Last straw versus Blitzkrieg overkill: Climate-driven changes in the Arctic Siberian mammoth population and the Late Pleistocene extinction problem |
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| Authors: | PA Nikolskiy LD Sulerzhitsky VV Pitulko |
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| Institution: | 1. Geological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevsky per. 7, 119017 Moscow, Russia;2. Institute for the Material Culture History, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, 191186 Saint Petersburg, Russia;1. Laboratório de Macroecologia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Campus Jataí, Cx. Postal 03, 75804-020, Jataí, GO, Brazil;2. Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Cx. Postal 131, 74001-970, Goiânia, GO, Brazil;3. Departamento de Ecologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Cx. Postal 131, 74001-970, Goiânia, GO, Brazil;1. Diamond and Precious Metals Geology Institute, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (DPMGIRAS), 39 Prospect Lenina, 677980 Yakutsk, Russia;2. Yakutian Academy of Sciences, 39 Prospect Lenina, 677007 Yakutsk, Russia;3. North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU), 48 Kulakovskogo str., 677013 Yakutsk, Russia;4. Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, SD Inc., 1800 HWY 18 US, Hot Springs, SD 57747, USA;5. Yakutia State Agricultural Academy, 15 Krassilnikova str., 677007 Yakutsk, Russia;6. Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences (MRIPAS), 17-230 Bia?owie?a, Poland;7. North-East Science Station, Pacific Institute of Geography, Far East Branch, Russ. Ac. Sci. (NESSPIG), 678830 Cherskiy, Russia;8. Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (ZINRAS), 1 Universitetskaya quay, 199034 Sankt-Petersburg, Russia;9. Center for Isotope Research, Groningen University, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, Netherlands;1. Department of Biology, University of Hildesheim, Universitätsplatz 1, 31141 Hildesheim, Germany;2. Institute of Geography and Geology, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Str. 17a, 17487 Greifswald, Germany;3. Senckenberg Research Institutes and Natural History Museums, Research Station of Quaternary Palaeontology Weimar, Am Jakobskirchhof 4, 99423 Weimar, Germany;1. Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny 29, 119017 Moscow, Russia;2. Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands;3. Center for Isotope Research, Groningen University, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands;4. Institute of Geology of the Komi Science Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pervomayskaya 54, 167982 Syktyvkar, Russia;1. Institute of Geography RAS, Moscow, Russia;2. Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology UB RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia;3. Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, The Netherlands;4. Moscow State University, Russia;5. Zoological Institute RAS, St.-Petersburg, Russia;6. Institute of Geology of Komi SC UB RAS, Syktyvkar, Russia;7. Center for Isotope Research, Groningen University, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | A set of radiocarbon dates on woolly mammoth were obtained from several regions of Arctic Siberia: the New Siberian Islands (n = 68), north of the Yana-Indigirka Lowland (n = 43), and the Taimyr Peninsula (n = 18). Based on these and earlier published dates (n = 201) from the East Arctic, a comparative analysis of the time-related density distribution of 14C dates was conducted. It was shown that the frequencies of 14C dates under certain conditions reflect temporal fluctuations in mammoth numbers. At the end of the Pleistocene the number of mammoths in the East Arctic changed in a cyclic manner in keeping with a general “Milankovitch-like” trend. The fluctuations in numbers at the end of the Pleistocene occurred synchronously with paleoenvironmental changes controlled by global climatic change. There were three minima of relative mammoth numbers during the last 50 000 years: 22 000, 14 500–19 000, and 9500 radiocarbon years ago, or around 26 000, 16–20 000, and 10 500 calendar years respectively. The last mammoths lived on the New Siberian Islands, which were connected to the continent at that time, 9470 ± 40 radiocarbon years ago (10 700 ± 70 calendar years BP). This new youngest date approximates the extinction time of mammoths in the last continental refugium of the Holarctic. The adverse combination of environmental parameters was apparently a major factor in the critical reduction in mammoth numbers. The dispersal of humans into the Arctic areas of Siberia no later than 28 000 radiocarbon years ago did not overtly influence animal numbers. Humans were not responsible for the destruction of a sustainable mammoth population. The expanding human population could have become fatal to mammoths during strong the minima of their numbers, one of which occurred at the very beginning of the Holocene. |
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