Pattern of extinction of the woolly mammoth in Beringia
| Autor: | David W. Beilman, Yaroslav V. Kuzmin, B. Van Valkenburgh, Beth Shapiro, Glen M. MacDonald, L. A. Orlova, K.V. Kremenetski, Robert K. Wayne |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
Marine isotope stage
Woolly mammoth General Physics and Astronomy Extinction Biological General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Beringia Article 03 medical and health sciences Mammoths Animals 0601 history and archaeology Younger Dryas Holocene 030304 developmental biology Mammoth 0303 health sciences Multidisciplinary Extinction 060102 archaeology biology Ecology Last Glacial Maximum 06 humanities and the arts General Chemistry biology.organism_classification Biological Climate Action Geography |
| Zdroj: | Nature communications, vol 3, iss 1 Nature Communications |
| Popis: | Extinction of the woolly mammoth in Beringia has long been subject to research and speculation. Here we use a new geo-referenced database of radiocarbon-dated evidence to show that mammoths were abundant in the open-habitat of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (∼45–30 ka). During the Last Glacial Maximum (∼25–20 ka), northern populations declined while those in interior Siberia increased. Northern mammoths increased after the glacial maximum, but declined at and after the Younger Dryas (∼12.9–11.5 ka). Remaining continental mammoths, now concentrated in the north, disappeared in the early Holocene with development of extensive peatlands, wet tundra, birch shrubland and coniferous forest. Long sympatry in Siberia suggests that humans may be best seen as a synergistic cofactor in that extirpation. The extinction of island populations occurred at ∼4 ka. Mammoth extinction was not due to a single cause, but followed a long trajectory in concert with changes in climate, habitat and human presence. Beringian mammoths were abundant 45,000 to 30,000 years ago, but then experienced a long decline in concert with changes in climate, habitat and human presence. This study uses 14C dating to trace their spatio temporal pattern of extinction until the loss of final island populations about 4,000 years ago. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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