Acta Anthropologica Sinica >

2022 , Vol. 41 >Issue 03: 551 - 562

DOI: https://doi.org/10.16359/j.1000-3193/AAS.2021.0039

Literature Reviews

New radiocarbon evidence on the woolly mammoth and rhinoceros in China

  • Keliang ZHAO ,
  • Haitao JIANG ,
  • Yuan WANG ,
  • Haowen TONG ,
  • Yaping ZHANG ,
  • Junyi GE ,
  • Xinying ZHOU ,
  • Changzhu JIN ,
  • Xiaoqiang LI
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  • 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 date: 2020-11-06

  Revised date: 2021-02-04

  Online published: 2022-06-16

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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

Cite this article

Keliang ZHAO , Haitao JIANG , Yuan WANG , Haowen TONG , Yaping ZHANG , Junyi GE , Xinying ZHOU , Changzhu JIN , Xiaoqiang LI . New radiocarbon evidence on the woolly mammoth and rhinoceros in China[J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2022 , 41(03) : 551 -562 . DOI: 10.16359/j.1000-3193/AAS.2021.0039

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