An international collaboration of scientists in Iceland, Denmark and the Netherlands has for the first time used ancient DNA analyses and C14-dating to demonstrate the past existence of a unique population of Icelandic walrus that went extinct shortly after Norse settlement some 1100 years ago.
An international collaboration of scientists in Iceland, Denmark and the Netherlands has for the first time used ancient DNA analyses and C14-dating to demonstrate the past existence of a unique population of Icelandic walrus that went extinct shortly after Norse settlement some 1100 years ago. Walrus hunting and ivory trade was probably the principal cause of extinction, being one of the earliest examples of commercially driven overexploitation of marine resources.
The presence of walruses in Iceland in the past and its apparent disappearance as early as in the Settlement and Commonwealth periods (870–1262 AD) has long puzzled the scientific world. In a study recently published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution scientists from Denmark, Iceland and Holland have addressed the question by analysing ancient and contemporary DNA along with carbon-14 dating of walrus remains, supplemented with detailed studies of finding localities of the remains, place names and references to walrus hunting in the Icelandic Mediaeval literature, including the Icelandic Sagas.
“Natural History Museum collections provide a remarkable window into the past, which with modern day technology allow us to explore the past effects of human activities and environmental change on species and ecosystems. This can be further put into context by studying the Icelandic Mediaeval literature, historic place names and zooarchaeological sites,” explains instigator of the research Hilmar J. Malmquist, Director of the Icelandic Museum of Natural History, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Read more at The University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Photo: Prehistoric and historic walrus skulls, tusks and bone fragments often wash ashore on the southern coast of Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland. Photo by Hilmar J. Malmquist.
