Late Quaternary mammal ecology: Insight from new approaches

摘要

During the last 40,000 years, the terrestrial communities of large mammals have been subject to dramatic changes not only in their taxonomic composition, but also in their ecological distribution. Many large terrestrial mammal species became extinct during this period, while surviving ones were extirpated in large portions of their distribution range and may have changed their ecological requirements (e.g. Stuart and Lister, 2007; Drucker et al., 2008; Bridault and Chaix, 2009). This period was a time of major climate changes, with the occurrence of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) between around 25,000 and 20,000 years ago and the global warming trend of the Late-Glacial and early Holo-cene, between around 18,000 and 8000 years ago. In parallel, it was also the period during which modern humans expanded their distribution range in the Middle and High latitudes, and colonized new continents such as the Americas and Australasia (e.g., Barnosky et al., 2004).