Pleistocene Ecosystems of the Desert West

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February 14, 2020

Geoffrey Spaulding
​Terra Antigua
February 14, 10am - noon

Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center, 401 Tilting T Drive

Open to the public - Free


In the late 20th Century the introduction of packrat (Neotoma spp.) midden analysis led to an amazing increase in the resolution of paleovegetation reconstructions in western North America.

Along with a more comprehensive paleontological record, these lines of evidence allow extinct ecosystems to be examined at a level of detail never before possible.

This illustrated lecture will begin by describing tools developed to understand plant communities of the Pleistocene, especially fossil packrat analysis, which is particularly useful in the deserts.

The results of these studies will then be discussed, and in the process we’ll touch on:
  • The Pleistocene ecosystems of the interior deserts
  • Paleoclimates of the last 20,000 years
  • How plant species responded to glacial-age climate change
  • Implications for rates of evolutionary change
  • Coevolution between plants and extinct Pleistocene herbivores



​Dr. Geof Spaulding is a Paleobiologist and Quaternary Geologist with primary research focus on deserts and their environmental history.  

He earned his advanced degrees at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and has extensive experience in the paleoecology, geomorphology, paleohydrology, and biogeography of the American West.

He also is accomplished in paleoclimatic reconstruction, and in age-determinations of archaeological and paleontological sites in the West.

Prior to going into private practice Dr. Spaulding was an environmental project manager for Dames & Moore (10 years), and a Senior Technical Consultant with the international engineering and environmental firm CH2M Hill for15 years. Before joining industry, he was a Research Professor of Botany at the University of Washington, Seattle, specializing in arid‑lands studies and paleoenvironments of the southern Great Basin and Mojave Desert.

​Dr. Spaulding now lives in Henderson, Nevada and manages the non-profit Terra Antiqua, dedicated to a better understanding of environmental change in arid lands.


​Thanks to our 2019-2020 Speakers

David M. Miller, Ph.D.
The eastern California shear zone, past and present

Jack Horner
The Real Jurassic Park
Building a Dinosaur

Tom Demèrè
Whales and Baleen: How the largest animals on Earth evolved to feed on some of the smallest

William Stout
Dinosaurs, Penguins and Whales: Wildlife of Antarctica

Greg McDonald
Smilodon: The Iconic Sabre-Tooth

Jessie Atterholt
The Mysterious World of Vertebral Canals in Birds and Other Archosaurs



​​Thanks to our 2018-2019 Speakers
​
Eric Ekdale 
Whales in the Digital Age: Using CT Imaging to unravel the mysteries of Baleen Whales

Lyndon Murray 
Introduction to ABDSP

Jenny Ross 
The Island of California: Is there a scientific explanation for the 17th century myth?

Ron Blakey, Jorge Ledesma, Monte Marshall and Pat Abbott
Geologic Change in Western North America Since the Age of Dinosaurs

Pat Abbott
Sturzstroms: Large Volume, High Velocity Killer Debris Flows
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PLANTS

The presence of petrified wood scattered across the desert floor tells a vivid story of pre-historic woodlands in the distant past.

PALEOCLIMATE

The climatic and environmental story told by the rocks and fossils of the Park begins about 7 million years ago in the Miocene.

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VERTEBRATES

Discoveries from the fossil beds of the Anza-Borrego Desert have contributed to our understanding of the evolutionary history of  many vertebrate lineages.


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ROCKS

A look inside the rocks of Borrego. Bright colors identify the components of this plutonic rock.


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MAMMOTHS

The climatic and environmental story told by the rocks and fossils of the Park begins about 7 million years ago in the Miocene.

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INVERTEBRATES

Many of the species live today in the Gulf of California and a surprising number survive only in the Caribbean Sea.

STRATIGRAPHY

Forces originating in the relative motion between the Pacific and North American plates are tearing the southwestern edge of  North America apart.

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RECENT DISCOVERIES

A fossil bird beak found in the 1960s has recently been re-identified as belonging to a “terror bird" - family Phorusrhacidae.

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EVENTS


Plan to join us in October for our annual Open House, November for the start of our Certification Program, and at our monthly lectures from December to April.

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