The late Pleistocene environment of the Eastern West Beringia based on the principal section at the Main River, Chukotka

Svetlana A. Kuzmina; Andrei V. Sher; Mary E. Edwards; James Seymour Haile; Evgeny V. Yan; Anatoly V. Kotov; Eske Willerslev

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.019

The late Pleistocene environment of the Eastern West Beringia based on the principal section at the Main River, Chukotka

Svetlana A. Kuzmina, Andrei V. Sher, Mary E. Edwards, James Seymour Haile, Evgeny V. Yan, Anatoly V. Kotov, Eske Willerslev

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Chukotka is a key region for understanding both Quaternary environmental history and transcontinental migrations of flora and fauna during the Pleistocene as it lies at the far eastern edge of Asia bordering the Bering Sea. The now submerged land bridge is the least understood region of Beringia yet the most critical to understanding migrations between the Old and New Worlds. The insect fauna of the Main River Ledovy Obryv (Ice Bluff) section, which is late Pleistocene in age (MIS 3-2), is markedly different from coeval faunas of areas further to the west, as it is characterized by very few thermophilous steppe elements. From the fauna we reconstruct a steppe-tundra environment and relatively cold conditions; the reconstructed environment was moister than that of typical steppe-tundra described from further west. The data from this locality, if typical of the Chukotka Peninsula as a whole, may indicate that a barrier associated with the environments of the land bridge restricted trans-Beringian migrations, particularly the more thermophilous and xeric-adapted elements of the Beringian biota, supporting the hypothesis of a cool but moist land-bridge filter inferred from evidence from several other studies.

Original language	English
Journal	Quaternary Science Reviews
Volume	30
Issue number	17–18
Pages (from-to)	2091-2106
Number of pages	16
ISSN	0277-3791
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.019
Publication status	Published - Aug 2011

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10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.019

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@article{603af2b1546f4032bb11506c4d4dade1,

title = "The late Pleistocene environment of the Eastern West Beringia based on the principal section at the Main River, Chukotka",

abstract = "Chukotka is a key region for understanding both Quaternary environmental history and transcontinental migrations of flora and fauna during the Pleistocene as it lies at the far eastern edge of Asia bordering the Bering Sea. The now submerged land bridge is the least understood region of Beringia yet the most critical to understanding migrations between the Old and New Worlds. The insect fauna of the Main River Ledovy Obryv (Ice Bluff) section, which is late Pleistocene in age (MIS 3-2), is markedly different from coeval faunas of areas further to the west, as it is characterized by very few thermophilous steppe elements. From the fauna we reconstruct a steppe-tundra environment and relatively cold conditions; the reconstructed environment was moister than that of typical steppe-tundra described from further west. The data from this locality, if typical of the Chukotka Peninsula as a whole, may indicate that a barrier associated with the environments of the land bridge restricted trans-Beringian migrations, particularly the more thermophilous and xeric-adapted elements of the Beringian biota, supporting the hypothesis of a cool but moist land-bridge filter inferred from evidence from several other studies.",

author = "Kuzmina, {Svetlana A.} and Sher, {Andrei V.} and Edwards, {Mary E.} and Haile, {James Seymour} and Yan, {Evgeny V.} and Kotov, {Anatoly V.} and Eske Willerslev",

note = "Beringia and Beyond: Papers Celebrating the Scientific Career of Andrei Vladimirovich Sher, 1939–2008",

year = "2011",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.019",

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T1 - The late Pleistocene environment of the Eastern West Beringia based on the principal section at the Main River, Chukotka

AU - Kuzmina, Svetlana A.

AU - Sher, Andrei V.

AU - Edwards, Mary E.

AU - Haile, James Seymour

AU - Yan, Evgeny V.

AU - Kotov, Anatoly V.

AU - Willerslev, Eske

N1 - Beringia and Beyond: Papers Celebrating the Scientific Career of Andrei Vladimirovich Sher, 1939–2008

PY - 2011/8

Y1 - 2011/8

N2 - Chukotka is a key region for understanding both Quaternary environmental history and transcontinental migrations of flora and fauna during the Pleistocene as it lies at the far eastern edge of Asia bordering the Bering Sea. The now submerged land bridge is the least understood region of Beringia yet the most critical to understanding migrations between the Old and New Worlds. The insect fauna of the Main River Ledovy Obryv (Ice Bluff) section, which is late Pleistocene in age (MIS 3-2), is markedly different from coeval faunas of areas further to the west, as it is characterized by very few thermophilous steppe elements. From the fauna we reconstruct a steppe-tundra environment and relatively cold conditions; the reconstructed environment was moister than that of typical steppe-tundra described from further west. The data from this locality, if typical of the Chukotka Peninsula as a whole, may indicate that a barrier associated with the environments of the land bridge restricted trans-Beringian migrations, particularly the more thermophilous and xeric-adapted elements of the Beringian biota, supporting the hypothesis of a cool but moist land-bridge filter inferred from evidence from several other studies.

AB - Chukotka is a key region for understanding both Quaternary environmental history and transcontinental migrations of flora and fauna during the Pleistocene as it lies at the far eastern edge of Asia bordering the Bering Sea. The now submerged land bridge is the least understood region of Beringia yet the most critical to understanding migrations between the Old and New Worlds. The insect fauna of the Main River Ledovy Obryv (Ice Bluff) section, which is late Pleistocene in age (MIS 3-2), is markedly different from coeval faunas of areas further to the west, as it is characterized by very few thermophilous steppe elements. From the fauna we reconstruct a steppe-tundra environment and relatively cold conditions; the reconstructed environment was moister than that of typical steppe-tundra described from further west. The data from this locality, if typical of the Chukotka Peninsula as a whole, may indicate that a barrier associated with the environments of the land bridge restricted trans-Beringian migrations, particularly the more thermophilous and xeric-adapted elements of the Beringian biota, supporting the hypothesis of a cool but moist land-bridge filter inferred from evidence from several other studies.

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DO - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.019

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VL - 30

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