prairie region of the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Highland Rim physiographic sections. These Pleistocene localities have produced faunas from one land mammal age, the Rancholabrean, and nearly all date to and just after the Wisconsinan glaciation. To date, 66 distinct Late Pleistocene mammals have been confirmed from Alabama. Among these are Late Pleistocene forms that are extinct, currently extant in the state, or have been extirpated from their former range in Alabama. Within the comprehensive faunal overview in this paper, we present 21 taxa previously unreported from Alabama. From the numerous taxa reported here and the abundance of Alabama Pleistocene localities, it is evident that further field investigations could significantly add to our understanding of Pleistocene fauna, paleoecology, and paleobiogeography of Alabama and North America.

MAMMALS; ANIMALS; EXTINCT animals; ANIMAL classification; PLEISTOCENE Epoch; PALEOECOLOGY; PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHY

Bulletin of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, 2011, Issue 28, p1

0196-1039

Academic Journal