Landscape Changes during the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition and Range Dynamics of Large Herbivorous Mammals of Northern Asia

Abstract

This work studies the effect of the reduction of steppe and tundra landscapes in Northern Asia during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic changes on the ranges of large herbivorous mammals. The relationship between a complex of characteristics of herbivore species and their landscape was evaluated. It is found that not only the Mongolian gazelle, saiga, and musk ox, but also the snow sheep, the ancestors of domestic sheep and goats, and probably the Amur goral may reduced their ranges during the late Quaternary landscape changes. The widening of the range of the sika deer, as well as the range of the Siberian musk deer associated exclusively with forest landscapes, can be explained by a reduction of open landscapes. Any significant changes in the ranges of roe deer, red deer, reindeer, elk, wild boar, steppe bison, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and ancestral and probably related forms of domestic horse and cattle could not be directly caused by landscape changes 17 000–7000 years ago, even if they coincide chronologically.