Radiocarbon Dates on Saiga Antelope (<i>Saiga Tatarica</i>) Fossils from Yukon and the Northwest Territories

Saiga antelopes (Saiga tatarica), presently confined to Central Asia, spread westward to England and eastward to the Northwest Territories of Canada during the late Pleistocene. Two saiga cranial fragments from the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories have yielded radiocarbon dates of 13 390 ± 180 and 14 920 ± 160 B.P. respectively. Thus, saigas occupied the easternmost part of their known Pleistocene range toward the close of the Wisconsinan glaciation. Saigas probably died out between 13 000 and 10 000 years ago in North America because of rapid changes in climate and plantscapes occurring about that time, as former steppe-like terrain was replaced by spruce forest and tundra.