Long-term effects of cultural filtering on megafauna species distributions across China.

ABSTRACT: Human activities currently play a dominant role in shaping and eroding Earth's biodiversity, but the historical dynamics leading to this situation are poorly understood and contentious. Importantly, these dynamics are often studied and discussed without an emphasis on cultural evolution, despite its potential importance for past and present biodiversity dynamics. Here, we investigate whether cultural filtering, defined as the impact of cultural evolution on species presence, has driven the range dynamics of five historically widespread megafauna taxa (Asiatic elephant, rhinoceroses, tiger, Asiatic black bear, and brown bear) across China over the past 2 millennia. Data on megafauna and sociocultural history were compiled from Chinese administrative records. While faunal dynamics in China a

SUBMITTER: Teng SN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6955318 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature