Posted on 03/08/2010 4:51:57 PM PST by decimon
A team of scientists has discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting. "This is the first study to use ancient musk ox DNA collected from across the animal's former geographic range to test for human impacts on musk ox populations," said Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Career Development assistant professor of biology at Penn State University and one of the team's leaders. "We found that, although human and musk ox populations overlapped in many regions across the globe, humans probably were not responsible for the decline and eventual extinction of musk oxen across much of their former range." The team's findings will be published in the 8 March 2010 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Musk oxen once were plentiful across the entire Northern Hemisphere, but they now exist almost solely in Greenland and number only about 80,000 to 125,000. According to the researchers, musk oxen are not the only animals to suffer during the late Pleistocene Epoch. "The late Pleistocene was marked by rapid environmental change as well as the beginning of the spread of humans across the Northern Hemisphere," said Shapiro. "During that time several animals became extinct, including mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses, while others, including horses, caribou, and bison, survived into the present. The reasons for these drastically different survival patterns have been debated widely, with some scientists claiming that the extinctions were due largely to human hunting.
(Excerpt) Read more at science.psu.edu ...
Gored ox ping.
Musta been all that farting! Better put a TAX on it.
At that time the North Shore oil wells were being drilled and the Eskimos had a difficult familial problem. The lease money allowed the to buy snowmobiles. They no longer needed their huskies! Keep them as pets or eat them. In most cases they had been with these Eskimo families for many decades so they decided to feed them!
Did that work?
I don’t know. A little reseach might help.
http://www.tburg.k12.ny.us/mcdonald/muskox.htm
There are many stories in the Alaskan tundra. ;-)
Yes, it worked. I’ve seen smaller herds here in Prudhoe Bay where I’m working. They make thier way through every year and number in the hundreds now...
Thanks. must be an interesting sight.
The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
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Thanks decimon.A team of scientists has discovered that the drastic decline in Arctic musk ox populations that began roughly 12,000 years ago was due to a warming climate rather than to human hunting.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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This is one of the oil field roads up here (I’m in Prudue Bay as I type).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nPS1xs-U3I
Hmmm, do you suppose it was the environmental warming combined with the decline of ferocious animals like dire wolves, sabre-toothed tigers, etc. that allowed humans to move into these new territories? But that's probably a politically incorrect view.
Must have worked. Alaska has a limited hunt fo ox.
12,000 years ago? Every cave man had a Hummer in those days, so I guess that proves the link between carbon emissions and global warming , right?
I bought 20 white fox pelt at the Point Barrow country store for $150. I sent them home to my Mom in Joisey. She had a friend in NYC who took them in trade and gave my Mom a $1,500 mink coat.
I have a picture of some white fox who lived under the module train at one of the Alaskan DEW Line site. The cook fed them and they were pets. DEW Line regulations didn't allow pets but since they didn't come inside I just photographed them and never reported the faux pets!
Fo ox, I’ll bet you think I forgot the “r”
I should have put an “i” there and then would have to come up with a receipe for ox liver :)
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