@article{8fa77ec79d8249548c90402ba63bc2ca,
title = "Sporormiella fungal spores, a palynological means of detecting herbivore density",
abstract = "During the historic period, spores of the dung fungus Sporormiella are abundant in lake and cave sediment where livestock are plentiful in the western United States. Sporormiella spores occasionally exceed 50% of the upland pollen sum in samples from corral ponds and bed-grounds, and routinely reach 4% in lake and marsh samples in pastoral areas. Sporormiella spores are comparatively rare in mid-Holocene sedimentary records, but they reach values of 2-4% in Pleistocene samples from lake sediments. Sporormiella spores are directly linked to extinct megaherbivores by their presence in mammoth dung from Bechan Cave, Utah. In several sites in the western United States, a precipitous decline of Sporormiella percentages after ca. 10,800 radiocarbon yr B.P. (12,900 years ago) marks a decline of herbivore density, probably associated with the North American megaherbivore extinction.",
keywords = "Extinction, Fungi, Herbivorous taxa, Quaternary, Spores, Sporormiella",
author = "Davis, {Owen K.} and Shafer, {David S.}",
note = "Funding Information: This paper was originally presented at the annual SAA meeting, April 24–17, 1991, New Orleans, Louisiana. Financial support for pollen analysis of Como and Head Lakes was provided by the Smithsonian Institution through Dennis Stanford, and by Grants from the National Science Foundation awarded to Owen Davis (ATM 8619467, SES 8800631, and SES 9009974). The Chambers Group, Santa Ana California, supported pollen analysis of sites CA-ORA-270 and CA-ORA-1029. Boneyard Fen was cored with the assistance of the Nature Conservancy. Ysidora Basin pollen analyses and radiocarbon dates were supported by ASM Associates, Oceanside, California, “Testing and evaluation of CA-SDI-13,930 on Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, San Diego County, California: A Paleoenvironmental Approach,” B.F. Byrd (ed.), prepared for Southwest Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, San Diego. Mary K. O'Rourke provided air-borne samples of Sporormiella. Jack D. Rogers, Washington State University confirmed the initial Sporormiella spore identifications for Wildcat Lake in 1973. Vance Haynes and two reviewers provided helpful editorial comments.",
year = "2006",
month = jul,
day = "21",
doi = "10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.11.028",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "237",
pages = "40--50",
journal = "Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology",
issn = "0031-0182",
publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",
number = "1",
}