A review of the evidence for extinction chronologies for five species of Upper Pleistocene megafauna in Siberia

Abstract

A review of the radiocarbon chronology of some late Upper Pleistocene mammals from Siberia is presented. Previously published data has been supplemented by new 14C dates for 5 species (woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, bison, horse, and muskox) to reconstruct chronological extinction patterns. The final extinction of woolly rhinoceros and bison in Siberia can be dated to approximately 11,000-9700 BP, but some megafaunal species (woolly mammoth, horse, and muskox) survived into the Late Holocene, about 3700-2200 BP.