Acta Anthropologica Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (03): 551-562.doi: 10.16359/j.1000-3193/AAS.2021.0039

• Literature Reviews • Previous Articles    

New radiocarbon evidence on the woolly mammoth and rhinoceros in China

ZHAO Keliang1,2,3(), JIANG Haitao4, WANG Yuan1,2,3, TONG Haowen1,2,3, ZHANG Yaping1,3, GE Junyi1,2,3, ZHOU Xinying1,2,3, JIN Changzhu1,2,3, LI Xiaoqiang1,2,3   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044
    2. CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Beijing 100044
    3. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, 100049
    4. Heilongjiang Province Institute of Regional Geology Survey, Harbin 150080
  • Received:2020-11-06 Revised:2021-02-04 Online:2022-06-15 Published:2022-06-16

Abstract:

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus Primigenius) and the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) were the dominated members of the late Pleistocene fauna in the high latitude of northern Hemisphere. The age and causes of their extinction are still controversy. In this study, five woolly mammoth and 5 woolly rhinoceros fossils unearthed recently from Yingxiancun, Qinggang County, Heilongjiang Province were dated by AMS14C methods. The dating results were all over 40,000 years, and some fossils may have exceeded the current limit of radiocarbon dating. Based on comparing the published radiocarbon data of two animal fossils in China, we argued that the accuracy of the dating results obtained by the conventional 14C dating method should be reconsidered. The dating results of woolly mammoth fossils were mainly in MIS3, and the woolly rhinoceros survived in China until the last deglacial period. More chronology data of Mammuthus Primigenius and Coelodonta antiquitatis fossils were still needed for the research on the late Pleistocene megafauna extinction in China.

Key words: Qinggang County, MIS 3, Last glacial maximum, Megafauna extinction, Buried strata

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