A Younger Dryas signature in bison bone stable isotopes from the southern Plains of North America

Stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope ratios from bison bone collagen recovered from Paleoindian bison kill sites provide a record of the B/A, YD, and EH climates in the North American southern Plains. This record is compared to the stable C isotopes derived from previously published, dated paleosols from the region. Together these data sources define a local response of the southern Plains grassland structure to the changing climatic conditions, specifically temperature and precipitation, during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, including a Clovis drought and late Folsom warmup and drying.