Woolly rhinos were once widespread in northern and central Eurasia before becoming extinct around 10,000 years ago. Credit: Mauricio Anton
Advanced computer modeling reveals that continued human hunting contributed to the extinction of woolly rhinos by blocking their migration to new habitats during post-Ice Age warming, highlighting the ongoing impact of human activity on the large animals. species.
The researchers found that persistent hunting by humans limited the woolly rhinoceros from reaching preferred habitats as the Earth warmed after the last ice age.
An international team of researchers, led by scientists from the University of Adelaide and the University of Copenhagen, used computer modeling to make the discovery, shedding light on an eons-old mystery.
“Using computer models, fossils and antiquity DNA“We have traced 52,000 years of woolly rhinoceros population history across Eurasia at a resolution not previously thought possible,” said lead author Associate Professor Damien Fordham, from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute. “This showed that 30,000 years ago, a combination of cold temperatures and low but persistent hunting by humans caused the woolly rhinoceros to spread south, trapping it in scattered isolated and rapidly deteriorating habitats at the end of the last ice age.” . As the Earth melted and temperatures rose, woolly rhinoceros populations were unable to colonize important new habitats opening up in northern Eurasia, causing them to destabilize and collapse, leading to their extinction.
An iconic megafauna species, the woolly rhinoceros was thick-skinned and long-furred and once roamed the mammoth steppes of northern and central Eurasia, before its extinction around 10,000 years ago.
Conflicting findings and human impact
This recent discovery, published in PNASit contradicts previous research which found that humans had no role in the extinction of the woolly rhinoceros – despite the animal co-existing with humans for tens of thousands of years before its extinction.
“The demographic responses revealed by our analysis were at a much higher resolution than those captured in previous genetic studies,” said Professor Eline Lorenzen from the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen. “This allowed us to determine the important interactions that woolly rhinos had with humans and to document how these changed over space and time. One of these largely overlooked interactions was the persistent low level of hunting by humans, presumably for food.
Humans today pose a similar threat to the environment. Populations of large animals have been pushed into fragmented and suboptimal habitats due to overhunting and human land use changes.
In the late Pleistocene, there were 61 species of large terrestrial herbivores—weighing more than one ton—and only eight of them exist today. Five of these surviving species are rhinoceroses.
“Our findings reveal how climate change and human activity can lead to the extinction of megafauna,” said Professor David Nogues-Bravo of the University of Copenhagen, who co-authored the study. “This understanding is key to developing conservation strategies to protect currently threatened species such as the vulnerable rhinos in Africa and Asia.” By studying past extinctions, we can provide valuable lessons for the conservation of Earth’s remaining large animals.”
Reference: “52,000 Years of Woolly Rhinoceros Population Dynamics Reveal Mechanisms of Extinction” by Damien A. Fordham, Stuart C. Brown, Elisabetta Canteri, Jeremy J. Austin, Mark V. Lomolino, Sean Haythorn, Edward Armstrong, Hervé Bocherens, Andrea Manic, Alba Rey-Iglesia, Carsten Rahbek, David Nogués-Bravo and Eline D. Lorenzen, 03 Jun 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2316419121