135 Science and Stewardship of U.S. National Park Service Paleontological Resources

The National Park Service continues to advance and implement strategic approaches in the management of paleontological resources. This session showcases contributions to inventorying, monitoring, research, outreach, and other aspects of management, stewardship, and science of park fossils.

Monday, 20 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 302B

Paleoecology Through Taxonomic and Functional Diversity at Three Fossil Sites Within Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

Paper number: 135-13
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 4:35 PM – 4:50 PM

Authors

Abstract

          Understanding past ecological change from fossil faunal assemblages requires examining both the taxonomic and functional trait diversity of communities. Taxonomic composition provides information on faunal continuity, while functional traits provide insight into ecological conditions. In this study, we analyzed genus-level Glires communities from three fossil sites (Beaver Creek Rock Shelter, Graveyard Cave, and Salamander Cave) within Wind Cave National Park (WICA), South Dakota. Assemblages were subdivided into seven communities spanning from the late Pleistocene to the late Holocene. We also evaluated WICA’s modern faunal community as a recent comparison. For each community, we quantified taxonomic diversity using taxon occurrences. We repeated these analyses with functional traits that influence a specie's ecological role (i.e., hypsodonty, diet, foraging strata, and body mass) and calculated functional richness (FRic). Sørensen dissimilarity and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clustering were then used to evaluate pairwise taxonomic and functional beta diversity among communities.

          We find that most taxa were shared across communities, with Peromyscus, Reithrodontomys, and Chaetodipus occurring in all but one of the communities. Taxonomic and functional richness were lowest in the Pleistocene community (n = 8 genera and 5 functional groups, FRic = 0.00013) and highest in the modern community (n = 22 genera and 12 functional groups, FRic = 0.82). Plant diets and ground foraging were the dominant traits, with near equal proportions of hypsodont (high-crowned) and brachydont (low-crowned) dentition within each community. Despite similarities in alpha diversity, the cluster analysis revealed differences between pairwise functional and taxonomic beta diversity. Taxonomically, communities from the same site clustered together, while functional clusters grouped these communities differently. The Pleistocene community was a consistent outlier from the Holocene communities, characterized by its lower taxonomic richness and highest occurrences of hypsodont teeth (63%), plant diets (62%), and ground foraging (100%). These differences in how communities cluster highlight the importance of integrating both taxonomic identities and functional traits when comparing fossil communities to understand ecological patterns through time.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-413036

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