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Extinct bison body could rewrite Canadian archaeological record

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Centauri
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« on: November 01, 2009, 05:48:34 am »

Extinct bison body could rewrite Canadian archaeological record
 
 
By Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
October 27, 2009




A steppe bison cranium specimen. A carcass of the now-extinct animal, discovered two years ago melting out of a cliff in the Northwest Territories, is shedding new light on the Ice Age species, and could rewrite the history of human migration in Canada.
Photograph by: Quaternary Science Reviews, Quaternary Science Reviews
« Last Edit: November 01, 2009, 05:49:35 am by Centauri » Report Spam   Logged

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Centauri
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« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2009, 05:50:03 am »

The carcass of an extinct steppe bison, discovered two years ago melting out of a cliff in a remote village in the Northwest Territories, is shedding new light on the Ice Age species — and could rewrite the history of human migration in Canada as glaciers began retreating in the region nearly 14,000 years ago.

An analysis of the super-sized beast, larger than both the plains and wood bison which inhabited North America following the demise of its steppe-cousin, showed the specimen was one of the last of its kind in ancient Beringia — the ice-free, northwest corner of the continent that was once linked to eastern Siberia.

But the rare find, documented by a team of Canadian, British and American scientists in the latest edition of the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, has wider implications for dating the retreat of the glaciers in northern Canada and the possible entry of human hunters from Asia — the ancestors of today's aboriginal Canadians — into the continental interior.
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Centauri
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« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2009, 05:50:25 am »

The "partially mummified" steppe bison was found two years ago in Tsiigehtchic, N.W.T., by local resident Shane Van Loon. The animal's distinctive skull and wide horns were largely intact, but more tantalizing were portions of preserved limbs, hide and intestines — soft tissue that permitted detailed genetic analysis allowing scientists to accurately situate the specimen in the evolutionary history of North America's bison populations.

"Based on the genetics, this animal was one of the last of the remaining steppe bison in Beringia," Yukon government paleontologist Grant Zazula told Canwest News Service.

"Shortly after this, populations in the North are completely replaced by bison that evolved in the mid-continent."

What the find also shows is that the post-glacial ecosystem inhabited by the steppe bison, which was found a short distance east of the Yukon-N.W.T. border near the Mackenzie River Delta, must have supported large mammals earlier than previously known.
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Centauri
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« Reply #3 on: November 01, 2009, 05:50:50 am »

That, say the scientists, suggests human hunters may well have entered the area around this time and — potentially — left traces of their own activities at sites still waiting to be found by archeologists.

"Given that steppe bison inhabited the northern portal to the 'ice-free corridor,' data from the Tsiigehtchic bison raises the potential for discovery of . . . archaeological sites in the lower Mackenzie River Valley," the study states.

By coincidence, the steppe bison was featured this year on a commemorative platinum coin issued by the Royal Canadian Mint.

The bison find follows a Yukon museum's unveiling earlier this year of the partial remains of an extinct Ice Age horse, a discovery hailed as a national treasure because of the animal's exquisite state of preservation.

Zazula and other Canadian scientists also published a study this year detailing the scientific riches yielded over the years by Klondike-area gold mines, where mining excavations have unearthed a motherlode of Ice Age "megafaunal" fossils, including the well-preserved horse, as well numerous mammoths and other extinct species.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Bison+could+rewrite+Canada+archaeological+record/2150110/story.html
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