Rise and fall of the Beringian steppe bison

Copyright © 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science The widespread extinctions of large mammals at the end of the Pleistocene epoch have often been attributed to the depredations of humans; here we present genetic evidence that questions this assumption. We used ancient DNA a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Shapiro, B., Drummond, A., Rambaut, A., Wilson, M., Matheus, P., Sher, A., Pybus, O., Gilbert, M., Barnes, I., Binladen, J., Willerslev, E., Hansen, A., Baryshnikov, G., Burns, J., Davydov, S., Driver, J., Froese, D., Harington, C., Keddie, G., Kosintsev, P.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Amer Assoc Advancement Science 2004
Subjects:
Animals
Bison
Humans
DNA
Mitochondrial
Bayes Theorem
Sequence Analysis
Genetics
Population
Environment
Climate
Population Dynamics
Phylogeny
Time
Fossils
Human Activities
North America
Canada
Alaska
China
Genetic Variation
Davydov
Stephenson
Beringia
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2440/34232
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1101074
Description
Summary:Copyright © 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science The widespread extinctions of large mammals at the end of the Pleistocene epoch have often been attributed to the depredations of humans; here we present genetic evidence that questions this assumption. We used ancient DNA and Bayesian techniques to reconstruct a detailed genetic history of bison throughout the late Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. Our analyses depict a large diverse population living throughout Beringia until around 37,000 years before the present, when the population's genetic diversity began to decline dramatically. The timing of this decline correlates with environmental changes associated with the onset of the last glacial cycle, whereas archaeological evidence does not support the presence of large populations of humans in Eastern Beringia until more than 15,000 years later. Beth Shapiro, Alexei J. Drummond, Andrew Rambaut, Michael C. Wilson, Paul E. Matheus, Andrei V. Sher, Oliver G. Pybus, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Ian Barnes, Jonas Binladen, Eske Willerslev, Anders J. Hansen, Gennady F. Baryshnikov, James A. Burns, Sergei Davydov, Jonathan C. Driver, Duane G. Froese, C. Richard Harington, Grant Keddie, Pavel Kosintsev, Michael L. Kunz, Larry D. Martin, Robert O. Stephenson, John Storer, Richard Tedford, Sergei Zimov, and Alan Cooper

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