page_title: Quaternary extinction event
section_title: Palearctic: Europe and northern Asia
hierarchical_section_title: Quaternary extinction event / Extinctions by biogeographic realm / Palearctic: Europe and northern Asia
caption_attribution_description: Español: reconstrucción - interpretación del oso de las cavernas europeo (Ursus spelaeus) Italiano: ricostruzione dell' orso delle caverne europeo (Ursus spelaeus) English: reconstruction of a European cave bear (Ursus spelaeus)
context_page_description: The Quaternary period saw the extinctions of numerous predominantly megafaunal species, which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity and the extinction of key ecological strata across the globe. The most prominent event in the Late Pleistocene is differentiated from previous Quaternary pulse extinctions by the widespread absence of ecological succession to replace these extinct species, and the regime shift of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence.
  The earliest casualties were incurred at 130,000 BCE. However, the great majority of extinctions in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas occurred during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch. This extinction wave did not stop at the end of the Pleistocene, continuing, especially on isolated islands, in human-caused extinctions, although there is debate as to whether these should be considered separate events or part of the same event.
  Among the main causes hypothesized by paleontologists are overkill by the widespread appearance of humans and natural climate change.
context_section_description: The Palearctic realm spans the entirety of the European continent and stretches into northern Asia, through the Caucasus and central Asia to northern China, Siberia and Beringia. During the Late Pleistocene, this region was noted for its great diversity and dynamism of biomes, including the warm climes of the Mediterranean basin, open temperate woodlands, arid plains, mountainous heathland and swampy wetlands, all of which were vulnerable to the severe climatic fluctuations of the interchanges between glacial and interglacials periods (stadials). However, it was the expansive mammoth steppe which was the ecosystem which united and defined this region during the Late Pleistocene. One of the key features of Europe's Late Pleistocene climate was the often drastic turnover of conditions and biota between the numerous stadials, which could set within a century. For example, during glacial periods, the entire North Sea was drained of water to form Doggerland. The final major cold spell occurred from 25,000 BCE to 18,000 BCE and is known as the Last Glacial Maximum, when the Fenno-Scandinavian ice sheet covered much of northern Europe, while the Alpine ice sheet occupied significant parts of central-southern Europe.
  Europe and northern Asia, being far colder and drier than today, was largely hegemonized by the mammoth steppe, an ecosystem dominated by palatable high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs. This supported an extensive biota of grassland fauna and stretched eastwards from Spain in the Iberian Peninsula to Yukon in modern-day Canada. The area was populated by many species of grazers which assembled in large herds similar in size to those in Africa today. Populous species which roamed the great grasslands included the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, Elasmotherium, steppe bison, Pleistocene horse, muskox, Cervalces, reindeer, various antelopes (goat-horned antelope, mongolian gazelle, saiga antelope and twisted-horned antelope) and steppe pika. Carnivores included Eurasian cave lion, scimitar cat, cave hyena, grey wolf, dhole and the Arctic fox.
  At the edges of these large stretches of grassland could be found more shrub-like terrain and dry conifer forest and woodland (akin to forest steppe or taiga). The browsing collective of megafauna included woolly rhinoceros, giant deer, moose, Cervalces, tarpan, aurochs, woodland bison, camels and smaller deer (Siberian roe deer, red deer and Siberian musk deer). Brown bears, wolverines, cave bear, wolves, lynx, leopards and red foxes also inhabited this biome. Tigers were at stages also present, from the edges of eastern Europe around the Black Sea to Beringia. The more mountainous terrain, incorporating montane grassland, subalpine conifer forest, alpine tundra and broken, craggy slopes, was occupied by several species of mountain-going animals like argali, chamois, ibex, mouflon, pika, wolves, leopards, Ursus spp. and lynx, with snow leopards, Baikal yak and snow sheep in northern Asia. Arctic tundra, which lined the north of the mammoth steppe, reflected modern ecology with species such as the polar bear, wolf, reindeer and muskox.
  Other biomes, although less noted, were significant in contributing to the diversity of fauna in Late Pleistocene Europe. Warmer grasslands such as temperate steppe and Mediterranean savannah hosted Stephanorhinus, gazelle, European bison, Asian ostriches, Leptobos, cheetah and onager. These biomes also contained an assortment of mammoth steppe fauna, such as saiga antelope, lions, scimitar cats, cave hyenas, wolves, Pleistocene horse, steppe bison, twisted-horned antelope, aurochs and camels. Temperate coniferous, deciduous, mixed broadleaf and Mediterranean forest and open woodland accommodated straight-tusked elephants, Praemegaceros, Stephanorhinus, wild boar, bovids such as European bison, tahr and tur, species of Ursus such as the Etruscan bear and smaller deer (Roe deer, red deer, fallow deer and Mediterranean deer) with several mammoth steppe species such as lynx, tarpan, wolves, dholes, moose, giant deer, woodland bison, leop
caption: Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) reconstruction
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