Data from: Rewriting the history of an extinction - was a population of Steller's sea cows (Hydrodamalis gigas) at St. Lawrence Island also driven to extinction? ...

• Main Authors: Crerar, Lorelei D., Crerar, Andrew P., Parsons, E. C. M., Domning, Daryl P.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2014
• Subjects: Steller’s sea cows; Hydrodamalis gigas; 1000CE to 1768CE; new population; extirpation; Lawrence Island; Bering Island; St Lawrence Island; Steller's sea cow; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vf86p; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.vf86p

The Kommandorskiye Islands population of Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) was extirpated ca 1768 CE. Until now, Steller's sea cow was thought to be restricted in historic times to Bering and Copper Islands, Russia, with other records in the last millennium from the western Aleutian Islands. However, Steller's sea cow bone has been obtained by the authors from St Lawrence Island, Alaska, which is significantly further north. Bone identity was verified using analysis of mitochondrial DNA. The nitrogen-15 (δ15N)/carbon-13 (δ13C) values for bone samples from St Lawrence Island were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) different from Bering Island samples, indicating a second population. Bone samples were dated to between 1030 and 1150 BP (approx. 800–920 CE). The samples date from close to the beginning of the mediaeval warm period, which could indicate that the population at St Lawrence Island was driven to extinction by climate change. A warming of the climate in the area may have changed the availability of kelp; ... : Steller's Sea Cow Cytochrome b SequencesThis document is a FASTA format file that contains partial sequences for five Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) bones from St. Lawrence Island, AK, USA.Bankit Sequences.txt ...