Grazing strategies of muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) during winter in Angujaartorfiup Nunaa in western Greenland

1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (7) ◽  
pp. 1129-1134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nellemann
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Fecal Pellet ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Kobresia Myosuroides ◽  
Vegetation Use ◽  
Grazing Strategies

Terrain and vegetation use by muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) during winter was examined through surveys of fecal pellet groups in western Greenland in 1994. Being virtually free of snow, Kobresia myosuroides steppe and dry and moist shrub heath were used extensively by muskoxen. Use varied among the three heath vegetation types in relation to the proportion of shrubs to graminoids, with most use being made of K. myosuroides steppe. Density of fecal pellet groups varied from 300 groups/ha at a graminoid biomass of ca. 30 g/m2 to > 2500 groups/ha where biomass exceeded 100 g/m2. Within K. myosuroides steppe, density of fecal pellet groups was < 500 groups/ha on narrow ridges compared with > 2000 groups/ha on wider steppe formations. Adaptation by muskoxen to grazing steppe-like vegetation throughout the Late Pleistocene may explain the extraordinarily rapid growth of the population in this grass steppe landscape in western Greenland.

A Good Place to Live: Plants and People at the Santa Elina Rock Shelter (Central Brazil) from Late Pleistocene to the Holocene

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-291
Author(s):  
Rita Scheel-Ybert ◽  
Caroline Bachelet
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Vegetation Changes ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Rock Shelter ◽  
Good Place ◽  
Central Brazil ◽  
Cultural Preference ◽  
Vegetation And Climate ◽  
Over Time

The Santa Elina rock shelter (Central Brazil) was recurrently occupied from the Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene. We compare sets of previously published anthracological analyses with new data to reconstruct the landscape, vegetation, and climate over the several thousand years of occupation, providing information on firewood management from about 27,000 to about 1500 cal BP. Laboratory analyses followed standard anthracological procedures. We identified 34 botanical families and 84 genera in a sample of almost 5,000 charcoal pieces. The Leguminosae family dominates the assemblage, followed by Anacardiaceae, Bignoniaceae, Rubiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Sapotaceae. The area surrounding the shelter was forested throughout the studied period. The local landscape was formed, as it is today, by a mosaic of vegetation types that include forest formations and open cerrado. Some regional vegetation changes may have occurred over time. Our data corroborate the practice of opportunistic firewood gathering in all periods of site occupation, despite a possible cultural preference for some taxa. The very long occupation of Santa Elina may be due not only to its attractiveness as a rock shelter but also to the continuously forested vegetation around it. It was a good place to live.

First occurrence of musk ox Ovibos moschatus in the Late Pleistocene (MIS 3) record from NW Iberia: Paleobiogeographic and paleoenvironmental implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 106336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego J. Álvarez-Lao ◽  
Daniel Ballesteros ◽  
Florent Rivals ◽  
Adrián Álvarez-Vena ◽  
Pablo Valenzuela ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Mis 3 ◽  
Nw Iberia ◽  
First Occurrence ◽  
Musk Ox

scholarly journals Ancient DNA analyses exclude humans as the driving force behind late Pleistocene musk ox (Ovibos moschatus) population dynamics

2010 ◽  
Vol 107 (12) ◽  
pp. 5675-5680 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Campos ◽  
E. Willerslev ◽  
A. Sher ◽  
L. Orlando ◽  
E. Axelsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Dna Analyses ◽  
Musk Ox

Sex, age, and seasonal variation in the foraging dynamics of muskoxen, Ovibos moschatus, in Greenland

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 1344-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mads C. Forchhammer
Keyword(s):  
Forage Quality ◽  
Dwarf Shrub ◽  
Feeding Time ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Daily Feeding ◽  
Forage Availability ◽  
Behavioural Strategy ◽  
Energy Conserving ◽  
Reproductive Activities

The relationship between resources (forage availability and quality) and the foraging dynamics of muskoxen, Ovibos moschatus, was studied in Angujaartorfiup Nunaa, western Greenland, during spring (calving, post calving), summer, autumn (rut), and midwinter. Muskoxen did select among vegetation types in all seasons but calving. During the postcalving period, summer, and rut, the vegetation types meadow, moist dwarf shrub heath, and grassland were preferred, whereas meadow, moist dwarf shrub heath, and steppe were selected during midwinter. The relative availability of graminoids in vegetation types did not correlate with selection of vegetation types. Seasonal patterns of daily feeding time were negatively correlated with forage quality, whereas no correlation with forage availability was found. Seasonal rumination times were negatively correlated with both availability and quality of forage. The length of rumination time is apparently not solely explained by variations in forage quality. Results presented here indicate that rumination time is also a behavioural strategy of muskoxen. Movement rates did not correlate with forage availability. During midwinter, muskoxen did not respond to low forage quality by increasing daily feeding time as was seen during calving. Instead, an energy-conserving strategy was observed, where a relatively larger proportion of time was allocated to resting, i.e., nonruminating. Bachelor herds and mixed herds differed in daily feeding time and habitat use during the prerutting and rutting season. Prior to the rutting season, muskox bulls increased energy intake to compensate for the subsequent allocation of time to reproductive activities. During the short arctic growing season, muskoxen in western Greenland decreased daily feeding time, whereas those in eastern Greenland increased feeding time. This difference in foraging dynamics is hypothesised to be a result of differences in biotic and abiotic constraints imposed on muskoxen in these two regions.

scholarly journals Fossil Ovibos Moschatus (Artiodactyla, Bovidae) from Buryn, with Reference to Muskox Dispersal in the Late Pleistocene of Ukraine

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 463-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. V. Krakhmalnaya ◽  
O. M. Kovalchuk
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Young Male ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
River Bed ◽  
North Eastern

Abstract The skull fragment of muskox Ovibos moschatus (Artiodactyla, Bovidae) obtained from Chasha River bed alluvium near the Buryn (Sumy Region, North-Eastern Ukraine) is described here in detail. It belongs to a young male, and presumably dates back to Late Pleistocene. This new find slightly extends the known Ukrainian range of the species to the east. Taxonomic attribution of extinct muskox and dispersal of Ovibos moschatus within the territory of Ukraine during the Late Pleistocene are also discussed in the paper.

Fossil muskoxen of Ohio

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1159-1166 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Gregory McDonald ◽  
Richard Arnold Davis
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
New Record ◽  
The State ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Hamilton County

Two species of muskoxen have been found as fossils in Ohio's Pleistocene deposits, the extinct Symbos cavifrons and the extant Ovibos moschatus. Symbos currently is represented by six specimens, and Ovibos, by two; all specimens are brain-cases. One of the Ovibos was found in Hamilton County, Ohio, in Wisconsinan gravels associated with the Miami Sublobe of the Huron Lobe; this new record is the southernmost for the genus. All records of Symbos in Ohio are Late Pleistocene, suggesting that the genus expanded into the region shortly after deglaciation. Both records of Ovibos from the state are associated with the glacial margin.

scholarly journals Late Pleistocene palaeoecology and phylogeography of woolly rhinoceroses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alba Rey-Iglesia ◽  
Adrian M. Lister ◽  
Anthony J. Stuart ◽  
Hervé Bocherens ◽  
Paul Szpak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Environmental Stability ◽  
Before Present ◽  
East Siberia ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Woolly Rhinoceros ◽  
North East ◽  
Isotopic Records

AbstractThe woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) was a cold-adapted herbivore, widely distributed from western Europe to north-east Siberia during the Late Pleistocene. Previous studies associate the extinction of the species ~14,000 years before present to climatic and vegetational changes, and suggest that later survival of populations in north-east Siberia may relate to the later persistence of open vegetation in that region. Here, we analyzed carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotopes and mitochondrial DNA sequences to elucidate the evolutionary ecology of the species. Our dataset comprised 286 woolly rhinoceros isotopic records, including 192 unpublished records, from across the species range, dating from >58,600 14C years to ~14,000 years before present. Crucially, we present the first 71 isotopic records available to date of the 15,000 years preceding woolly rhinoceros extinction. The data reveal ecological flexibility and geographical variation in woolly rhinoceros stable isotope compositions through time. In north-east Siberia, we detected δ15N stability through time. This could reflect long-term environmental stability, and might have enabled the later survival of the species in the region. To further investigate the palaeoecology of woolly rhinoceroses, we compared their isotopic compositions with that of other contemporary herbivores. This analysis suggests possible niche partitioning between woolly rhinoceros and both horse (Equus spp.) and woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), and isotopic similarities between woolly rhinoceros and both musk ox (Ovibos moschatus) and saiga (Saiga tatarica) at different points in time. To provide phylogeographical context to the isotopic data, we analyzed 61 published mitochondrial control region sequences. The data show a lack of geographic structuring; we found three haplogroups with overlapping distributions, all of which show a signal of expansion during the Last Glacial Maximum. Furthermore, our genetic findings support the notion that environmental stability in Siberia had an impact on the paleoecology of woolly rhinoceroses in the region. Our study highlights the utility of combining stable isotopic records with ancient DNA to advance our knowledge of the evolutionary ecology of past populations and extinct species.

Fossil hyrax dung and evidence of Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation types in the Namib Desert

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 829-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Scott ◽  
Eugene Marais ◽  
George A. Brook
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Namib Desert

Late Pleistocene Muskox (Ovibos) from the Early Wisconsin at Scarborough Bluffs, Ontario, Canada

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles S. Churcher ◽  
Paul F. Karrow
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
First Record ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus

An isolated right manual cannon-bone (fused metacarpals III + IV) of Ovibos moschatus has been identified from sediments at Scarborough Bluffs, Ontario, probably from stream deposits of the Pottery Road Formation that overlie the Scarborough Formation clays. This is the first record of muskox from an Early Wisconsin horizon at Scarborough.

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