Interstadial mammoth remains and associated pollen and insect fossils, Kotzebue Sound area, northwestern Alaska

A proboscidian (mammoth or mastodon) skeleton from the Baldwin Peninsula, northwestern Alaska, is associated with plant remains 26,900 (+2,400, −3,400) C¹⁴ yr old (AU-90). Pollen from the same level records shrub tundra dominated by dwarf birch, sedges, and grasses; spruce pollen is lacking, and alder is represented only by a few stray grains, indicating that forest vegetation lay hundreds of kilometres away. The radiocarbon age and the pollen spectrum suggest that the animal lived during a late Wisconsinan interstadial interval equivalent to the Plum Point Interstade of the Great Lakes region of North America and the final mild episode of the Kargin Interstade of northwestern Siberia.