Big Game extinction caused by late Pleistocene climatic change: Irish Elk (Megaloceros giganteus) in Ireland

Auteur :
BARNOSKY, A. D.

Description :
Megaloceros giganteus, the largest Eurasian deer, inhabited Ireland from ca. 12,000 yr B.P. to the time ofits extinction ca. 10.600 yr B.P. The archaeologic record documents that people arrived on the island no earlier than 9000 yr B.P. so they could not have caused the extinction in Ireland. Close stratigraphic association of the geologically youngest elk fossils with sediments indicating the onset of the Nahanagan Stadial (approximately = Younger Dryas) implicates climatic change as the exterminator. Palynologic data support in the idea that extinction probably resulted when forage quantity and quality along with length of the spring green-up decreased.


Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Quaternary research New York, 1986, vol. 25, n°. 1, p. 128-135, Références bibliographiques : 40 réf.

Date :
1986