Collapse of the mammoth-steppe in central Yukon as revealed by ancient environmental DNA

AbstractThe temporal and spatial coarseness of megafaunal fossil records complicates attempts to to disentangle the relative impacts of climate change, ecosystem restructuring, and human activities associated with the Late Quaternary extinctions. Advances in the extraction and identification of ancient DNA that was shed into the environment and preserved for millennia in sediment now provides a way to augment discontinuous palaeontological assemblages. Here, we present a 30,000-year sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) record derived from loessal permafrost silts in the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada. We observe a substantial turnover in ecosystem composition between 13,500 and 10,000 calendar years ago with the rise of woody shrubs and the disappearance of the mammoth-steppe (steppe-tundra) ecosystem. We also identify a lingering signal of Equus sp. (North American horse) and Mammuthus primigenius (woolly mammoth) at multiple sites persisting thousands of years after their supposed extinction from the fossil record.

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Ecological turnover and megafaunal ghost ranges during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in central Yukon, Canada as revealed by palaeoenvironmental DNA

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-372 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tyler J. Murchie ◽

Alistair J. Monteath ◽

George S. Long ◽

Emil Karpsinski ◽

Scott Cocker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ancient Dna ◽

North American ◽

Mass Extinction ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Biological Tissues ◽

Mammuthus Primigenius ◽

Steppe Vegetation ◽

Woody Shrubs ◽

Multiple Samples ◽

Woolly Mammoth

The multitude of factors alleged to have contributed to the late Quaternary mass extinction of some two-thirds of Earth&#8217;s megafauna is complicated by the coarse record of buried macro-fossils. In response, micro-methods such as ancient DNA have been increasingly able to augment discontinuous palaeontological records to investigate the relative timings of vegetation turnover versus megafaunal extirpations&#8212;all in the absence of biological tissues. Here, we present sedimentary ancient DNA data retrieved using the PalaeoChip Arctic-1.0 bait-set diachronically identifying fauna and flora from permafrost cores recovered from the Klondike region of central Yukon, Canada dating between 30,000&#8211;6000 calendar years BP. We observe a substantial turnover in ecosystem composition between 13,000&#8211;10,000 BP with the rise of woody shrubs and the disappearance of mammoth-steppe vegetation. We also identify a lingering signal of Equus sp. (North American horse) and Mammuthus primigenius (woolly mammoth) from multiple samples thousands of years after their last dated macro-fossils, possibly as late as the mid-Holocene.

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Late Quaternary woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blum) remains from southern Transdanubia, Hungary

Comptes Rendus Palevol ◽

10.1016/j.crpv.2009.08.001 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 9 (1-2) ◽

pp. 47-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Gyula Konrád ◽

János Kovács ◽

Amadé Halász ◽

Krisztina Sebe ◽

Hajnalka Pálffy

Keyword(s):

Late Quaternary ◽

Mammuthus Primigenius ◽

Woolly Mammoth

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New ancient DNA sequences suggest high genetic diversity for the woolly mammoth ( Mammuthus primigenius )*

Progress in Natural Science Materials International ◽

10.1080/10020070612330008 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 379-386 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Shujuan Yang ◽

Xulong Lai ◽

Suhua Shi ◽

Shenghong Cheng ◽

Xiugao Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Genetic Diversity ◽

Ancient Dna ◽

Dna Sequences ◽

Mammuthus Primigenius ◽

High Genetic Diversity ◽

Woolly Mammoth

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Adaptation of the Woolly Mammoth Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach, 1799) to Habitat Conditions in the Glacial Period

Сибирский экологический журнал ◽

10.15372/sej20160504 ◽

2016 ◽

Keyword(s):

Glacial Period ◽

Habitat Conditions ◽

Mammuthus Primigenius ◽

Woolly Mammoth

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Addendum: FosSahul 2.0, an updated database for the Late Quaternary fossil records of Sahul

Scientific Data ◽

10.1038/s41597-021-00918-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Katharina J. Peters ◽

Frédérik Saltré ◽

Tobias Friedrich ◽

Zenobia Jacobs ◽

Rachel Wood ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Quaternary ◽

Fossil Records

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A tooth of Mammuthus primigenius from Chestermere Lake near Calgary, Alberta, and the distribution of mammoths in southwestern Canada

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e78-134 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 15 (8) ◽

pp. 1272-1283 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

C. R. Harington ◽

D. M. Shackleton

Keyword(s):

British Columbia ◽

North American ◽

Mammuthus Primigenius ◽

Canadian Provinces ◽

Woolly Mammoth

A well-preserved molar of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was recovered from deposits at Chestermere Lake near Calgary. It is probably of late Wisconsin age, and is one of several mammoth fossils collected from Pleistocene sediments in the Calgary area.The Chestermere Lake specimen is considered in relation to 94 records of mammoth cheek teeth from the western Canadian provinces. Of the 94 records, 5 are from Manitoba, 35 are from Saskatchewan, 37 are from Alberta, and 17 are from British Columbia. In addition to specimens of woolly mammoths, remains of Columbian (Mammuthus columbi), imperial (Mammuthus imperator), and southern mammoths (Mammuthus meridionalis) have been collected from Pleistocene deposits of southwestern Canada. Some problems concerning the relationships of North American and Eurasian mammoths are mentioned.

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A mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) tooth from late Wisconsin deposits near Embden, North Dakota, and comments on the distribution of woolly mammoths south of the Wisconsin ice sheets

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e86-092 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 23 (7) ◽

pp. 909-918 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

C. R. Harington ◽

Allan C. Ashworth

Keyword(s):

British Columbia ◽

Continental Shelf ◽

North Dakota ◽

Third Molar ◽

Ice Sheets ◽

Lake Agassiz ◽

Mammuthus Primigenius ◽

Sand And Gravel ◽

Woolly Mammoth ◽

Cass County

A well-preserved third molar of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was recovered from sand and gravel forming the highest (Herman) prominent strandline of Lake Agassiz near Embden in western Cass County, North Dakota. The Herman strandline is estimated to have formed about 11 500 years BP, and presumably the tooth is of similar age. Perhaps the animal lived in a tundra-like area near the Lake Agassiz shoreline.Additional evidence suggests that woolly mammoths occupied a tundra-like range south of the Wisconsin ice sheets extending from southern British Columbia to the Atlantic continental shelf off Virginia.

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AMS 14C chronology of the world's southernmost woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blum.)

Quaternary Science Reviews ◽

10.1016/j.quascirev.2006.12.001 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 26 (7-8) ◽

pp. 954-957 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Keiichi Takahashi ◽

Guangbiao Wei ◽

Hikaru Uno ◽

Minoru Yoneda ◽

Changzhu Jin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mammuthus Primigenius ◽

Woolly Mammoth

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A grizzly bear from the Middle Wisconsin of Woodbridge, Ontario

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e76-036 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 341-347 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Charles S. Churcher ◽

Alan V. Morgan

Keyword(s):

Ursus Arctos ◽

Grizzly Bears ◽

Grizzly Bear ◽

Bone Fragment ◽

Mammuthus Primigenius ◽

Ursus Arctos Horribilis ◽

Before And After ◽

Lake Simcoe ◽

Left Humerus ◽

Woolly Mammoth

The distal end of the left humerus of a grizzly bear, Ursus arctos, has been recovered from above the Early Wisconsin Sunnybrook Till at Woodbridge, Ontario, from the same horizon that previously has yielded remains of the woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius. The age of these specimens is estimated at 40 000–50 000 years BP, within the mid-Wisconsin, Port Talbot Interstadial. The only other recognized Canadian record of a grizzly bear east of Manitoba is from a gravel sequence at Barrie, near Lake Simcoe, Ontario, dated from a bone fragment to 11 700 ± 250 years BP. A specimen recovered in Toronto in 1913 from an Early Wisconsin horizon is also considered to represent the grizzly. Bears of the grizzly type, Ursus arctos-horribilis were present in Ontario before and after the Early and Late Wisconsin ice advances.

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A Preliminary Report of Changing Quaternary Mammal Faunas in Subalpine New Guinea

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1006/qres.1993.1062 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 117-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Geoffrey Hope ◽

Tim Flannery ◽

Boeardi

Keyword(s):

Preliminary Report ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Montane Forest ◽

Mammal Species ◽

Irian Jaya ◽

Fluvial Deposits ◽

Unknown Species ◽

Holocene Record ◽

Fossil Records ◽

Mammal Faunas

AbstractThe faunas found in the mountains of central Irian Jaya have experienced dramatic changes through the late Quaternary. Remains of two previously unknown species of large marsupial, Maokopia ronaldi and Protemnodon hopei, have been recovered from unrelated cave and fluvial deposits which today occur in dense upper montane forest. Direct dating of the finds has not as yet been possible, but stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and palynologic evidence indicates that these species lived near a climatic treeline in subalpine grassland in the late Pleistocene. At higher altitudes a rockshelter provided the second known mid-Holocene record of Thylogale christenseni and Thylogale sp. cf. brunii, apparently extinct grassland wallabies. The two largest remaining subalpine mammal species are being locally exterminated by hunting, leaving only a large murid, Mallomys gunung, which weighs less than 2.0 kg. The area thus records the disappearance of a grassland-adapted fauna. The possum Pseudocheirops cupreus dominates in modem hunting returns, although this species is totally absent from the local fossil records. It may thus be in the process of invading a vacated and disturbed niche from the upper montane forest.

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