scholarly journals Danish Finds of Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach)) Stratigraphical position, dating and evidence of Late Pleistocene environment

1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Kim Aaris-Sørensen ◽  
Kaj Strand Petersen ◽  
Henrik Tauber
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Mammuthus Primigenius ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
Maximum Expansion ◽  
Important Stage ◽  
Skeletal Material ◽  
Ice Retreat ◽  
Bone Fragments

A catalogue of all known remains of mammoth in Denmark is presented, comprising 125 finds. Half of the mammoth material is molars, which are morphologically referred to Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach), a third is tusk, and the rest is bone fragments. 14 specimens of mammoth have been C-14 dated. 13 samples have ages from older than 40 000 to ca 21500 C-14 years B.P., and one sample gave an age of ca 13200 C-14 years B.P. As the skeletal material is redeposited, these dates at the same time give maximum ages of the glacial deposits in which they are found. On the basis of this evidence the glacial development during the Weichselian is reviewed. An ice-free period from before 45000 B.P. to around 20 000 years B.P. is indicated. A mammoth tusk from the Tirstrup sandur on Djursland, dated to 13240 +760/-690 B.P., marks an important stage in the ice retreat in Denmark, and shows that the mammoth re-immigrates after the maximum expansion of the Weichselian ice. Remains of other Late Pleistocene vertebrates are also mentioned. On the basis of floral and faunal remains the environmental changes during the Late Pleistocene are then reconstructed. The ice-free period in the Middle Weichselian was characterized by a steppe biome, which may appropriately be termed the mammoth steppe. This Weichselian environment seems to be incomparable to any environment known today.

Two new Banksia species from pleistocene sediments in western Tasmania

1991 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 499 ◽  
Author(s):  
GI Jordan ◽  
RS Hill
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Extinct Species ◽  
The Third ◽  
Taxonomic Groups

Subtribe Banksiinae of the Proteaceae was diverse in Tasmania in the early and middle Tertiary, but is now restricted to two species, Banksia marginata and B. serrata. Rapid and extreme environmental changes during the Pleistocene are likely causes of the extinction of some Banksia species in Tasmania. Such extinctions may have been common in many taxonomic groups. The leaves and infructescences of Banksia kingii Jordan & Hill, sp. nov. are described from late Pleistocene sediments. This is the most recent macrofossil record of a now extinct species in Tasmania. Banksia kingii is related to the extant B. saxicola. Banksia strahanensis Jordan & Hill, sp. nov. (known only from a leaf and leaf fragments and related to B. spinulosa) is described from Early to Middle Pleistocene sediments in Tasmania. This represents the third Pleistocene macrofossil record of a plant species which is now extinct in Tasmania.

scholarly journals A 115,000-year-old expedient bone technology at Lingjing, Henan, China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Doyon ◽  
Li Zhanyang ◽  
Wang Hua ◽  
Lila Geis ◽  
Francesco d'Errico
Keyword(s):  
Long Bone ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Faunal Assemblage ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Technological Potential ◽  
Bone Fragments ◽  
Anthropogenic Processes ◽  
Stone Knapping

Activities attested since at least 2.6 Myr, such as stone knapping, marrow extraction, and woodworking may have allowed early hominins to recognize the technological potential of discarded skeletal remains and equipped them with a transferable skillset fit for the marginal modification and utilization of bone flakes. Identifying precisely when and where expedient bone tools were used in prehistory nonetheless remains a challenging task owing to the multiple natural and anthropogenic processes that can mimic deliberately knapped bones. Here, we compare a large sample of the faunal remains from Lingjing, a 115 ka-old site from China which has yielded important hominin remains and rich faunal and lithic assemblages, with bone fragments produced by experimentally fracturing Equus caballus long bones. Our results provide a set of qualitative and quantitative criteria that can help zooarchaeologists and bone technologists distinguish faunal remains with intentional flake removal scars from those resulting from carcass processing activities. Experimental data shows marrow extraction seldom generates diaphyseal fragments bearing more than six flake scars arranged contiguously or in interspersed series. Long bone fragments presenting such characteristics can, therefore, be interpreted as being purposefully knapped to be used as expediency tools. The identification, based on the above experimental criteria, of 56 bone tools in the Lingjing faunal assemblage is consistent with the smaller size of the lithics found in the same layer. The continuity gradient observed in the size of lithics and knapped bones suggest the latter were used for tasks in which the former were less or not effective.

Impact of climate and humans on the range dynamics of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) in Europe during MIS 2

2018 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Nadachowski ◽  
Grzegorz Lipecki ◽  
Mateusz Baca ◽  
Michał Żmihorski ◽  
Jarosław Wilczyński
Keyword(s):  
East European Plain ◽  
Population Fluctuations ◽  
Mammuthus Primigenius ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Maximum Expansion ◽  
East European ◽  
The North ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Woolly Mammoth

AbstractThe woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) was widespread in almost all of Europe during the late Pleistocene. However, its distribution changed because of population fluctuations and range expansions and reductions. During Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 2 (MIS 2), these processes were highly dynamic. Our analyses of 318 radiocarbon dates from 162 localities, obtained directly from mammoth material, confirmed important changes in mammoth range between ~28.6 and ~14.1 ka. The Greenland stadial 3 interval (27.5–23.3 ka) was the time of maximum expansion of the mammoth in Europe during MIS 2. The continuous range was soon fragmented and reduced, resulting in the disappearance of Mammuthus during the last glacial maximum from ~21.4 to ~19.2 ka in all parts of the North European Plain. It is not clear whether mammoths survived in the East European Plain. The mammoth returned to Europe soon after ~19.0 ka, and for the next 3–4 millennia played an important role in the lifeways of Epigravettian societies in eastern Europe. Mammoths became extinct in most of Europe by ~14.0 ka, except for core areas such as the far northeast of Europe, where they survived until the beginning of the Holocene. No significant correlation was found between the distribution of the mammoth in Europe and human activity.

The influence of humans

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Hallam
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Northern Eurasia ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Extinction Rates ◽  
Human Dispersal ◽  
The World ◽  
Last Ice Age

We saw in Chapters 5 and 7 that the Quaternary was a time of low extinction rates despite a succession of strong environmental changes induced ultimately by climate. This began to change from a few tens of thousands of years ago with the arrival on our planet of Homo sapiens sapiens, which can be translated from the Latin as the rather smug ‘ultrawise Man’. It is widely accepted today that the Earth is undergoing a loss of species on a scale that would certainly rank in geological terms as a catastrophe, and has indeed, been dubbed ‘the sixth mass extinction’. Although the disturbance to the biosphere being created in modern times is more or less entirely attributable to human activity, we must use the best information available from historical, archaeological, and geological records to attempt to determine just when it began. Towards the end of the last ice age, known in Europe as the Würm and in North America as the Wisconsin, the continents were much richer in large mammals than today: for example, there were mammoths, mastodonts, and giant ground sloths in the Americas; woolly mammoths, elephants, rhinos, giant deer, bison, and hippos in northern Eurasia; and giant marsupials in Australia. Outside Africa most genera of large mammals, defined as exceeding 44 kilograms adult weight, disappeared within the past 100,000 years, an increasing number becoming extinct towards the end of that period. This indicates that there was a significant extinction event near the end of the Pleistocene. This event was not simultaneous across the world, however: it took place later in the Americas than Australia, and Africa and Asia have suffered fewer extinctions than other continents. There are three reasons for citing humans as the main reason for the late Pleistocene extinctions. First, the extinctions follow the appearance of humans in various parts of the world. Very few of the megafaunal extinctions that took place in the late Pleistocene can definitely be shown to pre-date the arrival of humans. There has, on the other hand, been a sequence of extinctions following human dispersal, culminating most recently on oceanic islands. Second, it was generally only large mammals that became extinct.

scholarly journals Hominin responses to environmental changes during the Middle Pleistocene in central and southern Italy

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 687-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Orain ◽  
V. Lebreton ◽  
E. Russo Ermolli ◽  
A.-M. Sémah ◽  
S. Nomade ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Vegetation Dynamic ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Global Climate Changes

Abstract. The palaeobotanical record of early Palaeolithic sites from Western Europe indicates that hominins settled in different kinds of environments. During the "mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT)", from about 1 to 0.6 Ma, the transition from 41- to 100-ka dominant climatic oscillations, occurring within a long-term cooling trend, was associated with an aridity crisis which strongly modified the ecosystems. Starting from the MPT the more favourable climate of central and southern Italy provided propitious environmental conditions for long-term human occupations even during the glacial times. In fact, the human strategy of territory occupation was certainly driven by the availabilities of resources. Prehistoric sites such as Notarchirico (ca. 680–600 ka), La Pineta (ca. 600–620 ka), Guado San Nicola (ca. 380–350 ka) or Ceprano (ca. 345–355 ka) testify to a preferential occupation of the central and southern Apennines valleys during interglacial phases, while later interglacial occupations were oriented towards the coastal plains, as attested by the numerous settlements of the Roma Basin (ca. 300 ka). Faunal remains indicate that human subsistence behaviours benefited from a diversity of exploitable ecosystems, from semi-open to closed environments. In central and southern Italy, several palynological records have already illustrated the regional- and local-scale vegetation dynamic trends. During the Middle Pleistocene climate cycles, mixed mesophytic forests developed during the interglacial periods and withdrew in response to increasing aridity during the glacial episodes. New pollen data from the Boiano Basin (Molise, Italy) attest to the evolution of vegetation and climate between MIS 13 and 9 (ca. 500 to 300 ka). In this basin the persistence of high edaphic humidity, even during the glacial phases, could have favoured the establishment of a refuge area for the arboreal flora and provided subsistence resources for the animal and hominin communities during the Middle Pleistocene. This could have constrained human groups to migrate into such a propitious area. Regarding the local climate evolution during the glacial episodes, the supposed displacement from these sites could be linked to the environmental dynamics solely due to the aridity increase, rather than directly to the global climate changes.

scholarly journals Paleoenvironments along the Eastern Laurentide Ice Sheet Margin and Timing of the Last Ice Maximum and Retreat

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne de Vernal ◽  
Claude Hillaire-Marcel
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Atlantic Water ◽  
Polar Front ◽  
Water Masses ◽  
Labrador Sea ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
North Atlantic Water ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

ABSTRACT Palynological and isotopic analysis in a few deep-sea cores from the Labrador Sea reveals strong environmental changes related to the Late Pleistocene glacial fluctuations over eastern Canada. On the whole, the Labrador Sea was characterized by strong exchanges between North Atlantic water masses, Arctic outflows, and meltwater discharges from Laurentide, Greenland and lnuitian ice sheets. The penetration of temperate Atlantic waters persisted throughout most of the Late Pleistocene, with a brief interruption during the Late Wisconsinan. During this glacial substage, a slight but continuous meltwater runoff from the Laurentide ice margins grounded on the northern Labrador Shelf is indicated by relatively low 18O values and low-salinity (< 30‰) dinocyst assemblages. The calving of the ice margin, the melwater outflow and the subsequent dilution of surface waters offshore Labrador probably contributed to the dispersal of floating ice and, consequently, to a southward displacement of the polar front restraining the penetration of North Atlantic waters into the Labrador Sea. The advection of southern air masses along the Laurentide ice margins, shown by pollen assemblages, was favourable to abundant precipitation and therefore, high ice accumulation rates, especially over northern Labrador during the Late Wisconsinan. The déglaciation is marked by a brief, but significant, melting event of northern Laurentide ice shortly after 17 ka. The main glacial retreat occurred after ca. 11 ka. It allowed restoration of WSW-ENE atmospheric trajectories, increased phytoplanktonic productivity, and penetration of North Atlantic water masses into the Labrador Sea.

scholarly journals Mammoths, Deer, and a Dog: Fossil and (Sub) Recent Allochthonous Remains from the Northeastern Croatia (Podravina Region), with the First Radiocarbon Dating of the Croatian Woolly Mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius)

Quaternary ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jadranka Mauch Lenardić ◽  
Siniša Radović ◽  
Ankica Oros Sršen ◽  
Nada Horvatinčić ◽  
Petar Kostešić ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Cervus Elaphus ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Pannonian Basin ◽  
Canis Familiaris ◽  
Mammuthus Primigenius ◽  
Maxillary Bone ◽  
Fluvial Deposits ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Woolly Mammoth

Eight anatomically and taxonomically different finds are presented in this paper, and they belong to four taxa: woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), and dog (Canis familiaris). All specimens represent allochthonous Late Pleistocene and Holocene animal remains, and all were dredged during the gravel exploitation at the Sekuline site near Molve (Podravina region, SW Pannonian basin, NE Croatia). Mammoth remains (bone and tusk fragments) were radiocarbon dated, and these are the first absolute dates on mammoths in Croatia. One upper last left deciduous premolar (dP4 sin.) also belongs to the same species. Ascribed to a dog is one well-preserved skull with a peculiar abscess scar on the maxillary bone as the result of an inflammatory process on the carnassial (P4) premolar. The Late Pleistocene cervid remains are giant deer, while the other cervid finds were determined to be red deer of the Holocene age. Morphometrical and taphonomical data are presented for each specimen. Such fossil and recent bone/tooth aggregates are characteristic of fluvial deposits and selective collecting. Although lacking stratigraphic provenance, these finds help to fulfil the gaps in palaeoenvironmental, palaeoecological, and palaeoclimate reconstructions of Podravina and its neighbouring areas.

Models for Pleistocene Extinction

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kit W. Wesler
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
North America ◽  
South America ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Alternative Formulation

Arguments for Paleoindian overkill of Late Pleistocene megafauna have traditionally emphasized North America with little more than token reference to other areas. Other scholars reject human causation of Pleistocene extinctions, preferring to see in climatic and environmental changes a sufficient explanation for the losses of these forms. This paper discusses the idea of overkill with reference to a computer simulation by Mosimann and Martin (1975), and offers reasons for preferring an alternative formulation. It is also suggested that the case of South America should be reviewed separately, and that an environmental explanation of Pleistocene extinction may be more suitable there.

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