New materials of the steppe mammoth, Mammuthus trogontherii, with discussion on the origin and evolutionary patterns of mammoths

Science China Earth Sciences - Tập 53 - Trang 956-963 - 2010
GuangBiao Wei1,2, SongMei Hu3, KeFu Yu4, YaMei Hou5, Xin Li6, ChangZhu Jin5, Yuan Wang5, JianXin Zhao7, WenHua Wang8
1Chongqing Three Gorges Institute of Paleoanthropology, China Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing, China
2Chongqing Three Gorges Culture and Social Development Research Institute, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China
3Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi’an, China
4South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
5Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
6Chongqing Natural History Museum, Chongqing, China
7Radiogenic Isotope Laboratory, Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis (CMM), The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia
8Production & Technology Department, Strip Mine, Zalainuoer Coal Industry Co. Ltd., Manzhouli, China

Tóm tắt

Recently found materials indicate that the steppe mammoth, Mammuthus trogontherii, survived in northern China into the late Pleistocene. East Asia is the key area of mammoth evolution after the initial radiation of early forms out of Africa and into Eurasia at the beginning of the late Pliocene (c. 3.5-3.0 Ma). M. rumanus, M. meridionalis, M. trogontherii, and M. primigenius probably formed a continuous and transitional evolutionary lineage within the pan-Eurasian mammoth radiation in East Asia. Each speciation event of the Eurasian mammoths was followed by a rapid and large-scale dispersal event: out of East Asia. Allopatric speciation is the main speciation pattern of Mammuthus. The climatic vacillation was severe and frequent in East Asia from the early part of early Pleistocene (c. 2.6 Ma) onward, which probably brought about successive speciation in East Asia and the subsequent dispersal of the mammoths.

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