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The Yukon Palaeontologist
Grant Zazula, Ph.D., Yukon Palaeontologist
Research background and interests: Pleistocene palaeoenvironments in Yukon; biogeography and chronology of late Pleistocene fauna and flora; fossil arctic ground squirrels in Beringia; Quaternary palaeoecology and palaeobotany; Pleistocene climates, glacial history and geomorphology; Early human occupation of Beringia and the New World; Pleistocene extinctions.
Grant Zazula started in the position of Yukon Palaeontologist in December, 2006. Although new to the program, he has conducted palaeontological and palaeoenvironmental studies in Yukon since 1999. Grant is currently involved in several collaborative research projects with the aim of uncovering new information on Ice Age animals, plants and ecosystems throughout Yukon Territory.
Recent scientific publications
Zazula, G.D., Froese, D.G., Elias, S.A., Kuzmina, S., and Mathewes, R.W. (in press). Arctic ground squirrels of the mammoth-steppe: paleoecology of middens from the last glaciation, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews.
Wooler, M.J., Zazula, G.D., Edwards, M.E., Froese, D.G., Boone, R.D., Parker, C., and Bennett, B. (in press). Stable isotope (C and N) compositions of eastern Beringian grasses and sedges: investigating their potential as paleoenvironmental indicators. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research.
Zazula, G.D., Telka, A.M., Harington, C.R., Schweger, C.E., and Mathewes, R.W. (in press). New spruce (Picea spp.) macrofossils from Yukon Territory: implications for Late Pleistocene refugia in Eastern Beringia. Arctic 59 (4), 391-400.
Zazula, G.D., Froese, D.G., Elias, S.A., Kuzmina, S., La Farge, C., Reyes, A.V., Sanborn, P.T., Schweger, C.E., Smith, C.A.S., and Mathewes, R.W. (2006). Vegetation buried under Dawson tephra (25,300 14C yr BP) and locally diverse late Pleistocene paleoenvironments of Goldbottom Creek, Yukon, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 242, 253-:286.
Zazula, G.D., Mathewes, R.W., and Harestad, A.S. (2006). Cache selection by arctic ground squirrels inhabiting boreal-steppe meadows of southwest Yukon Territory. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research 38 (4), 631-638.
Froese, D.G., Zazula, G.D., and Reyes, A.V. (2006). Seasonality of the late Pleistocene Dawson tephra and preservation of a buried riparian surface in central Yukon Territory. Quaternary Science Reviews. 25: 1542-1551.
Sanborn, P.T., Smith, C.A.S., Froese, D.G., Zazula, G.D., and Westgate, J.A. (2006). Full-glacial paleosols in perennially frozen loess sequences, Klondike goldfields, Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Research. 66: 147-157.
Zazula, G.D., Schweger, C.E., Beaudoin A.B., and McCourt, G.H. (2006). Macrofossil and pollen evidence for full glacial steppe and ecological mosaic in Bluefish River watershed, eastern Beringia. Quaternary International. 142-143: 2-16.
Zazula, G.D., Froese, D.G., Westgate, J.A., LaFarge, C.A., and Mathewes, R.W. (2005). Paleoecology of Beringian “packrat” middens from central Yukon Territory. Quaternary Research. 63: 189-198.
Gillis, E.A., Morrison, S.F., Zazula, G.D., and Hik, D.S. (2005). Evidence for selective caching by arctic ground squirrels living in alpine meadows in the Yukon. Arctic. 59: 354-360.
Zazula, G.D., Duk-Rodkin, A., Schweger, C.E., and Morlan, R.E. (2004). Late Pleistocene chronology of glacial Lake Old Crow and the northwest margin of the Laurentide ice sheet. In: Ehlers, J. & Gibbard, P.L. (Eds.) (2004). Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology, Part II: North America. Developments in Quaternary Science. 2b: 347-362.
Zazula, G.D., Froese, D.G., Schweger, C.E., Mathewes, C.E., Beaudoin, A.B., Telka, A.M., Harington, C.R., and Westgate, J.A. (2003). Ice age steppe vegetation in east Beringia. Nature. 423: 603.
Froese, D.G., and Zazula, G.D. eds. (2003). 3rd International Mammoth Conference Field Guide to Quaternary Research in the Klondike Goldfields, Occasional Papers in Earth Sciences No. 6. Palaeontology Program, Government of Yukon. 72 pp.
Zazula, G.D. (2003). Full-glacial macrofossils, paleoecology and stratigraphy of the Bluefish Exposure, northern Yukon. Occasional papers in Earth Sciences No. 4, Palaeontology Program, Government of Yukon, 143 pp.
Zazula, G.D., Froese, D.G. Telka, A.M., Mathewes, R.W., and Westgate, J.A. (2003). Plants, bugs, and a giant mammoth tusk: paleoecology of Last Chance Creek, Yukon Territory. In: Yukon and Exploration Geology 2002, D.S. Emond and L.L. Lewis (Eds.), Exploration and Geological Services Division, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, pp. 251-258.
Contact Palaeontology
Grant Zazula
Yukon Palaeontologist
Department of Tourism & Culture
Government of Yukon
Box 2703
Whitehorse, Yukon
Canada Y1A 2C6
Phone: (867) 667-8089
Toll free (In Yukon): 1-800-661-0408, local 8089
Fax: (867) 667-5377