Publication Date:
2015-08-08
Description:
The mechanisms of Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions remain fiercely contested, with human impact or climate change cited as principal drivers. We compared ancient DNA and radiocarbon data from 31 detailed time series of regional megafaunal extinctions and replacements over the past 56,000 years with standard and new combined records of Northern Hemisphere climate in the Late Pleistocene. Unexpectedly, rapid climate changes associated with interstadial warming events are strongly associated with the regional replacement or extinction of major genetic clades or species of megafauna. The presence of many cryptic biotic transitions before the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary revealed by ancient DNA confirms the importance of climate change in megafaunal population extinctions and suggests that metapopulation structures necessary to survive such repeated and rapid climatic shifts were susceptible to human impacts.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cooper, Alan -- Turney, Chris -- Hughen, Konrad A -- Brook, Barry W -- McDonald, H Gregory -- Bradshaw, Corey J A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Aug 7;349(6248):602-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aac4315. Epub 2015 Jul 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Environment Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. alan.cooper@adelaide.edu.au c.turney@unsw.edu.au. ; Climate Change Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. alan.cooper@adelaide.edu.au c.turney@unsw.edu.au. ; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. ; Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia. ; Museum Management Program, National Parks Service, Fort Collins, CO 80525, USA. ; Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26250679" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
DNA/genetics/history/isolation & purification
;
*Extinction, Biological
;
Fossils/history
;
Global Warming/*history
;
History, Ancient
;
Humans
;
Paleontology
;
Population
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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