Collapse of the mammoth-steppe in central Yukon as revealed by ancient environmental DNA

Tyler J. Murchie (), Alistair J. Monteath, Matthew E. Mahony, George S. Long, Scott Cocker, Tara Sadoway, Emil Karpinski, Grant Zazula, Ross D. E. MacPhee, Duane Froese () and Hendrik N. Poinar ()
Additional contact information
Tyler J. Murchie: McMaster University
Alistair J. Monteath: University of Alberta
Matthew E. Mahony: University of Alberta
George S. Long: McMaster University
Scott Cocker: University of Alberta
Tara Sadoway: McMaster University
Emil Karpinski: McMaster University
Grant Zazula: Yukon Government, Palaeontology Program, Department of Tourism and Culture
Ross D. E. MacPhee: American Museum of Natural History
Duane Froese: University of Alberta
Hendrik N. Poinar: McMaster University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: Abstract The temporal and spatial coarseness of megafaunal fossil records complicates attempts to to disentangle the relative impacts of climate change, ecosystem restructuring, and human activities associated with the Late Quaternary extinctions. Advances in the extraction and identification of ancient DNA that was shed into the environment and preserved for millennia in sediment now provides a way to augment discontinuous palaeontological assemblages. Here, we present a 30,000-year sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) record derived from loessal permafrost silts in the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada. We observe a substantial turnover in ecosystem composition between 13,500 and 10,000 calendar years ago with the rise of woody shrubs and the disappearance of the mammoth-steppe (steppe-tundra) ecosystem. We also identify a lingering signal of Equus sp. (North American horse) and Mammuthus primigenius (woolly mammoth) at multiple sites persisting thousands of years after their supposed extinction from the fossil record.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27439-6

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