Radiocarbon Dates of Late Quaternary Megafauna and Botanical Remains from Central Alberta, Canada

Abstract

The chronologic record of late Quaternary biota from central Alberta has broad implications for understanding the archaeological, geological, paleontological, and paleoenvironmental record of western North America. Radiocarbon dates on remains of Pleistocene megafauna were previously used as proxies for the advance and retreat of ice sheets across Alberta (e.g. Young et al. 1994; Dyke 2005), and are important for understanding landscape changes that likely influenced the timing of human dispersal into North America (Burns 1996). ¹⁴C records of Holocene age continue to refine our understanding of landscape change leading up to modern environmental conditions (Beaudoin 2003). Here, we report 15 ¹⁴C dates from new and previously recorded sites in central Alberta, and one from just across the border within Saskatchewan.

DOI: 10.2458/56.17922