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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贫乏的世界，在过去的4 -5万年里，在最后一个冰河时代结束并进入后冰河时期，许多最大和最壮观的陆地动物（称为“巨型动物”），如猛犸象和剑齿虎，已经消失了。这些物种灭绝的原因仍未得到解决。主要的竞争者是：使用石器时代技术的现代人的狩猎/被称为“过度杀戮”，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。解开这个谜团的关键是要准确掌握每种巨型动物在何时何地灭绝的信息，以及灭绝前分布和种群规模的变化。幸运的是，对于欧洲和北亚来说，大多数灭绝发生在过去的25000年里，完全在放射性碳定年法的范围内。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，导致最终灭绝之前种群减少和分散的想法。我们还将探讨每个物种的反应如何根据其生态环境而不同。然而，并不是所有巨型动物的范围转移和灭绝都可以归因于环境的变化，而且有一个有趣的新假设，即在人口最密集的地方，这阻止了巨型动物的殖民。我们将从欧亚大陆北部获得大约200个放射性碳测年（牛津实验室），这些测年直接来自于已灭绝的巨型动物（长毛象、长毛犀牛、巨型鹿、洞熊）的遗骸，以及两种只在其他地区存活的动物（斑点鬣狗、狮子）。直接定年比根据相关材料定年更可靠。任何意外或未完成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地区，以及日期很少的物种。最近的研究表明，长毛象和巨型鹿（我们的研究）在有限的地区意外地存活了下来，远远超过了冰河时代的结束（即晚于12000年前）。我们将研究其他可能的晚发生事件，这对理解最终灭绝的过程具有重要意义，因为在冰期结束后，气候波动通常不那么极端。通过这种方式，我们将在一个非常大的区域内构建一个更完整的关于过去4万年巨型动物分布变化和最终灭绝的图景。利用石器时代考古学和欧洲和北亚植被史的最新进展（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，通过放射性碳测定年代，我们将构建时间切片地图和时间图表，追踪4万年前以来现代人类的传播和相对人口密度。同样，从保存在湖泊和沼泽沉积物中的化石花粉记录（欧洲花粉数据库）中，我们将构建追踪植被组成变化的时间切片地图和图表。然后，这些独特的详细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，从而检验对灭绝原因的各种解释。我们还将研究一些冰河时期在欧亚大陆北部没有灭绝的大型哺乳动物的历史，例如马鹿、驯鹿和马，将它们与灭绝的物种进行比较，看看生态、解剖或其他方面的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，已经发现了与其他化石材料可靠相关的巨型动物遗骸。