The late Pleistocene environment of the Eastern West Beringia based on the principal section at the Main River,Chukotka |
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| Authors: | Svetlana A Kuzmina Andrei V Sher Mary E Edwards James Haile Evgeny V Yan Anatoly V Kotov Eske Willerslev |
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| Institution: | 1. Ghent University, Department of Forest and Water Management, Laboratory for Wood Technology, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Gent, Belgium;2. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Laboratory for Wood Biology, Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium;3. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium;4. University College Ghent, Department of Plant Production, Schoonmeersstraat 52, B-9000 Gent, Belgium;5. Ghent University, Department of Biology, Limnology Unit, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium |
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| 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. |
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