Berenice Solis Castillo Paleosol development in alluvial-colluvial sequences during Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene in Tlaxcala, Central Mexico: Ecological records of the early peopling
The reconstruction of the characteristics and distribution of different ecological niches at the end of Pleistocene and the beginnings of Holocene have been boarded through study of alluvial-colluvial processes andpaleosols in the state of Tlaxcala.
In the state of Tlaxcala they have been registered pedoestarigrafic sequences of the late pleistocene and early Holocene en the walls of for gullies (barrancas) Concepcion, Huexoyucan, Tenexac and Tlalpan. In the ravines the profiles are formed by paleosols and sediments. This study identify the variety of paleosols as well as its distribution in the landscape. These profiles were characterized by their physical, chemical and micromophological properties.
All the sequences count on an established absolute chronology by means of by radiocarbon dating of the organic matter of paleosols.
Between 10 000 and 9 000 B.P. the volumes of running water were low but more constants than nowadays, allowing a simultaneous sedimentation with the formation of thick cumulic soil horizons. The gleization, the accumulation of dark humus and the development of biogenic structure and porosity indicate the presence of humid pastures in the bottoms of valleys. This ecological niche, without modern equivalents in the Central Mexican Plateau, could be attractive for the last great herbivores and for the early gathering-hunters of the region. In addition, the prevalence of the accumulation of sediments over erosive processes allows the conservation of some human activity vestiges in these sedimentary environments. This allows us to approach, from another perspective, the subject on the arrival and the first human occupations in America since they are a problem that is considered of great interest. Mainly, because already as Homo sapiens specie has occupied this territory having a particular development indicated in the denominated as great cultural traditions, which have marked the evolutionary panorama of the man in this continent but, on other hand, there are not chronological sequences of great scale related to this problem, particularly in Tlaxcala.
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