Comparison of Mammalian Species Richness and Community Structure in Historic and Mid-Pleistocene Times in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

摘要: We used an exceptionally rich mid-Pleistocene paleontological sample from Porcupine Cave, South Park, Colorado, to study long-term patterns of species richness and ecological structure in local mammal communities. The fossil data were compared with historic (prior impacts by humans the last two centuries) order assess whether many climatic other environmental changes that have occurred since significantly affected numbers various size trophic categories. After accounting for potential sampling biases, we found remarkable similarity community between a ca. 850,000-year-old one, which suggests this high elevation Rocky Mountain exhibited cohesiveness — on scale hundreds thousands years overall as well number within Superimposed minor fluctuations shorter time scales identities through time; some these shorter-term may been response fluctuations. suggest its distribution across categories be useful metric assessing degree communities are perturbed baseline.