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Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change

The worldwide extinction of megafauna during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene is evident from the fossil record, with dominant theories suggesting a climate, human or combined impact cause. Consequently, two disparate scenarios are possible for the surviving megafauna during this time period...

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Autores principales: Bergman, Juraj, Pedersen, Rasmus Ø., Lundgren, Erick J., Lemoine, Rhys T., Monsarrat, Sophie, Pearce, Elena A., Schierup, Mikkel H., Svenning, Jens-Christian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10667484/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37996436
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43426-5
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author Bergman, Juraj
Pedersen, Rasmus Ø.
Lundgren, Erick J.
Lemoine, Rhys T.
Monsarrat, Sophie
Pearce, Elena A.
Schierup, Mikkel H.
Svenning, Jens-Christian
author_facet Bergman, Juraj
Pedersen, Rasmus Ø.
Lundgren, Erick J.
Lemoine, Rhys T.
Monsarrat, Sophie
Pearce, Elena A.
Schierup, Mikkel H.
Svenning, Jens-Christian
author_sort Bergman, Juraj
collection PubMed
description The worldwide extinction of megafauna during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene is evident from the fossil record, with dominant theories suggesting a climate, human or combined impact cause. Consequently, two disparate scenarios are possible for the surviving megafauna during this time period - they could have declined due to similar pressures, or increased in population size due to reductions in competition or other biotic pressures. We therefore infer population histories of 139 extant megafauna species using genomic data which reveal population declines in 91% of species throughout the Quaternary period, with larger species experiencing the strongest decreases. Declines become ubiquitous 32–76 kya across all landmasses, a pattern better explained by worldwide Homo sapiens expansion than by changes in climate. We estimate that, in consequence, total megafauna abundance, biomass, and energy turnover decreased by 92–95% over the past 50,000 years, implying major human-driven ecosystem restructuring at a global scale.
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spelling pubmed-106674842023-11-24 Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change Bergman, Juraj Pedersen, Rasmus Ø. Lundgren, Erick J. Lemoine, Rhys T. Monsarrat, Sophie Pearce, Elena A. Schierup, Mikkel H. Svenning, Jens-Christian Nat Commun Article The worldwide extinction of megafauna during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene is evident from the fossil record, with dominant theories suggesting a climate, human or combined impact cause. Consequently, two disparate scenarios are possible for the surviving megafauna during this time period - they could have declined due to similar pressures, or increased in population size due to reductions in competition or other biotic pressures. We therefore infer population histories of 139 extant megafauna species using genomic data which reveal population declines in 91% of species throughout the Quaternary period, with larger species experiencing the strongest decreases. Declines become ubiquitous 32–76 kya across all landmasses, a pattern better explained by worldwide Homo sapiens expansion than by changes in climate. We estimate that, in consequence, total megafauna abundance, biomass, and energy turnover decreased by 92–95% over the past 50,000 years, implying major human-driven ecosystem restructuring at a global scale. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC10667484/ /pubmed/37996436 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43426-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Bergman, Juraj
Pedersen, Rasmus Ø.
Lundgren, Erick J.
Lemoine, Rhys T.
Monsarrat, Sophie
Pearce, Elena A.
Schierup, Mikkel H.
Svenning, Jens-Christian
Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change
title Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change
title_full Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change
title_fullStr Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change
title_full_unstemmed Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change
title_short Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change
title_sort worldwide late pleistocene and early holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10667484/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37996436
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43426-5
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