But the Paisley evidence suggests that the people who occupied these Oregon caves were exploiting a diverse array of resources — the plants of the lake margin, the fish of the lake, the small mammals of the surrounding shrublands, and potentially the larger animals of the region — in a pattern that is fundamentally opportunistic and ecologically sophisticated.

This broad-spectrum dietary approach is consistent with what ecologists would predict for optimal foraging in the Great Basin environment: in a landscape where any single resource is spatially and temporally variable, diversifying across multiple resource types reduces the risk of starvation and maximizes the overall caloric efficiency of the food-getting strategy.

The Contribution of Micromorphology

The micromorphological analysis of the Paisley Cave sediments — the examination of thin sections of undisturbed sediment under a microscope — contributed to the evaluation of the stratigraphic integrity concerns in ways that deserve specific attention.

Micromorphology is a specialized subfield that bridges geology, soil science, and archaeology.