Radiocarbon Dates on Some Quaternary Mammals and Artifacts from Northern North America

Abstract

Nine radiocarbon dates on five genera of Quaternary mammals from northern North America are discussed. Of particular interest are: (a) a 29,000-year-old artifact from the Yukon Territory; (b) the first evidence that steppe mammoths (Mammathus columbi or M. armeniacus) occupied eastern Beringia during the peak of the Wisconsin glaciation; (c) dates indicating that saiga antelopes (Saiga tatarica) and Yukon short-faced bears (Arctodus simus yukonensis) occupied the Yukon-Alaska region in mid-Wisconsin time; (d) dates indicating that bison (Bison sp.) lived near the arctic coast of the Northwest Territories, and tundra muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) lived in the western Yukon in late postglacial time; and (e) dates suggesting that tundra muskoxen have occupied the central Canadian Arctic Islands for the last 7000 years.