This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Coard, R. Articles by Chamberlain, A. T. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The nature and timing of faunal change in the British Isles across the Pleistocene/Holocene transition

Department of Archaeology, University of Wales, Lampeter, Wales, SA48 7ED, UK

A. T. Chamberlain

Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield, S1 4ET, UK

The abrupt change in climate during the last deglaciation is reflected in the British Isles by a transition from periglacial to temperate faunas. In contrast to the coleopteran record, terrestrial mammals characteristic of the Lateglacial persist for several hundred years in southern Britain after the end of the Younger Dryas (Loch Lomond Stadial, end-Pleistocene). This lag in the vertebrate faunal transition could reflect a delay in the Holocene vegetational succession, coupled with a degree of thermal tolerance in cold-adapted mammals. Nonetheless, distinct faunal transitions are seen in the vertebrate records in both southern Britain and southern Ireland, and there do not appear to be transitional faunas containing contemporaneous glacial and temperate species at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary.

Key Words: Vertebrate fauna • reindeer • lynx • southwest Britain • southern Ireland • Younger Dryas • early Holocene

The Holocene, Vol. 9, No. 3, 372-376 (1999)
DOI: 10.1191/095968399672435429


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?