Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans
Eline D. Lorenzen,David Nogués-Bravo,Ludovic Orlando,Jaco Weinstock,Jonas Binladen,Katharine A. Marske,Andrew Ugan,Andrew Ugan,Andrew Ugan,Michael K. Borregaard,M. Thomas P. Gilbert,Rasmus Nielsen,Rasmus Nielsen,Simon Y. W. Ho,Ted Goebel,Kelly E. Graf,David A. Byers,Jesper Stenderup,Morten Rasmussen,Paula F. Campos,Jennifer A. Leonard,Jennifer A. Leonard,Klaus-Peter Koepfli,Duane G. Froese,Grant D. Zazula,Thomas W. Stafford,Kim Aaris-Sørensen,Persaram Batra,Alan M. Haywood,Joy S. Singarayer,Paul J. Valdes,G. G. Boeskorov,James A. Burns,S. P. Davydov,James Haile,Dennis L. Jenkins,Pavel A. Kosintsev,Tatyana Kuznetsova,Xulong Lai,Larry D. Martin,H. Gregory McDonald,Dick Mol,Morten Meldgaard,Kasper Munch,Elisabeth Stephan,Mikhail V. Sablin,Robert S. Sommer,Taras Sipko,Eric Scott,Marc A. Suchard,Alexei Tikhonov,Rane Willerslev,Robert K. Wayne,Alan Cooper,Michael Hofreiter,Andrei Sher,Beth Shapiro,Carsten Rahbek,Eske Willerslev +58 more
TLDR
It is shown that climate has been a major driver of population change over the past 50,000 years, however, each species responds differently to the effects of climatic shifts, habitat redistribution and human encroachment.Abstract:
Despite decades of research, the roles of climate and humans in driving the dramatic extinctions of large-bodied mammals during the Late Quaternary period remain contentious. Here we use ancient DNA, species distribution models and the human fossil record to elucidate how climate and humans shaped the demographic history of woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, wild horse, reindeer, bison and musk ox. We show that climate has been a major driver of population change over the past 50,000 years. However, each species responds differently to the effects of climatic shifts, habitat redistribution and human encroachment. Although climate change alone can explain the extinction of some species, such as Eurasian musk ox and woolly rhinoceros, a combination of climatic and anthropogenic effects appears to be responsible for the extinction of others, including Eurasian steppe bison and wild horse. We find no genetic signature or any distinctive range dynamics distinguishing extinct from surviving species, emphasizing the challenges associated with predicting future responses of extant mammals to climate and human-mediated habitat change.read more
Citations
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Defining the Anthropocene
Simon L. Lewis,Mark A. Maslin +1 more
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the historical genesis of the Anthropocene Epoch idea and assessed anthropogenic signatures in the geological record against the formal requirements for the recognition of a new epoch, finding that of the various proposed dates two do appear to conform to the criteria to mark the beginning of the anthropocene: 1610 and 1964.
Journal ArticleDOI
Environmental DNA - An emerging tool in conservation for monitoring past and present biodiversity
TL;DR: The achievements gained through analyses of eDNA from macro-organisms in a conservation context are reviewed, its potential advantages and limitations are discussed, and it is expected the eDNA-based approaches to move from single-marker analyses of species or communities to meta-genomic surveys of entire ecosystems to predict spatial and temporal biodiversity patterns.
Defining the Anthropocene
Simon L. Lewis,Mark A. Maslin +1 more
TL;DR: The evidence suggests that of the various proposed dates two do appear to conform to the criteria to mark the beginning of the Anthropocene: 1610 and 1964.
Journal ArticleDOI
Recalibrating Equus evolution using the genome sequence of an early Middle Pleistocene horse.
Ludovic Orlando,Aurélien Ginolhac,Guojie Zhang,Duane G. Froese,Anders Albrechtsen,Mathias Stiller,Mikkel Schubert,Enrico Cappellini,Bent O. Petersen,Ida Moltke,Ida Moltke,Philip L. F. Johnson,Matteo Fumagalli,Julia T. Vilstrup,Maanasa Raghavan,Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen,Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas,Josef Korbinian Vogt,Damian Szklarczyk,Damian Szklarczyk,Christian D. Kelstrup,Jakob Vinther,Andrei Dolocan,Jesper Stenderup,Amhed Missael Vargas Velazquez,James A. Cahill,Morten Rasmussen,Xiaoli Wang,Jiumeng Min,Grant D. Zazula,Andaine Seguin-Orlando,Cecilie Mortensen,Kim Magnussen,John F. Thompson,Jacobo Weinstock,Kristian Gregersen,Knut Røed,Véra Eisenmann,Carl-Johan Rubin,Donald Miller,Douglas F. Antczak,Mads F. Bertelsen,Søren Brunak,Khaled A. S. Al-Rasheid,Oliver A. Ryder,Leif Andersson,John Mundy,Anders Krogh,M. Thomas P. Gilbert,Kurt H. Kjær,Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén,Lars Juhl Jensen,Jesper V. Olsen,Michael Hofreiter,Rasmus Nielsen,Beth Shapiro,Jun Wang,Eske Willerslev,Eske Willerslev +58 more
TL;DR: Thealyses suggest that the Equus lineage giving rise to all contemporary horses, zebras and donkeys originated 4.0–4.5 million years before present, twice the conventionally accepted time to the most recent common ancestor of the genus Equus, and supports the contention that Przewalski's horses represent the last surviving wild horse population.
Book
Habitat Suitability and Distribution Models
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce the key stages of niche-based habitat suitability model building, evaluation and prediction required for understanding and predicting future patterns of species and biodiversity, including the main theory behind ecological niches and species distributions.
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