Pleistocene to Holocene extinction dynamics of Northern Eurasian megafauna, in relation to human activity and environmental change

欧亚北部巨型动物更新世至全新世灭绝动态与人类活动和环境变化的关系

基本信息

批准号：
NE/D003105/1
负责人：
Adrian Lister
金额：
$ 58.25万
依托单位：
University College London
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2006
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2006 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FD003105%2F1
关键词：
Pleistocene Holocene extinction dynamics Northern

项目摘要

We live in a zoologically impoverished world from which many of the largest and most spectacular land animals (called 'megafauna'), e.g. mammoths and sabre tooth cats, have disappeared in the last 40-50 thousand years, at the end of the last ice age and into the postglacial period. The cause or causes of these extinctions remain unresolved. The main contenders are: hunting by modern humans with stone age technologies / known as 'overkill', environmental changes, and a combination of the two. This issue has important implications for the likely impact of humans and/or global warming on the animals of today. Crucial to solving the mystery is accurate information on when and where each megafaunal species became extinct, and what changes in distribution and population size preceded extinctions. Fortunately for Europe and northern Asia, most extinctions occurred within the last 25,000 years, well within the range of radiocarbon dating. We will test ideas that megafaunal distributions expanded and shrank dramatically with environmental changes, leading to reduced and fragmented populations before final extinction. We will also explore how the response of each species differed according to its ecology. However, not all megafaunal range shifts and extinctions can be attributed to changes in the environment, and there is the intriguing new hypothesis that where human populations were densest, this prevented colonization by megafauna. We will obtain some 200 radiocarbon dates (Oxford laboratory) from northern Eurasia made directly on remains of extinct megafauna (woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, giant deer, cave bear) together with two that only survive in other regions (spotted hyaena, lion). Direct dating is more reliable than dates made on associated materials. Any unexpected or outstanding dates will be checked independently by another radiocarbon laboratory (Kiel, Germany). We will target regions where there is currently a critical lack of information, and also species with few dates. Recent work has demonstrated unexpected survival of woolly mammoth, and giant deer (our work) in limited areas, well beyond the end of the ice age (i.e. later than 12,000 years ago). We will pursue other possible late occurrences, with important implications for understanding the processes of final extinction, since climatic fluctuations were generally less extreme after the end of the ice age. In this way we will construct a much more complete picture of megafaunal distributional changes and final extinctions through the last 40,000 years over a very large area. Taking advantage of recent advances (including new, very large datasets) in both stone age archaeology and the history of vegetation from Europe and northern Asia, we will take a fresh approach. From detailed records of human presence at archaeological sites, dated by radiocarbon, we will construct time-sliced maps and time charts tracing the spread and relative population densities of modern humans from 40,000 years ago, onwards. Similarly, from the record of fossil pollen preserved in the sediments of lakes and bogs (European Pollen Database) we will construct time-sliced maps and charts tracking changes in the composition of vegetation. These uniquely detailed records will then be compared with our maps and charts for megafaunal history to look for correlations between events, and thus test the various explanations for the cause or causes of extinctions. We will also look at the histories of several ice age large mammals that did not become extinct in northern Eurasia, e.g. red deer, reindeer, and horse, comparing them with the extinct species to see if ecological, anatomical or other differences were critical for survival, or extinction. We will reconstruct the ecologies of the extinct species from dental and other anatomical information, and from data on vegetation and climate, where megafaunal remains have been found reliably associated with other fossil material.

我们生活在一个贫穷的世界中，许多最大，最壮观的陆地动物（称为“ Megafauna”），例如猛mm象和剑齿猫在过去的40-50千年中，最后一个冰河时代结束并进入冰川后时期已经消失了。这些灭绝的原因或原因尚未解决。主要的竞争者是：用石器时代技术 /被称为“过度杀伤”的现代人类狩猎，环境变化和两者的组合。这个问题对人类和/或全球变暖对当今动物的可能影响具有重要意义。对于解决这个谜团至关重要的是准确的信息，内容涉及每个大型物种何时何地灭绝，以及在灭绝之前的分布和人口规模的变化。幸运的是，对于欧洲和北亚来说，大多数灭绝发生在过去25，000年内，远高于放射性碳约会范围。我们将测试Megafaunal分布随环境变化而大大扩展和缩水的想法，从而导致最终灭绝之前减少和分散的种群。我们还将探讨每个物种的反应根据其生态学的不同而不同。但是，并非所有大型范围的变化和灭绝都可以归因于环境的变化，并且有一个有趣的新假设，即在人口最密集的地方，这阻止了Megafauna的殖民化。我们将从北部的欧亚大陆获得约200个放射性碳日期（牛津实验室），直接在灭绝的Megafauna（Woolly Mammoth，Woolly Rhinoceros，Giant Deer，Cave Bear）的遗体上制成，并且仅在其他地区生存的两个地区（Spotted Hyaena，Lion，Lion）。直接约会比对相关材料的日期更可靠。任何意外或未偿还的日期将由另一个放射性碳实验室（德国基尔）独立检查。我们将针对目前严重缺乏信息的区域，并且日期很少。最近的工作表明，羊毛猛mm象和在有限地区的巨型鹿（我们的工作）出乎意料的生存，远远超出了冰河时代的尽头（即12，000年前的时间）。我们将追求其他可能的晚期发生，这对理解最终灭绝的过程具有重要意义，因为气候波动在冰河时代结束后通常不太极端。通过这种方式，我们将在过去40，000年的大面积上构建更完整的大型分布变化和最终灭绝的图片。利用石器时代考古学和欧洲和北亚的植被历史上的最新进展（包括新的，非常大的数据集），我们将采取新的方法。从放射性碳日期的人类存在的详细记录中，我们将构建时间切片的地图和时间表，以追踪40，000年前的现代人类的传播和相对种群密度。同样，从保存在湖泊和沼泽（欧洲花粉数据库）沉积物中的化石花粉的记录中，我们将构建时间切片的地图和图表跟踪植被组成的变化。然后，将将这些独特的详细记录与我们的Megafaunal历史记录的地图和图表进行比较，以查找事件之间的相关性，从而测试了灭绝原因或原因的各种解释。我们还将研究几个冰河时代的历史，这些历史大型哺乳动物在北部北部没有灭绝，例如红鹿，驯鹿和马将它们与灭绝物种进行比较，以查看生态，解剖学或其他差异对于生存还是灭绝至关重要。我们将从牙科和其他解剖学信息中重建灭绝物种的生态，以及从有关植被和气候的数据中，发现与其他化石材料可靠地相关的大型遗体。