Late Pleistocene and Holocene History of Mammals in Europe

Sommer, Robert S.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-00281-7_3

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…There is also contradicting evidence and hence an ongoing debate on the role of humans in the Late Quaternary megafauna mass extinction (Campos et al, 2010; Koch & Barnosky, 2006; Lord et al, 2020; Sandom et al, 2014; Stewart et al, 2021). Due to their imminent exposure to changing glaciation levels, demographic histories of species living in arctic or alpine habitats are expected to have been considerably affected by past climatic changes (Sommer, 2020). While recent aDNA studies have mainly shed light on extinct arctic or alpine species (Barlow et al, 2020; Gretzinger et al, 2019; Lord et al, 2020; Palkopoulou et al, 2015; Ramos‐Madrigal et al, 2021), fewer studies have investigated alpine species which survived the megafauna extinction event of the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary (e.g., Ureña et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient mitochondrial and modern whole genomes unravel massive genetic diversity loss during near extinction of Alpine ibex

et al. 2022

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Population bottlenecks can have dramatic consequences for the health and long‐term survival of a species. Understanding of historic population size and standing genetic variation prior to a contraction allows estimating the impact of a bottleneck on the species' genetic diversity. Although historic population sizes can be modelled based on extant genomics, uncertainty is high for the last 10–20 millenia. Hence, integrating ancient genomes provides a powerful complement to retrace the evolution of genetic diversity through population fluctuations. Here, we recover 15 high‐quality mitogenomes of the once nearly extinct Alpine ibex spanning 8601 BP to 1919 CE and combine these with 60 published modern whole genomes. Coalescent demography simulations based on modern whole genomes indicate population fluctuations coinciding with the last major glaciation period. Using our ancient and historic mitogenomes, we investigate the more recent demographic history of the species and show that mitochondrial haplotype diversity was reduced to a fifth of the prebottleneck diversity with several highly differentiated mitochondrial lineages having coexisted historically. The main collapse of mitochondrial diversity coincides with elevated human population growth during the last 1–2 kya. After recovery, one lineage was spread and nearly fixed across the Alps due to recolonization efforts. Our study highlights that a combined approach integrating genomic data of ancient, historic and extant populations unravels major long‐term population fluctuations from the emergence of a species through its near extinction up to the recent past.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient mitochondrial and modern whole genomes unravel massive genetic diversity loss during near extinction of Alpine ibex

et al. 2022

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“…The complete hemimandible of Lutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758) found during Blanc’s excavations 23 , 24 was recently described by Mecozzi et al 39 confirming its taxonomic attribution. Since the European record of this carnivoran is quite scarce and mainly known from Holocene deposits 64 , its presence within ISU3 represents one of the earliest evidences of L. lutra in Europe.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stratigraphic reassessment of Grotta Romanelli sheds light on Middle-Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments and human settling in the Mediterranean

Pieruccini

Forti

Mecozzi

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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During the last century, Grotta Romanelli (Southern Italy) has been a reference site for the European Late Pleistocene stratigraphy, due to its geomorphological setting and archaeological and palaeontological content. The beginning of the sedimentation inside the cave was attributed to the Last Interglacial (MISs 5e) and the oldest unearthed evidence of human occupation, including remains of hearths, was therefore referred to the Middle Palaeolithic. Recent surveys and excavations produced new U/Th dates, palaeoenvironmental interpretation and a litho-, morpho- and chrono-stratigraphical reassessment, placing the oldest human frequentation of the cave between MIS 9 and MIS 7, therefore embracing Glacial and Interglacial cycles. These new data provide evidence that the sea reached the cave during the Middle Pleistocene and human occupation occurred long before MISs 5e and persisted beyond the Pleistocene- Holocene boundary.

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“…Masini et al's (2008) study was used in addition for Sicily as not all sources distinguished it from the Italian peninsula. While the European Holocene faunal record is relatively well documented, it may not be complete (particularly for small mammals, Sommer, 2020; Crees, Collen, & Turvey, 2019), placing a limit on our conclusions regarding historic extirpations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lost, gained, and regained functional and phylogenetic diversity of European mammals since 8000 years ago

Hatfield

Davis

Thomas

2022

Global Change Biology

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Mammals have experienced high levels of human‐mediated extirpations but have also been widely introduced to new locations, and some have recovered from historic persecution. Both of these processes—losses and gains—have resulted in concern about functional losses and changes in ecological communities as new ecological states develop. The question of whether species turnover inevitably leads to declines in functional and phylogenetic diversity depends, however, on the traits and phylogenetic distinctiveness of the species that are lost, gained, or regained. Comparing ~8000 years ago with the last century, we show that extirpations and range retractions have indeed reduced the functional and phylogenetic diversity of mammals in most European regions (countries and island groups), but species recoveries and the introduction of non‐native species have increased functional and phylogenetic diversity by equivalent or greater amounts in many regions. Overall, across Europe, species richness increased in 41 regions over the last 8000 years and declined in 1; phylogenetic diversity increased in 33 and declined in 12, while functional diversity results showed 20 increases and 25 decreases. The balance of losses (extirpations) and gains (introductions, range expansions) has, however, led to net increases in functional diversity on many islands, where the original diversity was low, and across most of western Europe. Historically extirpated mega‐ and mesofaunal species have recolonized or been reintroduced to many European regions, contributing to recent functional and phylogenetic diversity recovery. If conservation rewilding projects continue to reintroduce regionally extirpated species and domestic descendants of “extinct” species to provide replacement grazing, browsing, and predation, there is potential to generate net functional and phylogenetic diversity gains (relative to 8000 years ago) in most European regions.

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Late Pleistocene and Holocene History of Mammals in Europe

Cited by 12 publications

References 65 publications

Ancient mitochondrial and modern whole genomes unravel massive genetic diversity loss during near extinction of Alpine ibex

Ancient mitochondrial and modern whole genomes unravel massive genetic diversity loss during near extinction of Alpine ibex

Stratigraphic reassessment of Grotta Romanelli sheds light on Middle-Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments and human settling in the Mediterranean

Lost, gained, and regained functional and phylogenetic diversity of European mammals since 8000 years ago

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