Open AccessRadiocarbon dating the extinct caribou on Franz Josef Land
Author(s) -
ZALE ROLF,
GLAZOVSKIY ANDREY,
NASLUND JENSOVE
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
boreas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.95
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1502-3885
pISSN - 0300-9483
DOI - 10.1111/j.1502-3885.1994.tb00947.x
Subject(s) - radiocarbon dating , archipelago , holocene , arctic , shore , geology , period (music) , physical geography , population , archaeology , land bridge , before present , oceanography , geography , paleontology , biological dispersal , physics , demography , sociology , acoustics
Seven old, shed caribou ( Rangifer tarandus ) antlers from Alexandra Land, in the high arctic Franz Josef Land archipelago where no caribou are found today, were dated to between 3870 ± 70 and 2245 ± 70 radiocarbon years BP. All were found on the ground above the highest shoreline, thus not transported there by sea‐ice. That the ages all fall into a relatively narrow time‐span suggests that they originate from a population of caribou that really lived on Alexandra Land. We suggest that they migrated there after the culmination of the Holocene climatic optimum ( c . 6000 to 4500 BP) when the climate again became colder and the sea‐ice more persistent. The climate during that period can be compared with that of Nordaustlandet on Svalbard today, where a population of caribou still exists.