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Lab number
GSC-2865
Field number
PR2-77, PR3-77
Material dated
bison bone collagen; collagène osseux de bison
Taxa dated
Bison cf. priscus, 2 tibiae (576 g, id. by C.S. Churcher)
Locality
municipal gravel pit on the west (left) bank of Peace River, 345 m asl, in the town of Peace River, Alberta
Map sheet
84 C/03
Submitter
C.S. Churcher
Date submitted
May 28, 0098
Normalized Age
9880 ± 130
δ13C (per mil)
-20.2
Significance
palaeobiology; paléobiologie
Context
gravel pit, 8 m below the terrace surface, 35 m above Peace River, nearly 200 m below prairie level
Associated taxa
Mammalia: Bison priscus cf.
Comments
HbQh-VP, Lane Pit: The tibiae dated by GSC-2865 may represent Bison priscus on the evidence of horn cores and smashed skulls obtained from Mrs. Vera Lane's gravel pit, adjacent to the north. The tibiae were collected about 8 m below the terrace surface but may have originated 5 m higher where other bones have been found. The date is in agreement with dates from the Watino site (GkQj-VP), and it indicates that the river had already incised its valley to near the present depth by 9880 years ago and that the trunk drainage system in the Peace River country then was close to its present grade. This is a surprisingly fast rate of downcutting if the area had been covered by Classical Wisconsinan ice only a few thousand years before, and it raises the question of how important that glaciation was in the region. Most of the bones recovered from this gravel terrace derive from large bison (Bison cf. priscus), with only single specimens of wapiti antler (Cervus canadensis) or mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) (Churcher and Wilson, 1979). A horse metapodial was recovered in 1979. This, as in the case of the Watino dates, is surprising, for at that time such animals undoubtedly were still extant, though perhaps greatly reduced in number. They may have been extinct locally.

References