UNT Paleozoology & Zooarchaeology

Wildlife Ecology & Paleozoology: Our research team, which now includes students and professionals at UNT and other universities and agencies, studies the ecological parameters that influence body size in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).  Our team is in the process of expanding our interests to other mammals.  An important direction of our research program is that we examine temporal and spatial variability in body size at multiple scales.

Paleozoology & zooarchaeology: This has been our most productive research program at UNT.  Our team consists of students and two zooarchaeologists at UNT.  Please see our publications below, but also check out Dr. Lisa Nagaoka's webpage through the Department of Geography.  Recent work includes research on ungulate body size and population responses to harvest by humans as well as morphometry of freshwater bivalves.

Organic residues in pottery: At UNT we have an interdisciplinary team in place to extract, characterize, and study the broader subsistence and cultural implications of lipid and protein residues in pottery.  We have laid the ground-work for a successful research program in residue analysis over the last two years, which includes the initiation of a methodological improvement in protein-residue extraction and a study of lipid residues in the American Southwest.  However, studying organic residues from prehistoric sources, particularly pottery, is a tricky business; we hope to have publishable results in the next few months, but stay tuned!

Publications:

Recent

Stevens, S. M. Jr., S. Wolverton, B. Venables, A. Barker, K. Seeley, & P. Adhikari. 2010: Evaluation of microwave-assisted enzymatic digestion and tandem mass spectrometry for the identification of protein residues from an inorganic solid matrix: implications in archaeological research. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry (Springer) 396:1491-1499

Wolverton, S., C. R. Randklev, & J. H. Kennedy. 2010: A conceptual model for freshwater mussel (family: Unionidae) remain preservation. Journal of Archaeological Science (Elsevier) 37:164-173.

Wolverton, S, M. A. Huston, J. H. Kennedy, K. Cagle, & J. D. Cornelius.  2009: Conformation to Bergmann's rule in white-tailed deer can be explained by food availability.  American Midland Naturalist (University of Notre Dame) 162:403-417.

Huston, M. A. & S. Wolverton. 2009: The global distribution of net primary production: resolving the paradox.  Ecological Monographs (ESA) 79:343-377.

Wolverton, S., R. L. Lyman, J. H. Kennedy, & T. W. La Point.  2009: The terminal Pleistocene extinctions, hypermorphic evolution, and the dynamic equilibrium model.  Journal of Ethnobiology (Allen) 29:28-63.

Randklev, C. R., S. Wolverton, & J. H. Kennedy. 2009: A biometric technique for assessing prehistoric freshwater mussel population dynamics (family: Unionidae) in north Texas.  Journal of Archaeological Science (Elsevier) 36:205-213

Wolverton, S.  2008: Characteristics of late Holocene American black bears in Missouri.  Ursus (Allen Press) 19(2):177-184.

Wolverton, S., L. Nagaoka, J. Densmore, & B. Fullerton.  2008 (online version): White-tailed deer harvest pressure and within-bone nutrient exploitation during the mid- to late Holocene in southeast Texas.  Before Farming (Western Academic & Specialist Press) 2008/2, Article 3.

Wolverton, S.  2008: Harvest pressure and environmental carrying capacity: an ordinal scale model of effects on ungulate prey.  American Antiquity (SAA Press) 73(2):179-199.

Nagaoka, L., S. Wolverton, & B. Fullerton.  2008: Taphonomic analysis of the Twighlight Beach seals.  In Clark, G., Leach, F. and O'Connor, S. (eds) Islands of Inquiry: Colonisation, Seafaring, and the Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes, Terra Australis 29, pages 475-498.  Australian National University Press, Canberra.

Wolverton, S., J. H. Kennedy, & J. L. Cornelius. 2007: A paleozoological perspective on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus texana) population density and body size in central Texas.  Environmental Management (Springer Verlag) 39:545-552.

Wolverton, S. 2006: Natural-trap ursid mortality and the Kurten response.  Journal of Human Evolution (Elsevier) 50:540-551.

Wolverton, S. 2005: The effects of the Hypsithermal on prehistoric foraging in Missouri.  American Antiquity (SAA Press) 70:91-106.

Wolverton, S. 2002: NISP:MNE and %whole in analysis of preshistoric carcass exploitation.  North American Archaeologist (Baywood) 23(2):83-100.

Wolverton, S.  2002: Zooarchaeological evidence of prairie taxa in central Missouri during the mid-Holocene.  Quaternary Research (Elsevier) 58:200-204.

Lyman, R. L. & S. Wolverton.  2002: The late prehistori-early historic game sink in the northwestern United States.  Conservation Biology (Blackwell) 16(1):73-85.

Wolverton, S. 2001: Caves, ursids, and artifacts: a natural trap hypothesis.  Journal of Ethnobiology (Allen) 21(2):55-72.

Wolverton, S. & R. L. Lyman.  1998:  Measuring late Quaternary ursid diminution in the Midwest.  Quaternary research (Elsevier) 49:322-329.