Ukok Plateau, one of the last remnants of the mammoth steppe[1]
During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was once the Earth's most extensive biome. It stretched east-to-west, from the Iberian Peninsula in the west of Europe, across Eurasia to North America, through Beringia (what is today Alaska) and Canada; from north-to-south, the steppe reached from the arctic islands southward to China.[2][3][4][5][6] The mammoth steppe was cold and dry, and relatively featureless, though topography and geography varied considerably throughout. Some areas featured rivers which, through erosion, naturally created gorges, gulleys, or small glens. The continual glacial recession and advancement over millennia contributed more to the formation of larger valleys and different geographical features. Overall, however, the steppe is known to be flat and expansive grassland.[7][6] The vegetation was dominated by palatable, high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs.[3][6][8]
The animal biomass was dominated by species such as reindeer, muskox, saiga antelope, steppe bison, horses, woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth.[7][9] These herbivores, in turn, were followed and preyed upon by various carnivores, such as brown bears, Panthera spelaea (the cave or steppe-lion), scimitar cats, wolverines and wolves, among others.[10] This ecosystem covered wide areas of the northern part of the globe, and thrived for approximately 100,000 years without major changes, but then diminished to small regions around 12,000 years ago.[7]
Modern humans began to inhabit the biome following their expansion out of Africa, reaching the Arctic Circle in Northeast Siberia by about 32,000 years ago.[11]
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^Kahlke, Ralf-Dietrich (July 2014). "The origin of Eurasian Mammoth Faunas (Mammuthus–Coelodonta Faunal Complex)". Quaternary Science Reviews. 96: 32–49. Bibcode:2014QSRv...96...32K. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.01.012.
^Yeakel, Justin D.; Guimarães, Paulo R.; Bocherens, Hervé; Koch, Paul L. (2013-07-07). "The impact of climate change on the structure of Pleistocene food webs across the mammoth steppe". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 280 (1762): 20130239. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.0239. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 3673045. PMID 23658198.
^Sikora, Martin; Pitulko, Vladimir V.; Sousa, Vitor C.; Allentoft, Morten E.; Vinner, Lasse; Rasmussen, Simon; Margaryan, Ashot; de Barros Damgaard, Peter; de la Fuente, Constanza; Renaud, Gabriel; Yang, Melinda A.; Fu, Qiaomei; Dupanloup, Isabelle; Giampoudakis, Konstantinos; Nogués-Bravo, David (June 2019). "The population history of northeastern Siberia since the Pleistocene". Nature. 570 (7760): 182–188. Bibcode:2019Natur.570..182S. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1279-z. hdl:1887/3198847. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 31168093. S2CID 174809069.
During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammothsteppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was once the Earth's most extensive biome. It stretched east-to-west...
Mammuthus trogontherii, sometimes called the steppemammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth that ranged over most of northern Eurasia during the Early...
of mammoth species, beginning with the African Mammuthus subplanifrons in the early Pliocene. The woolly mammoth began to diverge from the steppe mammoth...
The steppe bison or steppe wisent (Bison priscus) is an extinct species of bison. It was widely distributed across the mammothsteppe, ranging from Western...
meridionalis subsequently gave rise to Mammuthus trogontherii (the steppemammoth) in Eastern Asia around 1.7 million years ago. Around 1.5–1.3 million...
eastern Beringia in North America, and was a prominent member of the mammothsteppe fauna. It became extinct about 13,000 years ago. Felis spelaea was the...
similar to that of the mammothsteppe. The radiation aridity index for northern Siberia on Mikhail Budyko's scale is 2 (= steppe bordering on semi-desert)...
end of the last glaciation. During the Ice Age a vast, cold and dry Mammothsteppe stretched from the arctic islands southwards to China, and from Spain...
cold, harsh mammothsteppe. It had a massive hump reaching from its shoulder and fed mainly on herbaceous plants that grew in the steppe. Mummified carcasses...
argali mountain sheep, the steppe eagle, and the black stork. It is also one of the last remaining remnants of the mammothsteppe. There are several threats...
disappearance of the mammothsteppe rather than the other way around. Alaska now has low nutrient soil unable to support bison, mammoths, and horses. R. Dale...
into isolated areas. During the Late Pleistocene glaciation, a vast mammothsteppe stretched from Spain eastwards across Eurasia and over Beringia into...
by Columbian mammoths, camels, Hemiauchenia, and American pronghorns. While the northern plains aridified into cold steppe (e.g. Mammoth site, South Dakota)...
proponent of Pleistocene rewilding, argues that it could restore the mammothsteppe ecosystem and thus slow the melting of the Arctic permafrost and give...
since the beginning of the Holocene epoch, covering land that had been mammothsteppe or under the Scandinavian Ice Sheet in Eurasia and under the Laurentide...
The cave wolf (Canis lupus spelaeus) is an extinct glacial mammothsteppe-adapted white wolf that lived during the Middle Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene...
showing fungi's importance in the process of nutrient cycling in the mammothsteppe. The following types of research were agreed upon at the meeting of...
possible. The Beringian wolf preyed most often on horse and steppe bison, and also on caribou, mammoth, and woodland muskox. At the close of the Ice Age, with...
The Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited the Americas from southern Canada to Costa Rica during the Pleistocene...
what once was mammothsteppe was converted to mire, rendering the environment incapable of supporting them, notably the woolly mammoth. In the western...
periods (commonly referred to as ice ages), a grassland known as steppe-tundra or mammothsteppe occupied large areas of the Northern Hemisphere. These areas...
hunter-gatherers (Paleo-Indians) entered North America from the North Asian Mammothsteppe via the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern...
Dzungaria in the southeast. During the Pleistocene, it ranged across the mammothsteppe from the British Isles to Beringia. Today, the dominant subspecies (S...
into isolated areas. During the Late Pleistocene glaciation, a vast mammothsteppe stretched from Spain eastwards across Eurasia and over Beringia into...
New Zealand Alas Fellfield List of tundra ecoregions from the WWF Mammothsteppe Park Tundra "Ecoregions". World Wildlife Fund. Archived from the original...
(2015-06-01). "Isotopic tracking of large carnivore palaeoecology in the mammothsteppe". Quaternary Science Reviews. 117: 42–71. Bibcode:2015QSRv..117...42B...
short-legged carcass feeder adapted for scavenging megafauna on the mammothsteppe. The Mosbach wolf is proposed as the ancestor of the grey wolf Canis...
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