7.8: End of Chapter Content

For Further Exploration

Books

Bjornerud, Marcia. 2006. Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth. New York: Basic Books.

Hazen, Robert M. 2013. The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, From Stardust to Living Planet. New York: Viking Penguin.

Holmes, Richard. 2010. The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science. New York: Vintage.

Palmer, Douglas. 2005. Earth Time: Exploring the Deep Past from Victorian England to the Grand Canyon. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Prothero, Donald R. 2015. The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonder of Evolution. New York: Columbia University Press.

Pyne, Lydia. 2016. Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World’s Most Famous Human Fossils. New York: Viking Books.

Repcheck, Jack. 2009. The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth’s Antiquity. New York: Basic Books.

Taylor, Paul D., Aaron O’Dea. 2014. A History of Life in 100 Fossils. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books.

Ward, David. 2002. Smithsonian Handbooks: Fossils. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books.

Winchester, Simon. 2009. The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology. New York: Harper Perennial.

Websites

Amber Museum

East Tennessee State University Center of Excellence in Paleontology

Granger Historical Picture Archive

Indigenous Archaeology Collective

La Brea Tar Pits Museum

Lyme Regis Museum

Natural History Museum (London), on Mary Anning

Pech Merle Cave

Petrified Forest National Park (NE Arizona)

Poozeum: The No. 2 Wonder of the World

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Department of Paleobiology

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, on “What Does It Mean to be Human”

Society for American Archaeology, on “Ethics in Professional Archaeology”

Society for American Archaeology, “Principles of Archaeological Ethics”

References

Antoine, Pierre-Oliver, Maeva J. Orliac, Gokhan Atici, Inan Ulusoy, Erdal Sen, H. Evren Çubukçu, Ebru lbayrak, Neşe Oyal, Erkan Aydar, and Sevket Sen. 2012. “A Rhinocerotid Skull Cooked to Death in a 9.2 Mya-Old Ignimbrite Flow of Turkey.” PLoS ONE 7 (11): e49997.

Aufderheide, Arthur C. 2003. The Scientific Study of Mummies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bar-Yosef, O., and M. Belmaker. 2011. “Early and Middle Pleistocene Faunal and Hominins Dispersals through Southwestern Asia.” Quaternary Science Reviews 30 (11–12): 1318–1337.

Barras, C. 2022. “Lost Footprints of Our Ancestors.” New Scientist 254 (3381): 40–44.

Blong, John C., Martin E. Adams, Gabriel Sanchez, Dennis L. Jenkins, Ian D. Bull, and Lisa-Marie Shillito. 2020. “Younger Dryas and Early Holocene Subsistence in the Northern Great Basin: Multiproxy Analysis of Coprolites from the Paisley Caves, Oregon, USA.” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12 (9): 1–29.

Boaz, Noel T., Russel L. Ciochon, Qinqi Xu, and Jinyi Liu. 2004. “Mapping and Taphonomic Analysis of the Homo erectus Loci at Locality 1 Zhoukoudian, China.” Journal of Human Evolution 46 (5): 519–549.

Booth, Thomas J., Andrew T. Chamberlain, and Mike Parker Pearson. 2015. “Mummification in Bronze Age Britain.” Antiquity 89 (347): 1,155–1,173.

Bradley, Raymond S. 2015. “Chapter 3: Dating Methods I.” In Paleoclimatology, edited by Raymond S. Bradley, 55–101. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.

Brown, Theodore L., H. Eugene LeMay Jr., Bruce E. Burston, Catherine J. Murphy, Patrick M. Woodward, and Matthew Stoltzfus. 2018. Chemistry: The Central Science. New York: Pearson.

Campbell, Neil A., and Jane B. Reece. 2005. Biology 7th ed. New York: Pearson.

Carvajal, Eduar, Luis Montes, and Ovidio A. Almanza. 2011. “Quaternary Dating by Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) Applied to Human Tooth Enamel.” Earth Sciences Research Journal 15 (2): 115–120.

Chatters, James C., Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales, and Pilar Luna-Erreguerena. 2022. “The Pre-Ceramic Skeletal Record of Mexico and Central America.” In The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology, edited by V. Tieslar, 49–74. New York: Routledge.

Chatters, James C., Douglas J. Kennett, Yemane Asmerom, Brian M. Kemp, Victor Polyak, Alberto Nava Blank, Patricia A. Beddows, et al. 2014. “Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton and mtDNA Link Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans.” Science 344 (6185): 750–754.

Clough, Sharon. 2020. “Ethics in Human Osteology.” The Archaeologist 109 (2020): 3–5.

Cochrane, Grant W. G., Trudy Doelman, and Lyn Wadley. 2013. “Another Dating Revolution for Prehistoric Archaeology?” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 20 (1): 42–60.

Collins, S. V., E. G. Reinhardt, D. Rissolo, J. C. Chatters, A. Nava-Blank, and P. Luna-Erreguerena. 2015. “Reconstructing Water Level in Hoyo Negro, Quintana Roo, Mexico: Implications for Early Paleoamerican and Faunal Access.” Quaternary Science Reviews 124: 68–83.

Cook, Harold J. 1928. “Glacial Age Man in New Mexico.” Scientific American 139 (1): 38–40.

Cook, S. F., and H. C. Ezra-Cohn. 1959. “An Evaluation of the Fluorine Dating Method.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 15 (3): 276–290.

Cooper, Arnie. 2010. “Sticky Situation at the Tar Pits.” LA Weekly, May 27, 2010. https://www.laweekly.com/sticky-situ...-the-tar-pits/.

Crompton, Robin H., Todd C. Pataky, Russell Savage, Kristiaan D’Août, Matthew R. Bennett, Michael H. Day, Karl Bates, Sarita Morse, and William I. Sellers. 2012. “Human-like External Function of the Foot, and Fully Upright Gait, Confirmed in the 3.66 Million Year Old Laetoli Hominin Footprints by Topographic Statistics, Experimental Footprint-Formation and Computer Simulation.” Journal of the Royal Society Interface 9 (69): 707–719. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2011.0258

Crutzen, Paul J., and Eugene F. Stoermer. 2000. “The ‘Anthropocene.’” Global Change Newsletter 41: 17–18.

Darwin, Charles. 1859. On the Origin of Species. London, UK: John Murray.

Dean, Jeffery S. 2009. “One Hundred Years of Dendroarchaeology: Dating, Human Behavior, and Past Climate.” In Tree-rings, Kings, and Old World Archaeology and Environment: Papers Presented in Honor of Peter Ian Kuniholm, edited by S. Manning and M. J. Bruce, 25–32. Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books.

Dolnick, Edward. 2011. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World. New York: HarperCollins.

Duller, G.A.T. 2008. Luminescence Dating: Guidelines on Using Luminescence Dating in Archaeology. Swindon, UK: English Heritage.

Eisenbeiss, Sabine. 2016. “Preserved in Peat: Decoding Bodies from Lower Saxony, Germany.” Expedition 58 (2): 18–21.

Emling, Shelley. 2009. The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Faux, Jennifer L. 2012. “Hail the Conquering Gods: Ritual Sacrifice of Children in Inca Society.” Journal of Contemporary Anthropology 3 (1): 1–15.

Feder, Kenneth L. 2017. The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory. 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Fletcher, Michael-Shawn, Tegan Hall, and Andreas Nicholas Alexandra. 2021. “The Loss of an Indigenous Constructed Landscape Following British Invasion of Australia: An Insight into the Deep Human Imprint on the Australian Landscape.” Ambio 50 (1): 138–149.

Flowers, Paul, Klaus Theopold, Richard Langley, and William R. Robinson. 2018. Chemistry. Houston, TX: Openstax, Rice University.

Fumagalli, Matteo, Ida Moltke, Niels Grarup, Fernando Racimo, Peter Bjerregaard, Marit E. Jørgensen, Thorfinn S. Korneliussen, Pascale Gerbault, Line Skotte, Allan Linneberg, Cramer Christensen, Ivan Brandslund, Torben Jørgensen, Emilia Huerta-Sánchez, Erik B. Schmidt, Oluf Pedersen, Torben Hansen, Anders Albrechtsen, and Rasmus Nielsen. 2015. “Greenlandic Inuit show genetic signatures of diet and climate adaptation.” Science 349 (6254): 1343-1347.

Funkhouser, J. G., I. L. Barnes, and J. J. Naughton. 1966. ”Problems in the Dating of Volcanic Rocks by the Potassium-Argon Method.” Bull Volcanol 29: 709–717.

Giles, Melanie. 2020. Bog Bodies: Face to Face with the Past. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Goodrum, Matthew R., and Cora Olson. 2009. “The Quest for an Absolute Chronology in Human Prehistory: Anthropologists, Chemists, and the Fluorine Dating Method in Palaeoanthropology.” British Journal for the History of Science 42 (1): 95–114.

Granger, Darryl E., Ryan J. Gibbon, Kathleen Kuman, Ronald J. Clarke, Laurent Bruxelles, and Marc W. Caffee. 2015. “New Cosmogenic Burial Ages for Sterkfontein Member 2 Australopithecus and Member 5 Oldowan.” Nature 522 (7554): 85–88.

Granger Historical Picture Archive. 2018. Cro-Magnon Footprint. Image no. 0167868. Accessed March, 02, 2023. https://www.granger.com/results.asp?image=0167868&itemw=4&itemf=0001&itemstep=1&itemx=11&screenwidth=1085.

Gruhn, R., 2020. “Evidence Grows That Peopling of the Americas Began More Than 20,000 Years Ago.” Nature 584: 47–48.

Haddy, A., and A. Hanson. 1982. “Research Notes and Application Reports Nitrogen and Fluorine Dating of Moundville Skeletal Samples. Archaeometry 24 (1): 37–44.

Hajdas, I., P. Ascough, M. H. Garnett, S. J. Fallon, C. L. Pearson, G. Quarta, K. L. Spalding, H. Yamaguchi, and M. Yoneda. 2021. “Radiocarbon Dating.” Nature Reviews Methods Primers 1 (62): 1–26.

Hatala, Kevin G., Brigitte Demes, and Brian G. Richmond. 2016. “Laetoli Footprints Reveal Bipedal Gait Biomechanics Different from Those of Modern Humans and Chimpanzees.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283: 20160235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0235.

Hester, Thomas R., Harry J. Shafer, and Kenneth L. Feder. 1997. Field Methods in Archaeology, 7th ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.

Hillam, J., C. M. Groves, D. M. Brown, M. G. L. Baillie, J. M. Coles, and B. J. Coles. 1990. “Dendrochronology of the English Neolithic.” Antiquity 64 (243): 210–220.

Holmes, Richard. 2010. The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. New York: Vintage.

Ingber, Sasha. 2012. “Volcano Eruption Baked Rare Rhino Fossil.” National Geographic News, November 30, 2012. Accessed July 25, 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/s...anic-explosion.

Jay, Mandy, B. T. Fuller, Michael P. Richards, Christopher J. Knüsel, and Sarah S. King. 2008. “Iron Age Breastfeeding Practices in Britain: Isotopic Evidence from Wetwang Slack, East Yorkshire.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 136 (3): 327–337.

Jones, Nicola. 2020. “Carbon Dating, the Archaeological Workhorse, Is Getting a Major Reboot.” NatureNews, May 19, 2020. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01499-y

Klein, Richard G. 1999. The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Komar, Debra A., and Jane E. Buikstra. 2008. Forensic Anthropology: Contemporary Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kuniholm, Peter Ian, and Cecil L. Striker. 1987. “Dendrochronological Investigations in the Aegean and Neighboring Regions, 1983–1986.” Journal of Field Archaeology 14 (4): 385–398.

Laurenzi, Marinella A., Maria Laura Balestrieri, Giulio Bigazzi, Julio C. Hadler Neto, Pedro J. Iunes, Pio Norelli, Massimo Oddone, Ana Maria Osorio Araya, and José G. Viramonte. 2007. “New Constraints on Ages of Glasses Proposed as Reference Materials for Fission-Track Dating.” Geostandards & Geoanalytical Research 31 (2): 105–124.

Lebatard, Anne-Elisabeth, Didier L. Bourlès, Philippe Duringer, Marc Jolivet, Régis Braucher, Julien Carcaillet, Mathieu Schuster, et al. 2008. “Cosmogenic Nuclide Dating of Sahelanthropus tchadensis and Australopithecus bahrelghazali: Mio-Pliocene Hominids from Chad.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (9): 3226–3231.

Lyell, Charles. 1830–1833. Principles of Geology, Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth’s Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation. 3 vols. London: John Murray.

Maixner, Frank, Dmitrij Turaev, Amaury Cazenave-Gassiot, Marek Janko, Ben Krause-Kyora, Michael R. Hoopmann, Ulrike Kusebauch, et al. 2018. “The Iceman’s Last Meal Consisted of Fat, Wild Meat, and Cereals.” Current Biology Report 28 (14): 2348–2355.

Masao, Fidelis T., Elgidius B. Ichumbaki, Marco Cherin, Angelo Barili, Giovanni Boschian, David A. Lurino, Sofia Menconero, Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi, and Giorgio Manzi. 2016. “New Footprints from Laetoli (Tanzania) Provide Evidence for Marked Body Size Variation in Early Hominins.” eLife 5: e19568. https://elifesciences.org/articles/19568.

McDonough, Katelyn, Taryn Johnson, Ted Goebel, and Karl Reinhard. 2022. “Disease, Diet, and Thorny Headed Worm Infection in the Great Basin.” Paper presented at 50th Annual Meeting of the Nevada Archaeological Association, Tonopah, Nevada, April 22nd, 2022.

Michels, Joseph W. 1972. “Dating Methods.” Annual Review of Anthropology 1: 113–126.

Monastersky, Richard. 2015. “Anthropocene: The Human Age.” Nature 519 (7542): 144–147.

Montgomery, Janet, Jane A. Evans, Dominic Powlesland, and Charlotte A. Roberts. 2005. “Continuity or Colonization in Anglo-Saxon England? Isotope Evidence for Mobility, Subsistence Practice, and Status at West Heslerton.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 126 (2): 123–138.

National Park Service. 2022. “Fossilized Footprints.” National Park Service website, February 1. Accessed May 31, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/whsa/learn/natur...footprints.htm.

Pastoors, Andreas, Tilman Lenssen-Erz, Bernd Breuckmann, Tsamkxao Ciqae, Ui Kxunta, Dirk Rieke-Zapp, and Thui Thao. 2017. “Experience Based Reading of Pleistocene Human Footprints in Pech-Merle.” Quaternary International 430 (A): 155–162.

Potts, Richard. 2012. “Evolution and Environmental Change in Early Human Prehistory.” Annual Review of Anthropology 41: 151–167.

Raichlen, David A., and Adam D. Gordon. 2017. “Interpretation of Footprints From Site S Confirms Human-like Bipedal Biomechanics in Laetoli Hominins.” Journal of Human Evolution 107: 134–138.

Ravn, Morten. 2010. “Bronze and Early Iron Age Bog Bodies from Denmark.” Acta Archaeologica 81 (1): 112–113.

Reimer, Paula J., Edouard Bard, Alex Bayliss, J. Warren Beck, Paul G. Blackwell, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Caitlin E. Buck, et al. 2013. “INTCAL13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years cal BP.” Radiocarbon 55 (4): 1869–1887.

Reinhard, Johan. 2006. Ice Maiden: Inca Mummies, Mountain Gods, and Sacred Sites in the Andes. Washington, DC.: National Geographic.

Reitz, Elizabeth J., and Elizabeth S. Wing. 1999. Zooarchaeology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Renfrew, Colin, and Paul Bahn. 2016. Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice, 7th ed. New York: Thames and Hudson.

Ruddiman, William F., Zhengtang Guo, Xin Zhou, Hanbin Wu, and Yanyan Yu. 2008. “Early Rice Farming and Anomalous Methane Trends.” Quaternary Science Reviews 27 (13–14): 1291–1295.

Schmidt, Gavin. 1999. “Science Briefs: Cold Climates, Warm Climates: How Can We Tell Past Temperatures?” National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Institute for Space Studies. https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/1999_schmidt_01/

Shillito, Lisa-Marie, John C. Blong, Eleanor J. Green, and Eline N. van Asperen. 2020a. “The What, How and Why of Archaeological Coprolite Analysis.” Earth-Science Reviews 207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103196.

Shillito, Lisa-Marie, Helen L. Whelton, John C. Blong, Dennis L. Jenkins, Thomas J. Connolly, and Ian D. Bull. 2020b. “Pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas Identified by Human Fecal Biomarkers in Coprolites from Paisley Caves, Oregon.” Science Advances 6 (29).​​ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aba6404.

Sims, Douglas., and W. Spaulding. 2017. “Shallow Subsurface Evidence for Postglacial Holocene Lakes at Ivanpah Dry Lake: An Alternative Energy Development Site in the Central Mojave Desert, California, USA.” Journal of Geography and Geology 9 (1): 1–24. DOI: 10.5539/jgg.v9n1p1.

Slon, Viviane, Fabrizio Mafessoni, Benjamin Vernot, Cesare De Filippo, Steffi Grote, Bence Viola, Mateja Hajdinjak, Stéphane Peyrégne, Sarah Nagel, Samantha Brown, et al. 2018. “The Genome of the Offspring of a Neanderthal Mother and a Denisovan Father.” Nature 561 (7721): 113–116.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. 2018. Laetoli Footprint Trails. Smithsonian National Museum of History, October 23. Accessed February 14, 2023. http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/footprints/laetoli-footprint-trails.

Snoeck, Christophe, John Pouncett, Philippe Claeys, Steven Goderis, Nadine Mattielli, Mike Parker Pearson, Christie Willis, Antoine Zazzo, Julia A. Lee-Thorp, and Rick J. Schulting. 2018. “Strontium Isotope Analysis on Cremated Human Remains from Stonehenge Support[sic] Links With West Wales.” Scientific Reports 8. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28969-8.

Spaulding, W. G., and D. B. Sims. 2018. “A Glance to the East: Lake Ivanpah—An Isolated Southern Great Basin Paleolake. The 2018 Desert Symposium Field Guide and Proceedings, 121-131. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340493333_A_glance_to_the_east_Lake_Ivanpah-_an_isolated_southern_Great_Basin_paleolake

Spray, Aaron. “La Brea Woman: Only (& Controversial) Human from La Brea Tar Pits.” The Travel, April 3, 2022. Accessed July 31, 2022. https://www.thetravel.com/what-to-know-of-the-la-brea-woman/.

Steffen, Will, Johan Rockström, Katherine Richardson, Timothy M. Lenton, Carl Folke, Diana Liverman, Colin P. Summerhayes, et al. 2018. “Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene.” PNAS 115 (33): 8252–8259.

Stodder, Ann L. W. 2008. “Taphonomy and the Nature of Archaeological Assemblages.” In Biological Anthropology of the Human Skeleton, edited by M. Anne Katzenberg and Shelley R. Saunders, 71–115. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.

Straus, Lawrence Guy. 1989. “Grave Reservations: More on Paleolithic Burial Evidence.” Current Anthropology 30 (5): 633–634.

Sullivan, Terry, and Harry Gifford. 1908. She Sells Sea-Shells. London: Francis, Day, and Hunter.

Taylor, Anthony, Jarod M. Hutson, Vaughn M. Bryant, and Dennis L. Jenkins. 2020. “Dietary Items in Early to Late Holocene Human Coprolites from Paisley Caves, Oregon, USA.” Palynology 44 (1): 12–23.

Taylor, Paul D., Aaron O’Dea. 2014. A History of Life in 100 Fossils. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books.

Törnqvist, T. E., B. E. Rosenheim, P. Hu, and A. B. Fernandez. 2015. “Radiocarbon Dating and Calibration.” In Handbook of Sea-Level Research, edited by Ian Shennan, Antony J. Long, and Benjamin P. Horton, 347-360. Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118452547.ch23

University of Arizona. n.d. “Uranium-Thorium Dating: The Uranium 238 Decay Series.” Accessed November 21, 2022. https://www.geo.arizona.edu/Antevs/ecol438/uthdating.html

University of the Witwatersrand. 2017. “Little Foot Takes a Bow: South Africa’s Oldest and the World’s Most Complete Australopithecus Skeleton Ever Found, Introduced to the World.” ScienceDaily, December 6. Accessed February 14, 2023. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171206100104.htm.

van Calsteren, Peter, and Louise Thomas. 2006. “Uranium-Series Dating Applications in Natural Environmental Science.” Earth-Science Reviews 75 (1–4): 155–175.

Vanzetti, A., M. Vidale, M. Gallinaro, D. W. Frayer, and L. Bondioli. 2010. “The Iceman as a Burial.” Antiquity 84 (325): 681–692. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X0010016X.

Verghese, Namrata. 2021. “What Is Necropolitics? The Political Calculation of Life and Death.” Teen Vogue. March 10, 2021. Accessed February 14, 2023. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-necropolitics.

Vidale, M., L. Bondioli, D. W. Frayer, M. Gallinaro, and A. Vanzetti. 2016. “Ötzi the Iceman.” Expedition 58 (2): 13–17. Accessed February 14, 2023. https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/otzi-the-iceman/.

Wade, Lizzie. 2021. “Footprints Support Claim of Early Arrival in the Americas.” Science 373 (6562): 1426. Accessed February 14, 2023. https://www.sciencemagazinedigital.o...ticleId1727132.

Waters, Colin N., Jan Zalasiewicz, Anthony D. Barnosky, Alejandro Cearreta, Agieszka Galuszka, Juliana A. Ivar Do Sul, Catherine Jeandel, et al. 2016 “Is the Anthropocene Distinct from the Holocene?” Science 351 (6269): aad2622-1-10. DOI:10.1126/science.aad2622

Watson, Traci. 2017. “Ancient Bones Reveal Girl’s Tough Life in Early Americas.” Nature 544 (7648): 15–16.

Wendt, Kathleen, A., Xianglei Li,, and R. Lawrence Edwards. 2021. “Uranium-Thorium Dating of Speleothems.” Elements 17 (2): 87–92.

White, Tim D. 1986. “Cut Marks on the Bodo Cranium: A Case of Prehistoric Defleshing.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 69 (4): 503–509.

Williams, Linda D. 2004. Earth Science Demystified. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.

Wilson, Andrew S., Timothy Taylor, Maria Constanza Ceruti, Jose Antonio Chavez, Johan Reinhard, Vaughan Grimes, Wolfram Meier-Augenstein, et al. 2007. “Stable Isotope and DNA Evidence for Ritual Sequences in Inca Child Sacrifice.” PNAS 104 (42): 16456–16461.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Lee Anne Zajicek, who coauthored the first edition. Her original contributions continue to be an integral part of this chapter. We thank the staff of the Maturango Museum, Ridgecrest, California. Specifically, for their generous help with photography and fossil images, we acknowledge Debbie Benson, executive director; Alexander K. Rogers, former archaeology curator; Sherry Brubaker, natural history curator; and Elaine Wiley, history curator. We thank Sharlene Paxton, a librarian at Cerro Coso Community College, Ridgecrest, California, for her guidance and expertise with OER and open-source images, and John Stenger-Smith and Claudia Sellers from Cerro Coso Community College, Ridgecrest, California, for their feedback on the chemistry and plant biology content. Finally, we thank William Zajicek and Lauren Zajicek, our community college students, for providing their impressions and extensive feedback on early drafts of the chapter.

Image Descriptions

Figure 7.6: Geologic time scale showing the geologic eons, eras, periods, epochs, and associated dates in millions of years ago (MYA). The time scale also shows the onset of major evolutionary and tectonic events affecting the North American continent and the Northern Cordillera (SCAK, south-central Alaska; SEAK, southeast Alaska; NAK, northern Alaska; CAK central Alaska). The following subdivisions and events are included on the time scale, from oldest to youngest. The oldest subdivision of the time scale is the Precambrian (symbolized by PC, X, Y, or Z in the GRI GIS data). The Precambrian is split into three eons: Hadean (4600-4000 MYA), Archean (4000-2500 MYA), and Proterozoic (2500-541 MYA). Global evolutionary and tectonic events that occurred during the Precambrian include (organized from oldest to youngest and including the eon in which the event occurred): formation of the Earth 4,600 MYA (Hadean); formation of the Earth’s crust (Hadean); origin of life (Hadean); oldest known Earth rocks (Archean); early bacteria and algae (stromatolies; Archean); simple multicelled organisms (Proterozoic); Kanektok Metamorphic Complex (oldest known rocks in Alaska; Proterozoic); and complex multicellular organisms (Proterozoic). The next subdivision of the timescale is the Phanerozoic Eon (541.0 MYA-present). The Phanerozoic Eon is split into three eras: Paleozoic (541.0-252.2 MYA; symbolized by PZ in the GRI GIS data), Mesozoic (252.2-66.0 MYA; symbolized by MZ in the GRI GIS data), and Cenozoic (66.0 MYA-present; symbolized by CZ in the GRI GIS data). The Paleozoic Era is split into seven periods (organized from oldest to youngest and including the geologic map symbol used in the GRI GIS data): Cambrian (541.0-485.4 MYA; C); Ordovician (485.4-443.4 MYA; O); Silurian (443.3-419.2 MYA; S); Devonian (419.2-358.9 MYA; D); Mississippian (358.9-323.2 MYA; M); Pennsylvanian (323.2-298.9 MYA; PN; the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian are also collectively known as the Carboniferous); and Permian (298.9-252.2; P). Major evolutionary and tectonic events that occurred during the Paleozoic include (organized from oldest to youngest and including the period in which the event occurred): Wales Orogeny (SEAK; Cambrian); early shelled organisms (Cambrian); rise of corals (Cambrian); trilobite maximum (Ordovician); primitive fish (Ordovician); mass extinction (Ordovician-Silurian); first land plants (Silurian), Kakas Orogeny (SEAK; Silurian); first forests (evergreens; Devonian); extensive plutonism and volcanism in the Yukon-Tanana and Brooks Range (Devonian); first amphibians (Devonian); mass extinction (Devonian); Ellesemerian Orogeny/Antler Orogeny (Devonian-Mississippian); ancestral Rocky Mountains (Mississippian); first reptiles (Mississippian); sharks abundant (Pennsylvanian); coal-forming swamps (Pennsylvanian); supercontinent Pangaea and Tethys Ocean (Pennsylvanian-Permian); and mass extinction (end Permian). The Mesozoic Era is split into three periods (organized from oldest to youngest and including the geologic map symbol used in the GRI GIS data): Triassic (252.2-201.3 MYA; Tr), Jurassic (201.3-145.0 MYA; J), and Cretaceous (145.0-66.0 MYA; K). Global evolutionary and tectonic events that occurred during the Mesozoic include (organized from oldest to youngest and including the period in which the event occurred): flying reptiles (Triassic); first dinosaurs and first mammals (Triassic); breakup of Pangaea begins (Triassic); mass extinction (end Triassic); Talkeetna arc (Jurassic); dinosaurs diverse and abundant (Jurassic); Brookian Orogeny (Jurassic-Cretaceous); early flowering plants (Cretaceous); opening of the Canada Basin and rotation of Arctic Alaska (Cretaceous); placental mammals (Cretaceous); exhumation of the Nome Complex (Cretaceous); extensive plutonism (Cretaceous), mass extinction (end Cretaceous). The Cenozoic Era is split into three periods (organized from oldest to youngest and including the geologic map symbol used in the GRI GIS data): Paleogene (66.0-23.0 MYA; PG), Neogene (23.0-2.6 MYA; N; together the Paleogene and Neogene are also known as the Tertiary [T]), and Quaternary (2.6 MYA-present; Q). The Paleogene is split into three shorter subdivisions called epochs: Paleocene (66.0-56.0 MYA; EP), Eocene (56.0-33.9 MYA; E), and Oligocene (33.9-23.0 OL). The Neogene is split into two epochs: Miocene (23.0-5.3 MYA; MI), and Pliocene (5.3-2.6 MYA; PL). The Quaternary is split into two epochs: Pleistocene (2.6-0.01 MYA; PE), and Holocene (0.01 MYA-present, H). Global evolutionary and tectonic events that occurred during the Mesozoic include (organized from oldest to youngest and including the epoch in which the event occurred): early primates (Paleocene); slab-window subduction (SCAK; Paleocene-Eocene), start of Bering Sea Volcanic eruptions (Oligocene); Alaska Range uplift (CAK; Oligocene); spread of grassy ecosystems (Miocene-Pliocene); modern humans (Pleistocene); ice age glaciations (Pleistocene); extinction of large mammals and birds (end Pleistocene); end of the ice age (end Pleistocene).

Figure 7.24: A Radiocarbon Date Calibration Curve. X axis: Calendar years ago (cal yr BP) ranging from 25000 (left) to 0 (right). Y axis: Radiocarbon Age (14C yr BP) ranging from 0 (bottom) to over 20000 (top). A slightly wavy line shows the calibration curve that goes from top left (23900 cal, 20000 radiocarbon) to bottom right (0,0). Lines point to other calibrated points: (18000 cal, 15000 radiocarbon), (11400 cal, 10000 radiocarbon), and (5700 cal, 5000 radiocarbon).

Figure 7.26: Graph of averaged oxygen isotope (δ18O) in deep sea sediment carbonate. The Y axis shows isotopic ratio δ18O permil ranging from -1.2 to +1.2. X axis displays thousands of years before present, ranging from 0 to 600. Data shows large swings from modern climate at -0.8 δ18O to +.7 δ18O around 20 thousand years ago (last Ice Age Maximum), back down to -0.8 δ18O last warm period about 120 thousand years ago. While not as dramatic, nor labeled, the graph also shows additional wide swings of δ18O measurements through time.