USGS/NOAA North American Packrat Midden Database (version 3)
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Database Structure For further information, please contact the database administrator, Laura Strickland. Other Midden References of Interest:
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A Database of Paleoecological Records from Neotoma Middens in Western North AmericaForty years of scientific investigations on packrat middens have produced thousands of identified specimens and hundreds of published reports. The USGS/NOAA North American Packrat Midden Database (version 3) makes this wealth of data available in a standardized, quality-controlled format. This version of the Packrat Midden Database offers the most comprehensive, high-quality archive of midden data available for North America, and facilitates Quaternary paleoenvironmental studies on a range of local to regional scales. |
Dry caves and rockshelters in the American West host a unique and valuable paleobotanical resource - plant macrofossil remains preserved in middens composed of desiccated packrat (Neotoma spp.) urine. Middens are waste piles that packrats construct out of fecal matter and urine (Figure 1). Packrats incorporate pieces of plant material, bone, and other items they habitually collect from their environment into their middens. The packrat's sticky, viscous urine acts like a cement which binds the midden material together into a solid mass. Middens constructed in dry caves and rockshelters where they are protected from moisture may be preserved for tens-of-thousands of years (Figure 2). Fossil plant remains recovered from ancient midden deposits are often perfectly preserved, can be identified to species-level, and provide excellent material for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon-dated fossil midden assemblages provide detailed inventories of the plants and animals that lived in the vicinity of the collection site during past time periods. A series of dated middens from neighboring sites can provide a long-term record of changing plant communities and climate for a local area.
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