TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid range shifts and megafaunal extinctions associated with late Pleistocene climate change
AU - Seersholm, Frederik V.
AU - Werndly, Daniel J.
AU - Grealy, Alicia
AU - Johnson, Taryn
AU - Keenan Early, Erin M.
AU - Lundelius, Ernest L.
AU - Winsborough, Barbara
AU - Farr, Grayal Earle
AU - Toomey, Rickard
AU - Hansen, Anders J.
AU - Shapiro, Beth
AU - Waters, Michael R.
AU - McDonald, Gregory
AU - Linderholm, Anna
AU - Stafford, Thomas W.
AU - Bunce, Michael
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Large-scale changes in global climate at the end of the Pleistocene significantly impacted ecosystems across North America. However, the pace and scale of biotic turnover in response to both the Younger Dryas cold period and subsequent Holocene rapid warming have been challenging to assess because of the scarcity of well dated fossil and pollen records that covers this period. Here we present an ancient DNA record from Hall’s Cave, Texas, that documents 100 vertebrate and 45 plant taxa from bulk fossils and sediment. We show that local plant and animal diversity dropped markedly during Younger Dryas cooling, but while plant diversity recovered in the early Holocene, animal diversity did not. Instead, five extant and nine extinct large bodied animals disappeared from the region at the end of the Pleistocene. Our findings suggest that climate change affected the local ecosystem in Texas over the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, but climate change on its own may not explain the disappearance of the megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene.
AB - Large-scale changes in global climate at the end of the Pleistocene significantly impacted ecosystems across North America. However, the pace and scale of biotic turnover in response to both the Younger Dryas cold period and subsequent Holocene rapid warming have been challenging to assess because of the scarcity of well dated fossil and pollen records that covers this period. Here we present an ancient DNA record from Hall’s Cave, Texas, that documents 100 vertebrate and 45 plant taxa from bulk fossils and sediment. We show that local plant and animal diversity dropped markedly during Younger Dryas cooling, but while plant diversity recovered in the early Holocene, animal diversity did not. Instead, five extant and nine extinct large bodied animals disappeared from the region at the end of the Pleistocene. Our findings suggest that climate change affected the local ecosystem in Texas over the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, but climate change on its own may not explain the disappearance of the megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene.
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-16502-3
DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-16502-3
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32488006
AN - SCOPUS:85085910025
VL - 11
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
IS - 1
M1 - 2770
ER -