The ecological niche and distribution of Neanderthals during the Last Interglacial

Benito, Blas M.; Svenning, Jens‐Christian; Nielsen, Trine Kellberg; Riede, Felix; Gil‐Romera, Graciela; Mailund, Thomas; Kjærgaard, Peter C.; Sandel, Brody

doi:10.1111/jbi.12845

Cited by 53 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…One difference may be that leaky replacement implies that introgressed alleles increase the fitness of the invading species (as in adaptive introgression: Hedrick, ; Pardo‐Diaz et al, ; Racimo, Sankararaman, Nielsen, & Huerta‐Sánchez, ), but the consulted literature is not explicit at this point. In spite of a long history of investigation, considerable debate revolves around whether Neanderthals became extinct because of climate change or competition with anatomically modern humans (Banks et al, ; Benito et al, ; Gilpin, Feldman, & Aoki, ; Kolodny & Feldman, ; Melchionna et al, ) and the degree to which they hybridized (Currat & Excoffier, ; Neves & Serva, ; Villanea & Schraiber, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The inferred species transition that was labelled as "leaky replacement" (Pääbo, 2015; see also Gibbons, 2011), parallels that of a moving hybrid zone leaving a genetic footprint. One difference may be that leaky replacement implies that introgressed alleles increase the fitness of the invading (Banks et al, 2008;Benito et al, 2017;Gilpin, Feldman, & Aoki, 2016;Kolodny & Feldman, 2017;Melchionna et al, 2018) and the degree to which they hybridized (Currat & Excoffier, 2004;Neves & Serva, 2012;Villanea & Schraiber, 2019).…”

Section: Genetic Footprints and Parallels With The Demise Of Homo mentioning

confidence: 99%

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An amphibian species pushed out of Britain by a moving hybrid zone

Arntzen

2019

Molecular Ecology

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Classical theory states that hybrid zones will be stable in troughs of low population density where dispersal is hampered. Yet, evidence for moving hybrid zones is mounting. One possible reason that moving zones have been underappreciated is that they may drive themselves into oblivion and with just the superseding species remaining, morphological and genetic signals of past species replacement may be difficult to appreciate. Using genetic data (32 diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphisms) from a clinal hybrid zone of the common toad (Bufo bufo) and the spined toad (Bufo spinosus) in France for comparison, alleles of the latter species were documented in common toads in the south of Great Britain, at frequencies in excess of 10%. Because long distance dispersal across the Channel is unlikely, the conclusion reached was that the continental toad hybrid zone which previously extended into Britain, moved southwards and extirpated B. spinosus. Species distribution models for the mid‐Holocene and the present support that climate has locally changed in favour of B. bufo. The system bears resemblance with the demise of Homo neanderthalensis and the rise of Homo sapiens and provides an example that some paleoanthropologists demanded in support of a hominin “leaky replacement” scenario. The toad example is informative just because surviving pure B. spinosus and an extant slowly moving interspecific hybrid zone are available for comparison.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Genetic Footprints and Parallels With The Demise Of Homo mentioning

confidence: 99%

An amphibian species pushed out of Britain by a moving hybrid zone

Arntzen

2019

Molecular Ecology

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“…These studies suggest that responses to climate change were species specific: some species tracked favourable climatic conditions as they shifted in space, while others remained in the same geographical regions by adapting to new climatic conditions or expanded their distributions into novel regions and climates (Lorenzen et al, 2011). However, similar studies for humans are still in their infancy (Beeton et al, 2014;Grollemund et al, 2015;Benito et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Niche dynamics of Palaeolithic modern humans during the settlement of the Palaearctic

Giampoudakis

Marske

Borregaard

et al. 2016

Global Ecol. Biogeogr.

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Aim During the Late Pleistocene (c. 126–10 ka), modern humans (Homo sapiens) expanded their geographical range across Eurasia and eventually colonized the Americas. Although the routes by which they migrated have been intensively analysed, the dynamics of their realized climatic niche are still largely unknown. We assess temporal changes in the climatic niche of modern humans, the geographical distribution of their climatic niche and whether niche dynamics correlate with the magnitude of climate change and cultural advances, between 46 and 11 ka. Location Palaearctic. Methods Using the radiocarbon dated archaeological record and spatial palaeoclimatic simulations, we quantify different parameters of the realized climatic niche of modern humans (niche overlap, niche breadth and climatic marginality) between consecutive 1000–2000 year intervals. Moreover, using climate envelope models, we map the potential distributions of modern humans for each time interval and identify the regions that remained more climatically suitable and stable for modern humans through time. Results Between 46 and 22 ka the climatic niche of modern humans expanded, including periods of intense growth in niche breadth at 40 and 30 ka. Changes in seasonal water availability and technological innovations partly correlate with dynamics in niche parameters. We document a persistent climatically suitable mid‐latitude belt in south Siberia linking western Europe to the Far East that may have facilitated human migration, and a potential climatic refugium in Beringia. Main conclusions The climatic niche of modern humans changed across the Late Pleistocene, as the result of both climatic and cultural changes. These populations of hunter‐gatherers occupied novel climatic conditions but also remained in previously occupied areas under changing climates during the settlement of the Palaearctic. Our approach can provide clues as to where early modern humans may have overlapped in geographical and environmental space with Neanderthals or Denisovans, as evidenced by their contribution to the genetic heritage of some current populations.

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“…Although recent studies developed conservation frameworks using ESMs to identify high conservation priority areas (Breiner et al 2015, D'Amen et al 2015, Benito et al 2016) and independent node-based models to estimate landscape connectivity (Koen et al 2014, Pitman et al 2016, to the authors' knowledge, a combination of ESMs and independent node-based models for threatened species conservation in human-dominated landscapes have never been carried out to date.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of distribution and landscape connectivity of the stag beetle in a human-dominated landscape

Rocca¹,

Bogliani²,

Milanesi³

2017

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Urbanisation and the spread of agriculture have resulted in high levels of forest loss, habitat fragmentation and degradation in many regions of the world. In Italy, the Po Plain is the most human-dominated landscape of the country and, after decades of exploitation, old-growth forests have been reduced to small and isolated patches, often threatened by invasive tree species such as the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). In these habitats, the occurrence of many forest-dependent species is related to the quality and availability of suitable areas, as well as the connectivity between the remaining forested patches.Thus, recently developed species distribution models have been applied, namely the Ensemble of Small Models (ESMs), to identify areas of occurrence for a rare and protected saproxylic beetle species, the stag beetle Lucanus cervus and the inverse of the resulting distribution maps as resistance maps have been used to estimate landscape connectivity for this species.Response curves suggested that the probability of the stag beetle occurrence increased with habitat diversity, grassland coverage and native forests, especially oak and mixed forests. The other forest coverage, such as those with black locust, beech, chestnut and black cherry, showed a unimodal relationship peaking approximately at 70%, 8%, 55% and 13% respectively. The stag beetle occurrence was unimodal related to distance to watercourses and distance to human settlements and negatively related to shrub-lands, croplands, sparse and dense human settlements. Landscape connectivity showed similar patterns, except for oak forest coverage, which showed a negative relationship to landscape connectivity.In conclusion, stag beetles can persist in a human dominated landscape only in the presence of forest patches, including those with black locust trees. It is also inferred that ESMs may be suitable for modelling rare species distributions and estimating landscape connectivity to promote species conservation.

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The ecological niche and distribution of Neanderthals during the Last Interglacial

Cited by 53 publications

References 77 publications

An amphibian species pushed out of Britain by a moving hybrid zone

An amphibian species pushed out of Britain by a moving hybrid zone

Niche dynamics of Palaeolithic modern humans during the settlement of the Palaearctic

Patterns of distribution and landscape connectivity of the stag beetle in a human-dominated landscape

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