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Humans hastened the range collapse and extinction of woolly mammoth

View ORCID ProfileDamien A. Fordham, View ORCID ProfileStuart C. Brown, View ORCID ProfileH. Reşit Akçakaya, View ORCID ProfileBarry W. Brook, Sean Haythorne, View ORCID ProfileAndrea Manica, View ORCID ProfileKevin T. Shoemaker, View ORCID ProfileJeremy J. Austin, View ORCID ProfileBenjamin Blonder, View ORCID ProfileJulia Pilowsky, View ORCID ProfileCarsten Rahbek, View ORCID ProfileDavid Nogues-Bravo
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.17.431706
Damien A. Fordham
1The Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
2Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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  • For correspondence: damien.fordham@adelaide.edu.au
Stuart C. Brown
1The Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
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H. Reşit Akçakaya
3Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA
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  • ORCID record for H. Reşit Akçakaya
Barry W. Brook
4School of Natural Sciences and ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
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Sean Haythorne
1The Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
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Andrea Manica
5Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK
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Kevin T. Shoemaker
6Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, US
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Jeremy J. Austin
1The Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
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Benjamin Blonder
7Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94706, USA
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  • ORCID record for Benjamin Blonder
Julia Pilowsky
1The Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia
2Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Carsten Rahbek
2Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
8Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Ascot SL5 7PY, UK
9Danish Institute for Advanced Study, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
10Institute of Ecology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
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David Nogues-Bravo
2Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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  • ORCID record for David Nogues-Bravo
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Abstract

Processes leading to the megafauna extinctions of the late Pleistocene and early-Holocene are uncertain, with intense debate on the roles of human hunting and climatic change. Using process-explicit simulations of climate-human-woolly mammoth interactions, which integrate spatiotemporal evidence from fossils and ancient DNA, we show that humans accelerated the timing of range collapse, extirpation and eventual extinction of woolly mammoth in Eurasia. Population growth and northward migrations of people during the late Pleistocene led to the premature extirpation of populations of woolly mammoth in areas of Eurasia that were climatically suitable into the Holocene, hastening climate-driven declines by up to 4,000 years in some regions. Our simulations also pinpoint mainland Arctic refugia where mammoths likely persisted until the mid-Holocene, some 5,000 years longer than previously thought. Our results reveal that the role of humans in the extinction dynamics of woolly mammoth was long and chronic, and not limited to a Holocene over-kill.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://github.com/GlobalEcologyLab/Mammoth

  • https://doi.org/10.25909/5f22592242ca2

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted February 18, 2021.
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Humans hastened the range collapse and extinction of woolly mammoth
Damien A. Fordham, Stuart C. Brown, H. Reşit Akçakaya, Barry W. Brook, Sean Haythorne, Andrea Manica, Kevin T. Shoemaker, Jeremy J. Austin, Benjamin Blonder, Julia Pilowsky, Carsten Rahbek, David Nogues-Bravo
bioRxiv 2021.02.17.431706; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.17.431706
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Humans hastened the range collapse and extinction of woolly mammoth
Damien A. Fordham, Stuart C. Brown, H. Reşit Akçakaya, Barry W. Brook, Sean Haythorne, Andrea Manica, Kevin T. Shoemaker, Jeremy J. Austin, Benjamin Blonder, Julia Pilowsky, Carsten Rahbek, David Nogues-Bravo
bioRxiv 2021.02.17.431706; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.17.431706

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