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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/D003105/2
负责人：
Adrian Lister
金额：
$ 28.7万
依托单位：
Natural History Museum
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2007
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2007 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FD003105%2F2
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.

我们生活在一个动物学贫乏的世界，许多最大和最壮观的陆地动物（称为“巨型动物群”），例如猛犸象和剑齿猫，在过去的4 - 5万年里，在最后一个冰河时代结束时消失了，进入冰川后期。这些问题的原因仍未得到解决。主要竞争者是：现代人类用石器时代的技术狩猎/被称为“过度狩猎”，环境变化，以及两者的结合。这个问题对于人类和/或全球变暖对当今动物的可能影响具有重要意义。解决这个谜团的关键是准确的信息，关于每个巨型动物物种在何时何地灭绝，以及在灭绝之前分布和人口规模的变化。对欧洲和北方亚洲来说幸运的是，大多数灭绝事件发生在过去的25,000年里，完全在放射性碳测年的范围内。我们将测试巨型动物分布随着环境变化而急剧扩大和缩小的想法，导致最终灭绝之前的种群减少和分散。我们还将探讨每个物种的反应如何根据其生态而有所不同。然而，并不是所有的巨型动物活动范围的变化和迁移都可以归因于环境的变化，还有一个有趣的新假设，即在人类种群减少的地方，这阻止了巨型动物的殖民化。我们将从欧亚大陆北方直接获取约200个放射性碳年代测定（牛津实验室），这些年代测定是在已灭绝的巨型动物（长毛猛犸、长毛犀牛、巨鹿、洞熊）以及仅在其他地区生存的两种动物（斑点鬣狗、狮子）的遗骸上进行的。直接测年比用相关材料测年更可靠。任何非预期或未完成的日期将由另一个放射性碳实验室（基尔，德国）独立检查。我们将针对目前严重缺乏信息的地区，以及日期很少的物种。最近的研究表明，在冰河时代结束之后（即晚于12,000年前），长毛猛犸和巨鹿（我们的研究）在有限的地区出人意料地存活了下来。我们将继续研究其他可能的晚期事件，这些事件对理解最终灭绝的过程具有重要意义，因为在冰河时代结束后，气候波动通常不那么极端。通过这种方式，我们将构建一个更完整的巨型动物分布的变化和最后的灭绝，通过过去的40,000年在一个非常大的区域。利用石器时代考古学以及欧洲和北方亚洲植被历史的最新进展（包括新的、非常大的数据集），我们将采取一种新的方法。根据考古遗址中人类存在的详细记录，通过放射性碳测定，我们将构建时间切片地图和时间图表，追踪从4万年前开始的现代人类的传播和相对人口密度。同样，从湖泊和沼泽沉积物中保存的化石花粉记录（欧洲花粉数据库），我们将构建时间切片地图和图表，跟踪植被组成的变化。然后，这些独特详细的记录将与我们的巨型动物历史地图和图表进行比较，以寻找事件之间的相关性，从而测试对灭绝原因的各种解释。我们还将研究几种在北方欧亚大陆没有灭绝的冰河时代大型哺乳动物的历史，例如红鹿、驯鹿和马，将它们与灭绝的物种进行比较，看看生态、解剖或其他差异是否对生存或灭绝至关重要。我们将根据牙齿和其他解剖学信息，以及植被和气候数据重建灭绝物种的生态，在这些数据中，已经发现巨型动物遗骸与其他化石材料可靠地联系在一起。