Paleoecological Significance of Holocene Insect Fossil Assemblages from the North Coast of Alaska

Abstract

Two peat sections containing insect fossil remains from the eastern coastal plain of the Alaskan North Slope were analyzed in comp with pollen studies. The sections span a period from 10 400 B.P. to 1320 B.P., providing information on the post-glacial distributions of some of the k species that were a part of the Beringian refugium fauna. The fossil insect evidence suggests climatic conditions similar to modern parameters, espc in the early Holocene, in general agreement with paleobotanical and vertebrate fossil interpretations for the coastal plain and elsewhere in e Beringia.