Robert Dello‐russo

Biographic Data

ID4435452
NAMERobert Dello‐russo
GIVEN NAMESRobert
FAMILY NAMEDello‐russo
SIGNATUREDELLO RUSSO R
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of New Mexico
ORCID0009-0001-2323-071X
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS8
TOTAL CITATIONS6
AUTHOR COUNT8
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2004
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX1

  • Gypsum Blisters, Relict Dunes, and the Visibility of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Sites in the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico

    Open AccessDavid M Rachal, Robert Dello‐russo et al.ARTICLEGeoarchaeology2026

    The visibility and preservation of Paleoindian and Early Archaic archaeological sites in arid environments are influenced by both human activity and geomorphic processes. In the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico, stabilized relict gypsum dunes—once thought too ancient to preserve buried cultural materials—are now recognized as dynamic landforms with significant archaeological potential. This study examines distinctive dune surface features, l…

  • Seeds of controversy

    Open AccessDavid M Rachal, Dave Rachal et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science2025Cited by: 1References: 1

  • The Pleistocene footprints are younger than we thought

    Open AccessDavid M Rachal, Robert Dello‐russo et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2024

    Past studies have demonstrated that Ruppia cirrhosa ( Ruppia ), which typically grows in brackish water, is far too unreliable to serve as the chronological basis for radiocarbon dating because of the hard water effect (HWE). Despite this unreliability, Ruppia seeds have been used to date footprints along the margins of paleo-Lake Otero in southern New Mexico to around 23,000–21,000 cal yr BP. In this study, we employ a modern analog approach usi…

  • Unresolved

    D Rhode, Christina M Neudorf et al.ARTICLEPaleoAmerica2024

    Pigati, J. S., K. B. Springer, J. S. Honke, D. Wahl, M. R. Champagne, S. R. H. Zimmerman, H. J. Gray, et al. [2023. “Independent Age Estimates Resolve the Controversy of Ancient Human Footprints at White Sands.” Science 382: 73–75. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh5007] provide new age estimates for human footprints found at White Sands Locality 2, New Mexico, concluding that controversies about previously reported age estimates of ∼21,000–23,0…

  • Deep‐water delivery model of Ruppia seeds to a nearshore/terrestrial setting and its chronological implications for Late Pleistocene footprints, Tularosa Basin, New Mexico

    Open AccessDavid M Rachal, Jim I Mead et al.ARTICLEGeoarchaeology2022References: 8

    Ruppia cirrhosa ( Ruppia ) seed layers have been used to constrain the age of footprints along the eastern shoreline of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico to around 21,000–23,000 calibrated years before the present. However, there remain two unresolved questions that can affect the reliability of the age(s) of the footprints. First, what is the nature of the geological context of the seed layers? Second, did the hard‐water effect impact the a…

  • Lake levels and trackways

    Open AccessDavid M Rachal, Kate E Zeigler et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Science Advances2021Cited by: 5References: 5

    The margins of Paleolake Otero in southern New Mexico, USA, contain one of the largest concentrations of fossilized late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) megafauna trackways in North America. These fossil footprints include tracks of Ice Age proboscideans, ground sloth, dire wolf, and camelids, as well as humans. Biomechanical interpretations of these fossil footprints suggest that prehistoric people in the basin regularly interacted with the megafaun…

  • Geoarchaeology of the Water Canyon Paleoindian site, west‐central New Mexico

    Open AccessVance T Holliday, Robert Dello‐russo et al.ARTICLEGeoarchaeology2019References: 9

    Water Canyon is a rare buried, multicomponent, stratified Paleoindian site in west‐central New Mexico. This paper presents a geoarchaeological assessment of the site as part of a broader interdisciplinary investigation of its paleoenvironmental history and archaeology. The archaeology is associated with ancient wetland deposits (Stratum 6) within an alluvial fan. The fan formed initially through the late Pleistocene. Formation of the fan stopped …

  • Geochemical comparisons of silicified rhyolites from two prehistoric quarries and 11 prehistoric projectile points, Socorro County, New Mexico, U.S.A

    Open AccessRobert Dello‐russo, Robert D Dello‐RussoARTICLEGeoarchaeology2004

    This paper documents the results of nondestructive X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) geochemical analyses and comparisons of silicified rhyolites from the Black Canyon and Sedillo Hill prehistoric quarries near Socorro, New Mexico, and subsequent comparisons of the quarry rhyolites with 11 temporally diagnostic projectile points. At the current level of analysis, findings indicate that (1) the two quarries are chemically distinct and (2) the lithic materi…