Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Radiocarbon Ages on Rodent Middens from the Southwestern United States

Abstract

The analysis of rodent middens, principally deposited by packrats (Neotoma sp), has rapidly become the most important paleoecologic and paleoclimatologic tool in the southwestern United States. The recent discovery of rodent middens created by stick-nest rats (Leporillus sp) and rock wallabies (Petrogale sp) in Australia (Green et al, 1983; P S Martin, oral commun, 1984) and by dassie rats (Petromus typicus) in South Africa (L Scott, oral commun, 1984) portends the use of midden analysis in arid regions worldwide. Several recent reviews of southwestern paleoecology (eg, Spaulding et al, 1983) rely heavily on rodent middens for ecologic and climatic reconstructions.