The mechanisms of Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions remain fiercely contested, with human impact or climate change cited as principal drivers. We compared ancient DNA and radiocarbon data from 31 detailed time series of regional megafaunal extinctions and replacements over the past 56,000 years with standard and new combined records of Northern Hemisphere climate in the Late Pleistocene. Unexpectedly, rapid climate changes associated with interstadial warming events are strongly associated with the regional replacement or extinction of major genetic clades or species of megafauna. The presence of many cryptic biotic transitions before the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary revealed by ancient DNA confirms the importance of climate change in megafaunal population extinctions and suggests that metapopulation structures necessary to survive such repeated and rapid climatic shifts were susceptible to human impacts.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	climate, extinction, aDNA
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Ecology
Research Field:	Palaeoecology
Objective Division:	Environment
Objective Group:	Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity
Objective Field:	Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales
UTAS Author:	Brook, BW (Professor Barry Brook)
ID Code:	107162
Year Published:	2015
Web of Science® Times Cited:	72
Deposited By:	Plant Science
Deposited On:	2016-03-07
Last Modified:	2017-11-01
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