13 C/ 12 C Ratios of Pleistocene Mummified Remains from Beringia

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Authors: Bombin, Miguel, Muehlenbachs, Karlis
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1985
• Subjects: musk ox; permafrost; Tundra; Beringia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(85)90076-6; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589485900766?httpAccept=text/xml; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589485900766?httpAccept=text/plain; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400017208

During the Quaternary glacial episodes, when sea level was considerably lower, Asia and North America were linked by large extensions of circumarctic land (Beringia), which remained unglaciated. This land mass served not only as a biogeographical bridge for plants, animals, and humans, but also supported a biome very different from present tundra or boreal coniferous forests, which was dominated by steppes and a rich mammalian megafauna. Carbon stable isotope ratios of Beringian late Pleistocene mummified remains of bison, equids, mammoth, caribou, musk-ox, moose, woolly rhino, and other undetermined species, found preserved in permafrost, indicate that these megaherbivores fed exclusively on C 3 plants, and that C 4 grasses were not differentially ingested by bison, as previously suggested. Paleoclimatic constraints probably prevented the formation of a warm-season (C 4 ) guild during the later part of the growing season in the steppes of Beringia during the last glaciation.