Radiocarbon chronologies and extinction dynamics of the Late Quaternary mammalian megafauna of the Taimyr Peninsula, Russian Federation

This paper presents 75 new radiocarbon dates based on late Quaternary mammal remains recovered from eastern Taimyr Peninsula and adjacent parts of the northern Siberian lowlands, Russian Federation, including specimens of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), steppe bison (Bison priscus), muskox (...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Archaeological Science
Main Authors: MacPhee, RDE, Tikhonov, AN, Mol, D, Maliave, CD, Van der Plicht, H, Greenwood, AD, Flemming, C, Agenbroad, L, MacPhee, Ross D.E., Tikhonov, Alexei N., Marliave, Christian de, Greenwood, Alex D.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2002
Subjects:
megafaunal extinction
radiocarbon dating
Russian Federation
Quaternary
WRANGEL-ISLAND
TAYMYR PENINSULA
LATE PLEISTOCENE
CAL BP
HOLOCENE
FLUCTUATIONS
CALIBRATION
SIBERIA
DATES
OCCUPATION
Arctic
Wrangel Island
Canis lupus
Moose
muskox
ovibos moschatus
Rangifer tarandus
Taimyr
Taymyr
Taymyr Peninsula
Siberia
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/9f542849-3f7d-4a5c-81ad-46b5768dbea9
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/9f542849-3f7d-4a5c-81ad-46b5768dbea9
https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.2001.0802
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/9931204/2002JArchaeolSciMacPhee.pdf
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Summary:This paper presents 75 new radiocarbon dates based on late Quaternary mammal remains recovered from eastern Taimyr Peninsula and adjacent parts of the northern Siberian lowlands, Russian Federation, including specimens of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), steppe bison (Bison priscus), muskox (Ovibos moschatus), moose (Alcos alces), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), horse (Equus caballus) and wolf (Canis lupus). New evidence permits reanalysis of megafaunal extinction dynamics in the Asian high Arctic periphery. Increasingly, radiometric records of individual species show evidence of a gap at or near the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary (PHB). In the past, the PHB gap was regarded as significant only when actually terminal, i.e., when it marked the apparent 'last' occurrence of a species (e.g., current 'last' occurrence date for woolly mammoth in mainland Eurasia is 9600 yr BP). However, for high Arctic populations of horses and muskoxen the gap marks an interruption rather than extinction, because their radiocarbon records resume, nearly simultaneously, much later in the Holocene. Taphonomic effects, DeltaC(14) flux, and biased sampling are unlikely explanations for these hiatuses. A possible explanation is that the gap is the signature of an event, of unknown nature, that prompted the nearly simultaneous crash of many megafaunal populations in the high Arctic and possibly elsewhere in Eurasia.

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