Prof Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke from the Senckenberg Research Station for Quaternary Paleontology in Weimar, Germany, has recorded the maximum geographic distribution of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) during the most recent Ice Age, and prepared the most accurate global map in this regard.

“The recent research findings show that during the last Ice Age, woolly mammoths were the most widely distributed large mammals, thus rightfully serving as a flagship species of the glacial era,” said Prof Kahlke, who authored a paper published in the journal Quaternary International.

He summarized the mammoth’s distribution during the most recent Ice Age (110,000 – 12,000 years ago) on a worldwide map, and determined a total distribution area of 33,301,000 sq. km for these extinct giants.

“From Portugal in the southwest across Central and Eastern Europe, Mongolia, Northern China, South Korea and Japan up to Northeastern Siberia, and thence to the American Midwest and Eastern Canada, from the shelf regions of the Arctic Ocean and Northwestern Europe to the bottom of the Adriatic Sea and to the mountains of Crimea: the fossil remains of woolly mammoths have been found everywhere,” Prof Kahlke said.

“We related the computed distribution area to the real land surface at that time, thus generating the most precise map to date regarding the global habitats of the woolly mammoth. Such detailed knowledge regarding the distribution area is not even available for many species of animals alive today.”

The generated map is based on decades of surveys of thousands of excavation sites on three continents.

“Even sites under water, off the North American Atlantic shore and the North Sea, were taken into account. Due to the lower sea levels during the Ice Age – a large volume of water was bound in glaciers – these areas had fallen dry and were also inhabited by Mammuthus primigenius,” Prof Kahlke said.

Only the extinct steppe bison (Bison priscus) had a widespread distribution similar to that of the woolly mammoth.

“The bison were clearly more variable than the woolly mammoths,” he said. “Obviously, the mammoths had a higher tolerance toward various environmental factors and they were able to successfully settle in a variety of rather different open landscapes.”

But there were certain factors that limited the distribution of Mammuthus primigenius: glaciers, mountain chains, semi-deserts and deserts, as well as changes in sea level and shifts in vegetation placed restrictions on the species’ distribution area.

“The analysis of these limiting factors is useful in understanding the distribution of fossil species and their extinction – as with the mammoths toward the end of the last Ice Age.”

“In addition, the data aid in comprehending current changes in the distribution areas of recent animal species,” Prof Kahlke said.

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Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke. The maximum geographic extension of Late Pleistocene Mammuthus primigenius (Proboscidea, Mammalia) and its limiting factors. Quaternary International, published inline May 8, 2015; doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.03.023