Pleistocene remains of the lion-like cat (Panthera atrox) from the Yukon Territory and northern Alaska

1969 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1277-1288 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Harington
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Panthera Leo ◽  
Arctic Coast ◽  
Northern Alaska ◽  
Panthera Atrox

Skull and forelimb fragments of the large, extinct cat (Panthera atrox) from Pleistocene sediments in the Dawson area, Yukon Territory, are the first records of the species for Canada. A further specimen from the Kaolak River, near the arctic coast of Alaska, significantly extends the known northward range of this cat. The species has been reported from approximately 26 localities from Alaska to Peru, and may have migrated from Eurasia just prior to the Sangamon interglacial. Data reviewed suggest that Panthera atrox from North America, the Eurasian "cave lion" Panthera leo spelaea, and the large Chinese cat Panthera youngi are conspecific.

GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN SIZE IN NORTH AMERICAN BROWN BEARS, URSUS ARCTOS L., AS INDICATED BY CONDYLOBASAL LENGTH

1963 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Rausch
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Ursus Arctos ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Species Variation ◽  
Brown Bears ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Condylobasal Length ◽  
Mean Size ◽  
Arctic Coast

Variation in size of brown bears, Ursus arctos Linnaeus, indicated by condylobasal length of the skull, has been studied in 357 specimens comprising series from 26 regions in North America. These were selected by criteria defined from a previous study of growth in black bears, U. americanus Pallas, since it was determined that the growth pattern is essentially the same for the two species. Variation in mean condylobasal length in the series studied is clinal; a well-defined gradient exists along the coastal zone from Bella Coola, British Columbia, to the end of the Alaska Peninsula, with mean condylobasal length increasing from south to northwest. A similar gradient was evident along the Arctic Coast, beginning in the region of Coronation Gulf. In the interior, small mean values were obtained for samples from the western Yukon Territory, with mean size increasing toward both the southeast and the northwest. It is concluded that formal recognition of segments of intergrading populations of brown bears at the subspecific level is not justified. Brown bears on Kodiak–Afognak–Shuyak Islands comprise a reproductively isolated population possessing distinctive cranial characteristics, and to them the name U. arctos middendorffi Merriam is applicable. It is proposed that U. a. horribilis Ord be used for brown bears over the greater part of the range of the species in North America. The number of subspecies of U. arctos recognized in Eurasia also may be reduced, with the study of comparable series of skulls.

Flake Tools in the American Arctic: Some Speculations

1964 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin N. Wilmsen
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
New World ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
River Delta ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Land Bridge ◽  
Bering Land Bridge

AbstractTwo sites, Kogruk (at the summit of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska) and Engigstciak (at the head of the Firth River delta, Yukon Territory, Canada), have recently yielded flake-tool assemblages which show striking resemblances to a Eurasiatic flake-blade tradition based on a Levallois-Mousterian stone-chipping technique, and to the Clovis flake-blade tradition of America which appears to be based on a similar chipping technique. It is suggested that these traditions are historically related and that the Arctic sites provide a possible link between the two. The presence of incipient fluting in Siberia and at Engigstciak may prove significant. Dating is discussed in terms of the ecology and geology of the sites and is correlated with the probable periods of availability of the Bering land bridge. An upland-foothills zone is seen to be essentially continuous from central Asia to central North America. It is suggested that this zone provided the only environmentally compatible link between the two continents, and that it was therefore the most probable route of early hunting peoples into the New World.

Late Pleistocene fish fossils of Coregonus, Stenodus, Thymallus, Catostomus, Lota, and Cottus from the Old Crow basin, northern Yukon, Canada

1981 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 1740-1754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Cumbaa ◽  
Don E. McAllister ◽  
Richard E. Morlan
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Glacial Refugia ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Grayling ◽  
Thymallus Arcticus ◽  
Freshwater Sculpin ◽  
Longnose Sucker ◽  
First Time

Fossils of the broad whitefish, Coregonus nasus; the inconnu, Stenodus leucichthys; the longnose sucker, Catostomus catostomus; and the burbot, Lota lota, are reported for the first time from North America and a freshwater sculpin, Cottus, for the first time from Yukon Territory. The known fossil occurrence of the Arctic grayling, Thymallus arcticus, in North America is extended from 32 000 to about 60 000 years BP. These six fossils represent about one sixth of the present-day Yukon freshwater ichthyofauna of 35 species.These fossils provide a major test for the method of determining glacial refugia based on geographic variation of morphological or protein characters. They confirm that these taxa were present prior to and presumably survived the Wisconsinan glaciation in a Beringian refugium.The occurrence of these fossils, all subarctic or subarctic–boreal species known at present in the same area, does not suggest a paleoenvironment greatly different from the present one.

Phaeogalera and Galerina in arctic-subarctic Alaska (U.S.A.) and the Yukon Territory (Canada)

1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 414-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Horak ◽  
O. K. Miller Jr.
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Arctic Tundra ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
North Slope ◽  
Wet Meadow ◽  
Alpine Habitats ◽  
Alaskan North Slope ◽  
First Time

Eleven taxa of Galerina and Phaeogalera are described. Galerina leptocystis, Galerina subarctica, and Galerina praticola are reported from arctic North America for the first time. Phaeogalra stagnina is only found in very humid, wet meadow tundra associated with Drepanocladus or Calliergon. Galerina arctica is reported for the first time from Alaska and Canada. One species, Galerina pseudocerina, is found only in arctic alpine habitats in Canada and not in the arctic tundra. Two forms of Galerina pseudomycenopsis represent the most common taxon observed in Alaskan North Slope wet meadow tundra on peat or associated with Calliergon, Drepanocladus, and Sphagnum. Two species, Galerina clavata and Galerina hypnorum, are common cosmopolitan taxa, but only G. clavata is frequently encountered on the Alaskan North Slope. The association of the Galerina taxa with mosses is presented and discussed, as well as their occurrence in microhabitats in wet meadow tundra and among polygons in coastal tundra on the Alaskan North Slope. Key words: Galerina, Phaeogalera, Cortinariaceae, Alaska, Yukon Territory, bryophytes.

Anastrophyllum assimile and Marsupella revoluta, new to the interior of North America

1977 ◽  
Vol 55 (19) ◽  
pp. 2479-2484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana G. Horton
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
North America ◽  
Northwest Territories ◽  
North American ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Devon Island ◽  
New Localities ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
Coastal British Columbia

Anastrophyllum assimile (Mitt.) Steph. and Marsupella revoluta (Nees) Lindb. are reported from the Keele Peak area, central-eastern Yukon Territory, Canada, and M. revoluta is also reported from Devon Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. These new localities extend a pattern of disjunct occurrences throughout the known range of both species, which further support the hypothesis of their relictual status. However, collections of A. assimile from coastal British Columbia and the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska, are indicative of strong oceanic affinities of North American populations of this species. Also, the arctic and alpine localities at which either A. assimile or M. revoluta might be expected to occur in the interior of Alaska and the Yukon are limited in number as both species invariably occur in association with siliceous substrates.

Notes on Two Archaeological Discoveries in Northern Alaska, 1950

1951 ◽  
Vol 17 (1Part1) ◽  
pp. 55-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph S. Solecki
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Geological Survey ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Brooks Range ◽  
Arctic Circle ◽  
Northern Side ◽  
The University ◽  
Northern Alaska ◽  
Mountain Province ◽  
The U.S

Several significant pre-Eskimo finds related to early aboriginal occupations in North America were made north of the Arctic Circle during the 1950 season in Alaska. These discoveries were made within and just bordering the northern side of the Brooks Range mountain province. Two of the more important finds were made by Milton C. Lachenbruch and Robert J. Hackman of the U.S. Geological Survey. Another important find was made by Irving, a student at the University of Alaska (Giddings, 1950, p. 20). Lachenbruch's and Hackman's specimens were submitted to the writer for study and are described summarily in this paper. It is reported that Irving found lithic cultural remains similar to those found by Hackman not far from the latter's station near Anaktuvuk Pass.

The first record of Leptodontium flexifolium (Pottiaceae, Bryophyta) for Arctic Alaska

2011 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 267-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. M. Afonina
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
North America ◽  
First Record ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Southern States ◽  
Arctic Alaska ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City ◽  
World Distribution

Leptodontium flexifolium (Dicks.) Hampe is reported for the first time from the Arctic Alaska, vicinity of the City of Nome (64°31′ N, 165°29′ W). The species is rare for North America and belongs to the genus with tropical and subtropical distribution. Earlier the species was known in North America from the southern states (Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas) as well as from 60 000-years-old subfossils from the arctic part of the Yukon Territory (Arctic Canada). The description and illustration of this species based on the specimen from Alaska is given, the world distribution is considered.

scholarly journals Mammoth Extinction: Two Continents and Wrangel Island

Radiocarbon ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S. Martin ◽  
Anthony J. Stuart
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Mammuthus Primigenius ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Wrangel Island ◽  
Arctic Coast

A harvest of 300 radiocarbon dates on extinct elephants (Proboscidea) from the northern parts of the New and Old Worlds has revealed a striking difference. While catastrophic in North America, elephant extinction was gradual in Eurasia (Stuart 1991), where straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) vanished 50 millennia or more before woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius). The range of the woolly mammoths started shrinking before 20 ka ago (Vartanyan et al. 1995). By 12 ka bp, the beasts were very scarce or absent in western Europe. Until the dating of Wrangel Island tusks and teeth (Vartanyan, Garrutt and Sher 1993), mammoths appeared to make their last stand on the Arctic coast of Siberia ca. 10 ka bp. The Wrangel Island find of dwarf mammoths by Sergy Vartanyan, V. E. Garrut and Andrei Sher (1993) stretched the extinction chronology of mammoths another 6 ka, into the time of the pharaohs.

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