Thriving or surviving? The isotopic record of the Wrangel Island woolly mammoth population
2019/09/12 by Laura Arppe, Juha A. Karhu, Sergey Vartanyan +3 · 56 citations
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Isotope Analysis in Ecology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Beringia #Mammoth #Holocene #Population #Radiocarbon dating #Pleistocene #Geology #Megafauna #Ecology #Paleontology #Biology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.105884
published in Quaternary Science Reviews 222, 105884 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2019/09/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
Abstract
The world's last population of woolly mammoths ( Mammuthus primigenius ) lived on Wrangel Island persisting well into the Holocene, going extinct at ca. 4000 cal BP. According to the frequency of radiocarbon dated mammoth remains from the island, the extinction appears fairly abrupt. This study investigates the ecology of the Wrangel Island mammoth population by means of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur isotope analyses. We report new isotope data on 77 radiocarbon dated mammoth specimens from Wrangel Island and Siberia, and evaluate them in relation to previously published isotope data for Pleistocene mammoths from Beringia and lower latitude Eurasia, and the other insular Holocene mammoth population from St. Paul Island. Contrary to prior suggestions of gradual habitat deterioration, the nitrogen isotope values of the Wrangel Island mammoths do not support a decline in forage quality/quantity, and are in fact very similar to their north Beringian forebears right to the end. However, compared to Siberian mammoths, those from Wrangel Island show a difference in their energy economy as judged by the carbon isotope values of structural carbonate, possibly representing a lower need of adaptive strategies for survival in extreme cold. Increased mid-Holocene weathering of rock formations in the central mountains is suggested by sulfur isotope values. Scenarios related to water quality problems stemming from increased weathering, and a possibility of a catastrophic starvation event as a cause of, or contributing factor in their demise are discussed.
Citations
- Paleobiology and Extinction of Proboscideans in the Great Lakes Region of North America
- Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions on the continents: a short review
- Robustness despite uncertainty: regional climate data reveal the dominant role of humans in explaining global extinctions of Late Quaternary megafauna
- Collection of radiocarbon dates on the mammoths (Mammuthus Primigenius) and other genera of Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia, Russia
- Out of America: Ancient DNA Evidence for a New World Origin of Late Quaternary Woolly Mammoths
- Mammoth steppe: a high-productivity phenomenon
- Complete Genomes Reveal Signatures of Demographic and Genetic Declines in the Woolly Mammoth
- The extinction of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) in Europe
- Regional differences in bone collagen δ13C and δ15N of Pleistocene mammoths: Implications for paleoecology of the mammoth steppe
- Nitrogen isotopes in mammalian herbivores: hair δ15N values from a controlled feeding study
- Evidence from the Yana Palaeolithic site, Arctic Siberia, yields clues to the riddle of mammoth hunting
- Nursing, weaning, and tooth development in woolly mammoths from Old Crow, Yukon, Canada: Implications for Pleistocene extinctions
- Last straw versus Blitzkrieg overkill: Climate-driven changes in the Arctic Siberian mammoth population and the Late Pleistocene extinction problem
- Patterns of faunal extinction and paleoclimatic change from mid-Holocene mammoth and polar bear remains, Pribilof Islands, Alaska
- Pleistocene megafauna from eastern Beringia: Paleoecological and paleoenvironmental interpretations of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope and radiocarbon records
- Holocene dwarf mammoths from Wrangel Island in the Siberian Arctic
- Ice-age megafauna in Arctic Alaska: extinction, invasion, survival
- IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years cal BP
- Radiocarbon evidence of mid-Holocene mammoths stranded on an Alaskan Bering Sea island
- The Associational Critique of Quaternary Overkill and why it is Largely Irrelevant to the Extinction Debate
- Human paleoecological integration in subarctic eastern Beringia
- The wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus: Cervidae, Mammalia) on the arctic islands of Russia: a review
- Water Quality in Agriculture
Cited by