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Late Pleistocene and Holocene History of Mammals in Europe

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Handbook of the Mammals of Europe

Part of the book series: Handbook of the Mammals of Europe ((HDBME))

Abstract

This chapter describes the history of mammal species and their zoogeographical patterns during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The scientific results of the past 20 years on biogeography, phylogeny, and population history of mammals in combination with information on the development of climate and environment yield a complex picture of the dynamics of species in the past and offer a better understanding of the Quaternary biogeography of Europe. Overviews of the individual pattern of the different species and the differences among the species are presented. In addition to the extinction pattern of typical Ice Age species like mammoth and cave lion and colonization history of temperate species from glacial refugia like roe deer or beaver, the chapter highlights how successful the different species were during a relatively short period of fundamental climate change. Apart from the extinct species, this is of high relevance for extant species which underwent significant changes of their distribution range during the Pleistocene to Holocene shift like reindeer, saiga antelope, pika, spotted hyena, or arctic fox.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Frank Zachos for helpful suggestions and comments on an earlier version of the text.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Landscape Sciences and Geomatics, Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences, Rostock, Germany

    Robert S. Sommer

  2. Department of Zoology, Institute of Biosciences, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

    Robert S. Sommer

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  1. Robert S. Sommer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Managment, University of Natural Resources and Life, Wien, Austria

    Klaus Hackländer

  2. Säugetiersammlung, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Wien, Austria

    Frank E. Zachos

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  1. Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, Institute of Wildlife Biology and Game Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Vienna, Austria

    Klaus Hackländer

  2. Mammal Collection, Natural History Museum Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Frank E. Zachos

  3. Department of Integrative Zoology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Frank E. Zachos

  4. Department of Genetics, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Frank E. Zachos

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Sommer, R.S. (2020). Late Pleistocene and Holocene History of Mammals in Europe. In: Hackländer, K., Zachos, F. (eds) Handbook of the Mammals of Europe. Handbook of the Mammals of Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65038-8_3-1

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