The vertebrates of the last cold stage in Britain and Ireland

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1977
• Subjects: Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1977.0111; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1977.0111

Until many more dated records are available it will not be possible to follow in much detail the faunal changes through the Last Gold Stage. Some of the mammal taxa characteristic of the Devensian were already present in the second half of the Ipswichian, probably in response to decreasing forest cover. The Early and Middle Devensian English faunas include extinct animals (e.g. mammoth, woolly rhinoceros) and living animals whose ranges do not overlap at the present day. Many now live in tundra or tundra and boreal forest (e.g. lemmings, reindeer), others in steppe (e.g. red-cheeked suslik, horse), while others have very southern distributions (lion, spotted hyaena). Some animals (e.g. elk) may have been confined to woodland interstadials, but the fauna as a whole is consistent with treeless herbaceous vegetation. Many taxa (e.g. woolly rhinoceros) failed to reach Ireland. At some time in the Late Devensian before Zone II several large mammals (e.g. spotted hyaena, mammoth) became locally or totally extinct. The elk failed to reach Ireland in the Late Devensian, and reindeer and giant deer are the only known fauna. The beginning of the Flandrian saw the rapid replacement of the northern and steppe fauna by forest animals.