ABSTRACT Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, Oregon, U.S.A. offer a unique perspective on Native Americans living in the Great Basin during the Younger Dryas. The cave sediments are mixed with abundant, disaggregated, packrat coprolites. We developed a technique for processing these packrat coprolites. Using this technique, this study analyses fifteen packrat coprolite samples separated from sediments collected from the sidewall of a test unit within Paisley Caves #2. The results were then used to create a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the region. This reconstruction was then compared to a previous reconstruction based on the fossil pollen in the sediment from the same site. The reconstructions were similar. However, we found that the packrat coprolites were prone to dietary biases that could mask the true paleovegetation of the area. By studying the differences and similarities of these two sample sets, we obtained a better understanding of how each set reflects the local environment.

中文翻译：

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Neotoma (packrat) 粪便与佩斯利洞穴相关沉积物的比较

摘要 美国俄勒冈州佩斯利 5 Mile Point Caves 提供了一个独特的视角来了解年轻仙女木时期生活在大盆地的美洲原住民。洞穴沉积物与丰富的、分散的、packrat coprolites 混合。我们开发了一种处理这些 Packrat 粪化石的技术。使用这种技术，本研究分析了从佩斯利洞穴 #2 内一个测试单元侧壁收集的沉积物中分离出来的 15 份袋鼠粪化石样本。然后将结果用于创建该地区的古环境重建。然后将这种重建与先前基于同一地点沉积物中的化石花粉进行的重建进行比较。重建是相似的。然而，我们发现 Packrat 粪化石容易出现饮食偏差，这可能会掩盖该地区真正的古植被。