A late Pleistocene steppe bison (Bison priscus) partial carcass from Tsiigehtchic, Northwest Territories, Canada

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Abstract

A partial steppe bison (Bison priscus) carcass was recovered at Tsiigehtchic, near the confluence of the Arctic Red and Mackenzie Rivers, Northwest Territories, Canada in September of 2007. The carcass includes a complete cranium with horn cores and sheaths, several complete post-cranial elements (many of which have some mummified soft tissue), intestines and a large piece of hide. A piece of metacarpal bone was subsampled and yielded an AMS radiocarbon age of 11,830 ± 45 14C yr BP (OxA-18549). Mitochondrial DNA sequenced from a hair sample confirms that Tsiigehtchic steppe bison (Bison priscus) did not belong to the lineage that eventually gave rise to modern bison (Bison bison). This is the first radiocarbon dated Bison priscus in the Mackenzie River valley, and to our knowledge, the first reported Pleistocene mammal soft tissue remains from the glaciated regions of northern Canada. Investigation of the recovery site indicates that the steppe bison was released from the permafrost during a landslide within unconsolidated glacial outwash gravel. These data indicate that the lower Mackenzie River valley was ice free and inhabited by steppe bison by ∼11,800 14C years ago. This date is important for the deglacial chronology of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the opening of the northern portal to the Ice Free Corridor. The presence of steppe bison raises further potential for the discovery of more late Pleistocene fauna, and possibly archaeological evidence, in the region.

Introduction

The unglaciated regions of Alaska (USA) and Yukon (Canada) contain some of the most productive Pleistocene vertebrate fossil localities in North America (Guthrie, 1990, Harington, 2003). This area is referred to as “eastern Beringia”, the eastern province of the “mammoth-steppe” biome which stretched from England eastward across the entire unglaciated northern hemisphere during Pleistocene cold intervals (Guthrie, 1990). The frigid, arid environment of the mammoth-steppe was a Pleistocene Arctic refugium for the mammoth fauna: the now extinct community of large mammals characterized by woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), steppe bison (Bison priscus), and horses (Equus sp.). The eastern border of the mammoth-steppe is typically marked by the Richardson and Mackenzie Mountains as suggested by the rarity of Pleistocene vertebrate fossils from the glaciated terrain in the Northwest Territories (Fig. 1). Although a few Pleistocene mammal fossils have been recovered in the western Canadian Arctic east of the Yukon, little is known about the composition or chronology of these communities.

In this paper we add to the limited data on Pleistocene mammals in northern Canada east of the Yukon, by reporting on a recently discovered partial steppe bison (Bison priscus) carcass from Tsiigehtchic near the confluence of the Arctic Red and Mackenzie rivers, Northwest Territories (Fig. 1a). To our knowledge this is the first radiocarbon dated Pleistocene mammal with mummified soft tissue discovered in the glaciated region of northern Canada. Data presented in this paper include an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon age, preliminary assessment of the carcass, morphometrics, and mitochondrial DNA sequences that confirm the presence of Pleistocene steppe bison in the Mackenzie River valley during the Lateglacial. These data are considered in light of previously discovered Pleistocene fossils in the Northwest Territories, the glacial chronology of the western Canadian Arctic and the northern opening of the “Ice Free Corridor” (IFC) as a mid-continental dispersal route between the Cordilleran and Laurentide Ice Sheets during deglaciation.

Section snippets

Pleistocene fauna of the Northwest Territories

In comparison to the adjacent unglaciated regions of the Yukon, few Pleistocene mammal fossils have been recovered from the Northwest Territories (Harington, 2003; Fig. 1a). The rarity of previous Pleistocene fossil discoveries in the region highlights the significance of the Tsiigehtchic bison for our knowledge of late Pleistocene mammal biogeography. Rare Pleistocene fossils include those recovered from the Mackenzie Delta and Beaufort Coastlands on the mainland, the islands off the Beaufort

Discovery of the Tsiigehtchic bison

The partial fossil bison carcass was recovered from a west-facing steep outcrop overlooking the Arctic Red River at the community of Tsiigehtchic, Northwest Territories (67°, 36′, 34″N; 133°, 44′, 50″W, 32 m a.s.l.) by local resident Shane Van Loon in early September, 2007. Mr Van Loon collected several pieces of the bison carcass after he observed them melting out of permafrost-laden gravel and sand sediments between September 5 and 8, 2007. The bison carcass was released from the frozen

Site stratigraphy

The site of the fossil bison discovery is locally known as “Church Hill” as it lies directly underneath the Roman Catholic Church grounds and cemetery (Fig. 2). The outcrop is approximately 35 m in height with approximately the upper 8 m representing unconsolidated Quaternary sediments. The exposure of frozen, unconsolidated sand and gravel (with well-rounded cobbles up to ∼30 cm in diameter) contained a large bowl-shaped retrogressive thaw scar (∼18 m in depth into the outcrop) above the contact

Glacial retreat, the Ice Free Corridor and Lateglacial palaeoenvironments

The radiocarbon date of 11,830 ± 45 14C yr BP (OxA-18549) from the Tsiigehtchic bison has important implications for the deglacial chronology of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) (Fig. 1b). The community of Tsiigehtchic, located at the confluence of the Mackenzie and Arctic Red rivers, is situated well within the all-time Late Wisconsinan maximum limit of the LIS (Dyke et al., 2003). According to the glacial chronology of Duk-Rodkin (1999), the LIS advanced across the western Arctic to its maximum

Summary and conclusions

Our report here of an exceptional partial steppe bison carcass from Tsiigehtchic adds a crucial piece of data to our knowledge on the late Pleistocene faunas and deglacial chronology of the Northwest Territories. This is the first report of mummified soft tissue from a Pleistocene mammal discovered in the area covered by Pleistocene glaciers in northern Canada and is the first radiocarbon dated steppe bison from the Mackenzie River valley. Mitochondrial DNA from the Tsiigehtchic bison carcass

Acknowledgements

We thank Shane van Loon for his keen eyes that led to the steppe bison discovery. We are grateful to: Alestine Andre and Itai Katz for hosting GM and GZ during their stay in Tsiigehtchic and the community of Tsiigehtchic for their interest and support for this research; Ingrid Kritsch, Alestine Andre and Sharon Snowshoe of the Gwich'in Social and Cultural Institute for logistical support; Dean Cluff with ENR-North Slave District for storing the fossil temporarily in Yellowknife. Valerie

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