Land–sea climatic proxies have been obtained from the Last Glacial section of IMAGES core MD95-2043 (western Mediterranean Sea). Vegetation and alkenone derived SST curves indicate rapid (∼150 years) and synchronous terrestrial and marine climatic changes, paralleling the Dansgaard–Oeschger (D–O) climatic variability over Greenland. This frequency of climate change can be related to shifts between the two modes of operation of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Transfer functions applied to the pollen data indicate that there was an amplification of the climatic signal during Heinrich events (HEs) in comparison with other D–O stadials. The development and persistence of both Scandinavian and Atlantic Mobile Polar Highs over southwestern Europe may explain the extreme cooling (∼10 °C) and dryness (400 mm) during Heinrich events 5 and 4 in the Mediterranean region. Comparison of the results of core MD95-2043 with similar climatic data from IMAGES core MD95-2042, located off Portugal, indicates that thermal and precipitation gradients occurred between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic sides of Iberia within HEs. HEs 4 and 5 are associated with more humid conditions in the Atlantic (by 200 mm) than in the Mediterranean site, as is the case at the present time. This comparison also illustrates the different behaviour of these areas during the D–O stadials. In contrast with the Mediterranean site, the Atlantic site shows similar precipitation and temperature drops for all the D–O stadials, including those related to the HEs. Here we propose the operation of different Mobile Polar Highs (MPH) as the driving mechanism for this difference in behaviour between the Atlantic and Mediterranean sides of Iberia. HEs are related to a stronger influence of the Scandinavian MPH, forcing a severe aridification and cooling of the full Iberian Peninsula. The Atlantic MPH may have been dominant during the other stadials, which would preferentially affect Southwestern Iberia.

Synchroneity between marine and terrestrial responses to millennial scale climatic variability during the last glacial period in the Mediterranean region

Present-day and past (last 25000 years) marine pollen signal off western Iberia

Summary
The ‘mass extinctions’ at the end of the Pleistocene were unique, both in the Pleistocene and earlier in the geological record, in that the species lost were nearly all large terrestrial mammals. Although a global phenomenon, late Pleistocene extinctions were most severe in North America, South America and Australia, and moderate in northern Eurasia (Europe plus Soviet Asia). In Africa, where nearly all of the late Pleistocene ‘megafauna’ survives to the present day, losses were slight.

Ruling out epidemic disease or cosmic catastrophe, the contending hypotheses to explain late Pleistocene extinctions are: (a) failure to adapt to climatic/environmental change; and (b) extermination by human hunters (‘prehistoric overkill’).

This review focuses on extinctions in northern Eurasia (mainly Europe) in comparison with North America. In addition to reviewing the faunal evidence, the highly relevant environmental and archaeological backgrounds are summarized. The latest survival dates of extinct species are estimated from stratigraphic occurrences of fossil remains, radiocarbon dates, or association with archaeological industries.

The Middle and Upper Pleistocene (ca. 700000–10000 BP) in northern Eurasia and North America was a time of constantly changing climate, ranging from phases of extensive glaciation in cold stages, to temperate periods (interglacials). In the Lateglacial (ca. 15000–10000 BP), during which most extinctions occurred, there was a major reorganization of vegetation, mainly involving the replacement of open vegetation by forests. These changes were more profound than earlier in the Last Cold Stage, but similar in nature to vegetational changes that took place at previous cold stage/ interglacial transitions.

The archaeological record shows that humans have been present in Europe since the early Middle Pleistocene. The arrival in Europe ca. 35000 BP of ‘anatomically modern humans’, with their technologically more advanced upper palaeolithic industries, was a ‘quantum leap’ in human history.

Extinctions occurred throughout the European Pleistocene, but until the late Pleistocene most losses were replaced by the evolution or immigration of new species, and most of those lost without replacement were small mammals. In marked contrast, extinctions without replacement in the late Pleistocene were almost entirely confined to the largest mammals (> 1000 kg) and some medium-large species (100–1000 kg). Late Pleistocene extinctions in northern Eurasia were not synchronized, but occurred in two broad phases: (a) ‘interglacial survivors’, e.g. Palaeoloxodon antiquus, which retreated to southern Europe prior to their disappearance before ca. 30000 BP, i.e. before the main glaciation; and (b) cold-adapted species (e.g. Mammuthusprimigenius; Megaloceros giganteus) that disappeared in the Lateglacial, at various times between ca. 14000 and 10000 BP. Even within a species, populations became extinct earlier in some areas than in others, e.g. the possible survival of M. primigenius in north-central Siberia ca. 2000 years later than in Europe.

In North America many more species were lost than in northern Eurasia, including many medium-large mammals in addition to the largest forms. At least for the commoner species, extinctions apparently all occurred within a much narrower time span, ca. 10500–11 500 BP, probably much less.

Any extinction hypothesis must explain why losses in North America were severe and sudden, whereas those in northern Eurasia were moderate and staggered. The close correlation of North American extinctions with the arrival of Clovis hunters south of the ice sheets ca. 11 500 BP is consistent with overkill. However, there is no such correlation for northern Eurasia, where most extinctions also occurred in the Lateglacial, more than 20000 years after the appearance of upper palaeolithic humans. Although Lateglacial climatic/environmental changes correlate with extinctions in North America and northern Eurasia, the climatic hypothesis neither explains why extinction patterns were so different in the two regions, nor why similar losses did not take place at previous cold stage/interglacial transitions.

From the evidence reviewed here, human predation at times of major climatic/ environmental change is suggested as the most probable cause of late Pleistocene extinctions. In northern Eurasia overkill became possible only when large-mammal distributions, and thus populations, were already severely reduced by such changes. Similar extinctions did not occur earlier in the Pleistocene because ‘anatomically modern humans’ with upper palaeolithic hunting technologies were not present. In North America the main reason that losses were severe and sudden is probably the close coincidence of Lateglacial climatic/environmental changes with the arrival of Clovis hunters.

The necessity for amassing a much greater body of accurate faunal, environmental and archaeological data relevant to this intriguing question is emphasized. In particular, many more high-quality radiocarbon dates are required to determine the late Pleistocene history of extinct taxa in considerably more detail.

Mammalian extinctions in the late Pleistocene of northern Eurasia and North America.

Vegetation change during the past 25 000 years in and near the present Mixed Mesophytic Forest Region is inferred from pollen and plant macrofossil analyses of sediment cores from two sites on the eastern Highland Rim of Middle Tennessee, USA. Anderson Pond, in White County, dates from 25 000 radiocarbon years BP to present. During the Farmdalian Interstadial, 25 000 yr BP, northern Diploxylon pines, spruce, and deciduous trees were present at Anderson Pond, indicating a cool, moist climate. From 19 000 to 16 300 yr BP, during the Late Wisconsin glacial maximum, boreal taxa of jack pine, spruce, and fir were dominant. Late—glacial climatic amelioration began in Middle Tennessee at about 16 300 yr BP, with replacement of jack pine—spruce—fir forest by deciduous forest. Ash, ironwood, hickory, birch, butternut, willow, and elm increased in importance first, followed by beech and sugar maple. Mixed mesophytic forest taxa were most abundant during the early Holocene, between 12 500 and 8000 yr BP. A warming and drying trend between 8000 and 5000 yr BP is reflected by high influx values for pollen of oak, ash, hickory, swamp alder, and buttonbush, and by diminishing importance of mixed mesophytic forest taxa. Mingo Pond, Franklin County, Tennessee, contains a pollen record estimated to extend back to 14 000 yr BP. Mixed mesophytic forest taxa were abundantly represented at Mingo Pond during the late glacial and early Holocene, along with pollen representing prairie vegetation. Oak and sweetgum dominated the mid— and late Holocene record from Mingo Pond. Stratigraphic sites from the Missouri Ozarks to the Atlantic Coastal Plain date the full glacial in the southeastern United States between 23 000 and 16 500 yr BP. During the glacial maximum, boreal—like coniferous forests of spruce, jack pine, and fir extended southward to 34°N latitude. Mesic deciduous forest persisted through the full glacial at 35°N at Nonconnah Creek near Memphis. Full—glacial refuges for deciduous forest species may have also existed in south—facing gorges of the Cumberland Plateau and southern Appalachian Mountains in addition to bluffs along major streams in the southeastern United States. During the late glacial, beginning about 16 500 yr BP, boreal—like coniferous forest was replaced in midlatitudes (34° to 37°N) by cool—temperate coniferous—deciduous forest. In the early Holocene, between 12 500 and 8000 yr BP, cool—temperate mixed mesophytic forest prevailed between 34° and 37°N. The Mixed Mesophytic Forest Region assumed its present distribution in the mid—Holocene.

Late Quaternary Vegetation History of the Eastern Highland Rim and Adjacent Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee

The existing warm (Larrea) deserts of the Southwest are Holocene expansions replacing late—Pleistocene, evergreen woodlands of low—statured junipers, pinyon pines, and live oaks; these woodlands have been isolated by complementary contraction to the slopes of higher mountains that rise like islands from the modern desert sea. Because pinyon—juniper woodland is now so widespread on the similar fault—block mountains of the Great Basin, even as far north as southern Idaho, it would seem reasonable to suppose that the modern "cold" (Artemisia, Atriplex) deserts were similarly wooded during the last glacial. However, conclusive Neotoma macrofossil evidence (45 14C—dated assemblages are reported here) documents major latitudinal displacement of vegetation that precludes pinyon—juniper woodland in the northern and central Great Basin at that time. On the other hand, the entire Mohave Desert sector (south of °37°N) served as an extensive Pleistocene refugium for pinyon—juniper woodland, as documented by an additi...

Paleobiogeography of Montane Islands in the Great Basin since the Last Glaciopluvial

A Holocene vegetation record from the Mississippi River Valley, southeastern Missouri

Pollen analysis of fossil packrat middens from the Sonoran Desert

Geochelone in Illinois and the Illinoian-Sangamonian Vegetation of the Type Region

Late Pleistocene Vegetational Records in Western Arizona

A radiocarbon-dated pollen diagram from Big Lake, a complex of relict braided channels on the Little River and part of the St. Francis Sunk Lands in northeastern Arkansas, indicates that the basal lake sediments are less than 180 yr old. This date approximates the time of the New Madrid earthquake of 1811–1812. The formation of the St. Francis Sunk Lands has been attributed to mid-Holocene alluvial drowning, and effects of the New Madrid earthquake upon the Sunk Lands have recently been considered minimal. However, this new evidence suggests that Big Lake was either altered or formed in recent times, possibly by this seismic event.

New evidence on the history of the St. Francis Sunk Lands, northeastern Arkansas

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