The Bering land bridge, which connected Siberia to Alaska during the Ice Age, was, after all, a swamp. The discovery helps explain why some animals easily crossed the bridge, while others were unsuccessful in this migration.
A study recently in Advancing Earth and Space Science (AGU) revealed that during the Ice Age, the well-known Bering land bridge was not as thought.
The famous bridge that connected Siberia to Alaska was, after all, a swampy environment and not an arid steppe, as previously described.
This new discovery, which involved the extraction of sediment cores from the bottom of the Bering Sea, may explain differences in the migration of different animal species – highlights .
A land bridge was emerged between 36,000 and 11,000 years agoand was thought to share characteristics with the steppes of Siberia and Alaska.
However, the new investigation led by Sarah Fowell from the University of Alaska Fairbanks revealed a different picture.
The sediments, pollen, small fossils, ancient DNA and organic matter analyzed suggest that the area was made up of multiple small lakes and river channels, with vegetation that included trees and mosses.
On the one hand, this swampy scenery it was suitable for bird crossings; on the other, it represented a barrier for other species that did not adapt well to aquatic environments, such as the woolly rhinoceros and the American camel.
However, there were higher and drier areas nearby that allowed large mammals such as mammoths and bison to migrate – as happened – and even crossing of horses from North America to Eurasia.
The big takeaway from this discovery presented this Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, DC is that the complexity of this swampy environment has had varying impacts on animal migration, facilitating the movement of some species while obstructing that of others.
Further investigation will now be needed to fully understand how this ecosystem influenced migrations during the existence of the famous Bering land bridge.
