Timing and causes of mid-Holocene mammoth extinction on St. Paul Island, Alaska.

ABSTRACT: Relict woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) populations survived on several small Beringian islands for thousands of years after mainland populations went extinct. Here we present multiproxy paleoenvironmental records to investigate the timing, causes, and consequences of mammoth disappearance from St. Paul Island, Alaska. Five independent indicators of extinction show that mammoths survived on St. Paul until 5,600 ± 100 y ago. Vegetation composition remained stable during the extinction window, and there is no evidence of human presence on the island before 1787 CE, suggesting that these factors were not extinction drivers. Instead, the extinction coincided with declining freshwater resources and drier climates between 7,850 and 5,600 y ago, as inferred from sedimentary magnetic suscept

SUBMITTER: Graham RW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4995940 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature