Changes in the large carnivore community structure of the Judean Desert in connection to Holocene human settlement dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Investigating historical anthropogenic impacts on faunal communities is key to understanding present patterns of biodiversity and holds important implications for conservation biology. While several studies have demonstrated the human role in the extinction of large herbivores, effective methods to study human interference on large carnivores in the past are limited by the small number of carnivoran remains in the paleozoological record. Here, we integrate a systematic paleozoological survey of biogenic cave assemblages with the archaeological and paleoenvironmental records of the Judean Desert, to reveal historical changes in the large carnivore community. Our results show a late Holocene (~ 3400 years ago) faunal reassembly characterized by the diminishment of the dominant large carnivor

SUBMITTER: Lazagabaster IA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7878878 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature