dc.contributor |
Háskóli Íslands |
dc.contributor |
University of Iceland |
dc.contributor.author |
Keighley, Xénia |
dc.contributor.author |
Palsson, Snaebjorn |
dc.contributor.author |
Einarsson, Bjarni F |
dc.contributor.author |
Petersen, Ævar |
dc.contributor.author |
Fernández-Coll, Meritxell |
dc.contributor.author |
Jordan, Peter |
dc.contributor.author |
Olsen, Morten Tange |
dc.contributor.author |
Malmquist, Hilmar |
dc.date.accessioned |
2020-02-07T10:23:55Z |
dc.date.available |
2020-02-07T10:23:55Z |
dc.date.issued |
2019-09-12 |
dc.identifier.citation |
Xénia Keighley, Snæbjörn Pálsson, Bjarni F Einarsson, Aevar Petersen, Meritxell Fernández-Coll, Peter Jordan, Morten Tange Olsen, Hilmar J Malmquist, Disappearance of Icelandic Walruses Coincided with Norse Settlement, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 36, Issue 12, December 2019, Pages 2656–2667, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz196 |
dc.identifier.issn |
0737-4038 |
dc.identifier.issn |
1537-1719 (eISSN) |
dc.identifier.uri |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/1515 |
dc.description |
Publisher's version (útgefin grein). |
dc.description.abstract |
There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the impacts of human arrival in new “pristine” environments,
including terrestrial habitat alterations and species extinctions. However, the effects of marine resource utilization prior
to industrialized whaling, sealing, and fishing have largely remained understudied. The expansion of the Norse across the
North Atlantic offers a rare opportunity to study the effects of human arrival and early exploitation of marine resources.
Today, there is no local population of walruses on Iceland, however, skeletal remains, place names, and written sources
suggest that walruses existed, and were hunted by the Norse during the Settlement and Commonwealth periods (870–
1262 AD). This study investigates the timing, geographic distribution, and genetic identity of walruses in Iceland by
combining historical information, place names, radiocarbon dating, and genomic analyses. The results support a genetically distinct, local population of walruses that went extinct shortly after Norse settlement. The high value of walrus
products such as ivory on international markets likely led to intense hunting pressure, which—potentially exacerbated by
a warming climate and volcanism—resulted in the extinction of walrus on Iceland. We show that commercial hunting,
economic incentives, and trade networks as early as the Viking Age were of sufficient scale and intensity to result in
significant, irreversible ecological impacts on the marine environment. This is to one of the earliest examples of local
extinction of a marine species following human arrival, during the very beginning of commercial marine exploitation. |
dc.description.sponsorship |
A note of acknowledgment to Tom Gilbert for continuous
support, Jose Alfredo Samaniego for bioinformatic guidance,
Liselotte W. Andersen and Erik Born for access to mtDNA
control region data, as well as Bastiaan Star and Sanne
Boessenkool for access to published mitochondrial genomes.
Thanks also to Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen, Arn y
Sveinbjo¨rnsdottir, Jan Heinemeier, Martin Appelt, Paul
Szpak, Leslie Howse, Sigmundur Einarsson, Þorvaldur
Bjo¨rnsson, and Þorvaldur Þorðarson for coordinating various
sample procurement and assistance with references.
Acknowledgment to all institutions and private collectors,
especially Guðmundur G. Þorarinsson, Sigfus Bjarnason,
Sımon and Svava, and Orn Erlendsson, who provided speci- €
mens and kindly permitted destructive analysis for dating and
genetic laboratory work. In addition, thanks to the Icelandic
Institute of Natural History, National Museum of Iceland,
Natural History Museum of Denmark, National Museum of
Denmark, Canadian Museum of History, Nunavut
Department of Culture and Heritage and Canadian
Museum of Nature for providing samples and access to
data. Newly generated CR haplotypes and mitochondrial
genomes have been deposited with GenBank (accessions:
MK 671108-49). All other data are available in the
Supplementary Material online. This work was supported
by the European Union’s EU Framework Programme for
Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under Marie Curie
Actions (Grant Agreement No 676154; ArchSci2020) to
(M.T.O., P.J., X.K.); and the National Science Foundation,
USA (standard grant award no. 1503714), under the program
Arctic Social Sciences to (S.P., H.J.M.). |
dc.format.extent |
2656-2667 |
dc.language.iso |
en |
dc.publisher |
Oxford University Press (OUP) |
dc.relation |
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/676154 |
dc.relation.ispartofseries |
Molecular Biology and Evolution;36(12) |
dc.rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
dc.subject |
Palaeogenetics |
dc.subject |
Extinction |
dc.subject |
Human impacts |
dc.subject |
Exploitation |
dc.subject |
Odobenus rosmarus |
dc.subject |
Viking Age |
dc.subject |
Forndýrafræði |
dc.subject |
Rostungur |
dc.subject |
Víkingaöld |
dc.subject |
Útdauðar lífverur |
dc.subject |
Ísland |
dc.subject |
Landnám |
dc.title |
Disappearance of Icelandic Walruses Coincided with Norse Settlement |
dc.type |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
dcterms.license |
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
dc.description.version |
Peer Reviewed |
dc.identifier.journal |
Molecular Biology and Evolution |
dc.identifier.doi |
10.1093/molbev/msz196 |
dc.contributor.department |
Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences (UI) |
dc.contributor.department |
Líf- og umhverfisvísindadeild (HÍ) |
dc.contributor.school |
School of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI) |
dc.contributor.school |
Verkfræði- og náttúruvísindasvið (HÍ) |