Packrat at its midden

A Database of Paleoecological Records from Neotoma Middens in Western North America Dry caves and rockshelters in western North America host a unique and valuable paleobotanical resource known as packrat middens. Packrat ( Neotoma spp.) middens composed of desiccated fecal matter and urine also contain well preserved fossil plant materials. Over fifty years of scientific investigations on packrat...

Paleoclimate archives consist of geologic (e.g., sediment cores) and biologic (e.g., tree rings) materials that preserve evidence of past changes in climate. They contain substances or features (climate proxies) that can be sampled and analyzed using a variety of physical and chemical methods. Using results from the analyses of proxies in archives, scientists reconstruct changes through time and...