North American Beetle Database: readme file
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               World Data Center A- Paleoclimatology
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NOTE: PLEASE CITE CONTRIBUTORS WHEN USING THIS DATA!!!!!


NAME OF DATA SET: North American Beetle Database 
LAST UPDATE: 11/96 (Original Receipt by WDCA Paleo)  
CONTRIBUTOR: Scott Elias, University of Colorado. 
IGBP PAGES/WDCA CONTRIBUTION SERIES NUMBER: 96-026
SUGGESTED DATA CITATION:  S. Elias, North American Beetle Database,
IGBP PAGES/World Data Center-A for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution 
Series # 96-026.  NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA.

ORIGINAL REFERENCES: 
Elias, S. A., 1996. Late Pinedale and Holocene seasonal temperatures
reconstructed from fossil beetle assemblages in the Rocky Mountains.
Quaternary Research, 46: 311-318.

Elias, S. A., Anderson, K., and Andrews, J. T., 1996. Late Wisconsin
climate in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada,
reconstructed from fossil beetle assemblages. Journal of Quaternary
Science, 11: 417-421.

GEOGRAPHIC REGION: North America
PERIOD OF RECORD: Modern
LIST OF FILES: readme.namerica_beetles.txt (this file), Alltaxa.key.txt, 
Alltaxa.dat.txt, plus individual site files created by Matt Duval for the 
PALE Project (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pale/index.html): baldwin.txt,
flound2.txt, blandbri.txt, ikpikpuk.txt, bshelf1.txt, isabella.txt, bshelf2.txt,
kulukbuk.txt, chijees.txt, mayovill.txt, chukchi.txt, oldcrow1.txt, clarence.txt,
oldcrow2.txt, colcreek.txt, evacree1.txt, titaluk1.txt, evacree2.txt, titaluk2.txt,
flound1.txt                                    

DESCRIPTION:
Modern Calibration data of beetle taxa distribution across North America.  
Data file consists of presence (data value 1) or absence/missing data value 
(data value 9) of 269 beetle taxa for 3125 sample locations across 
North America.  Data indicate modern distribution of various taxa and can be
used for calibration of paleo beetle assemblages for climatic reconstruction.