Disappearance of Icelandic Walruses Coincided with Norse Settlement.

ABSTRACT: There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the impacts of human arrival in new "pristine" environments, including terrestrial habitat alterations and species extinctions. However, the effects of marine resource utilization prior to industrialized whaling, sealing, and fishing have largely remained understudied. The expansion of the Norse across the North Atlantic offers a rare opportunity to study the effects of human arrival and early exploitation of marine resources. Today, there is no local population of walruses on Iceland, however, skeletal remains, place names, and written sources suggest that walruses existed, and were hunted by the Norse during the Settlement and Commonwealth periods (870-1262 AD). This study investigates the timing, geographic distribution, and genetic iden

SUBMITTER: Keighley X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6878957 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature