Dynamicse of the mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) population in Northern Asia:radiocarbon evidence

On the basis of 309 radiocarbon dates on woolly mammoth remains, and Geographic Information System technology data processing, we have reconstructed mammoth population dynamics in Northern Asia for the second part of the Upper Pleistocene, c. 53,000-10,000 yBP, and the Holocene c. 8,000-3,700 yBP. For most of the Upper Pleistocene, c. 53,000-12,000 yBP, mammoths existed throughout Northern Asia. They occupied northern, central and southern parts of Siberia and adjacent areas during both cold and warm phases. The sharp decrease of mammoth natural habitat started at c. 12,000 yBP. The last mammoths went extinct in the northern continental Siberia c. 9,600 yBP. A population of small-sized mammoths survived on Wrangel Island during the period c. 7,700-3,700 yBP.