Mammalian Extinction Dynamics in the Late Quaternary of Siberia and the Hyperdisease Hypothesis

这项研究涉及一种创新的方法来了解极地哺乳动物的第四纪灭绝的动态。 地球历史上大部分大规模毁灭的原因都是模糊的，但在过去的40,000年里，有几个事件造成了巨大的损失，这些事件特别难以解释。 研究者们提出的一个新假说--“重病假说”比其他假说更能解释某些晚第四纪沉积的已知事实。 这一论点的实质是，在某些情况下，高传染性、高致命性的疾病可能是物种灭绝的原因。 这一论点具有可检验的含义，但首先必须建立一个现在还不存在的数据库，并进行即使在十年前也不可能进行的实验室调查。 研究人员打算参加1998年夏天由俄罗斯彼得堡动物研究所的俄罗斯同事组织的一次探险，以恢复晚更新世哺乳动物标本，特别是保存在西伯利亚东部永久冻土条件下的长毛猛犸象Mammuthus Mammuthus Genius，并进行一系列分子分析，旨在检测，扩增，并对现有博物馆样本中的宿主和病毒遗传物质以及在本调查过程中收集的材料进行测序。 探索性研究的小额赠款（SGER）计划将使研究人员能够利用一个独特的机会来收集冻结在冻土苔原中的猛犸尸体。

This study involves an innovative approach to understanding the dynamics of Quaternary extinctions of polar mammals. The causes of most extinctions in earth history are obscure, but several events responsible for extraordinary losses during the last 40,000 years have proven especially resistant to testable explanation. A new hypothesis_the "hyperdisease hypothesis"_ proposed by the investigators may explain the known facts of certain late Quaternary extinctions better than competing hypotheses do. The essence of the argument is that, under certain circumstancces, highly infectious, highly lethal diseases can be a cause of species extinctions. The argument has testable implications, but it will first be necessary to create a database that does not now exist and to conduct laboratory investigations that could not have been undertaken even a decade ago. The investigators intend to participate in an expedition organized by Russian colleagues from the Institute of Zoology, St. Petersburg, Russia, during summer 1998 to recover late Pleistocene mammal specimens, especially woolly mammoths Mammuthus primigenius, preserved in permafrost conditions in eastern Siberia, and to undertake a battery of molecular analyses designed to detect, amplify, and sequence the host and viral genetic material in existing museum samples as well as material collected during the course of the present investigation. The Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) program will allow the investigators to take advantage of a unique opportunity to collect mammoth carcasses frozen in the permafrost tundra.