Giant pika

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Giant pika
Temporal range:
Lower/Middle Pleistocene
to Early Holocene, 1.8–0.01  Ma
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Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Lagomorpha
Family: Ochotonidae
Genus: Ochotona
Species:
†O. whartoni
Binomial name
†Ochotona whartoni
Guthrie and Matthews, Jr. 1971 [1] [2]
Giant pika Ochotona whartoni fossil distribution.gif
Fossil distribution of Ochotona whartoni and Ochotona cf. whartoni. Cape Deceit and Old Crow River are red, other sites black.

The giant pika [n 1] or Wharton's pika [n 2] (Ochotona whartoni) is an extinct mammal species in the family Ochotonidae. [1] It lived during the Pleistocene and early Holocene in northern parts of North America (Alaska, US and Canada). [2] [n 3] [4] Very similar forms have also been found also in Siberia. [8] [9]

Contents

Distribution

The giant pika has been found in Alaska [1] [2] [6] [7] (United States), Yukon [2] [6] (O. whartoni [10] and O cf. whartoni, [3] [11] large number of locations), Alberta [5] and Ontario (Canada). [4] A close relative O. whartoni (O. cf. whartoni) is also known from Eastern Siberia and Kolyma. [8] [9]

The ancestors of these pikas migrated from Eurasia to North America during the Early Pleistocene via the Bering Land Bridge, along with another group of small pikas close to the " O. pusilla group". This migration was separate from that of O. spanglei , [8] which entered North America approximately three million earlier at the Miocene-Pliocene boundary. [9]

Detailed fossil distribution

The large form of Ochotona was found in 2 of 5 localities in eastern North America. [4] [6]

Biology

The giant pika is much larger than other North American pikas, but is of a similar size to the extinct early and middle Pleistocene O. complicidens and extant O. koslowi (Koslov's pika), both from China, and may belong to one of them. [7] Unlike the American pika (O. princeps), which inhabits scree slopes, the giant pika's habitat was largely tundra and steppe, similar to Eurasian pikas. [7]

Occurrence and extinction

The giant pika has been found in North America from the Irvingtonian (1.8–0.3  Ma, Lower–Middle Pleistocene) [1] [6] [11] throughout Middle Pleistocene [6] [10] to Late Pleistocene (0.1–0.0Ma) [3] [5] locations. [2]

The last occurrence of the giant pika is known from early the Holocene of eastern North America (a cave at Elba in the Niagara Escarpment, Ontario [6] ) and its radiometric date is 8670±220 years BP (14C age) or 10251-9140 BP (calibrated date). [6] [12] It is possible that it survived in the rocky areas along the Niagara Escarpment as a relict population. [4] [6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Common name: giant pika - i.e. Harington 1978, [3] Harington 2003, [4] Mead 1987, [5] according to Harington 2003 [4] also Mead 1996. [6]
  2. ↑ Common name: Wharton's pika - Kurten 1980. [7]
  3. 1 2 Ochotona whartoni in the Paleobiology Database. [2] [pdb 1] [pdb 2] [pdb 3] [pdb 4] [pdb 5] [pdb 6] [pdb 7]
  4. ↑ The Paleobiology Database collections: Old Crow River Lower OCR 11 (Pleistocene of Canada) [pdb 8] [pdb 2] and Lower OCR 12 (Pleistocene of Canada). [pdb 9] [pdb 2]
  5. ↑ The Paleobiology Database collection: Old Crow River site 14N (Pleistocene of Canada). [pdb 10] [pdb 6]
  6. ↑ The Paleobiology Database collection: Old Crow River Locality 44 (Pleistocene of Canada). [pdb 11] [pdb 3] [pdb 4]
  7. ↑ The Paleobiology Database collection: Thistle Creek (Pleistocene of Canada). [pdb 12] [pdb 5]
  8. ↑ The Paleobiology Database collection: Cape Deceit (Pleistocene of the United States). [pdb 13] [pdb 1] "

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Guthrie, R.D.; Matthews, John V. Jr. (1971). "The Cape Deceit fauna—Early pleistocene mammalian assemblage from the Alaskan arctic". Quaternary Research. 1 (4): 474–510. Bibcode:1971QuRes...1..474G. doi:10.1016/0033-5894(71)90060-3. S2CID   86601856.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "The Paleobiology Database. †Ochotona whartoni Guthrie and Matthews, Jr. 1971 (pika)" . Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Harington, Charles Richard (1978). Quaternary vertebrate faunas of Canada and Alaska and their suggested chronological sequence. Syllogeus, no. 15. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Harington, Charles Richard (2003). Annotated Bibliography of Quaternary Vertebrates of Northern North America: With Radiocarbon Dates. Ottawa: University of Toronto Press. pp. 228–229. ISBN   978-0-8020-4817-2 . Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mead, Jim I. (1987-06-01). "Quaternary records of pika, Ochotona, in North America". Boreas. 16 (2): 165–171. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3885.1987.tb00768.x. ISSN   0300-9483.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Mead, Jim I. (January 1996). "Ochotona (Lagomorpha) from Late Quaternary Cave Deposits in Eastern North America". Quaternary Research. 45 (1): 93–101. Bibcode:1996QuRes..45...93M. doi:10.1006/qres.1996.0009. S2CID   128811270.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kurtén, Björn (1980). Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Photographs by Elaine Anderson. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 275–276. ISBN   978-0-231-03733-4 . Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Erbajeva, Margarita A.; Mead, Jim I.; Swift, Sandra L. (2003). "Evolution and development of Asian and North American ochotonids" (PDF). Occasional Papers in Earth Sciences No. 5: 33–34. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 31, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2014. 3rd INTERNATIONAL MAMMOTH CONFERENCE, 2003: PROGRAM AND ABSTRACTS, Edited by John E. Storer
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Erbajeva, Margarita A.; Mead, Jim I.; Alexeeva, Nadezhda V.; Angelone, Chiara; Swift, Sandra L. (2011). "Taxonomic diversity of Late Cenozoic Asian and North American ochotonids (an overview)" (PDF). Palaeontologia Electronica: 1–9. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 Storer, J. E. (2004). "A Middle Pleistocene (late Irvingtonian) mammalian fauna from Thistle Creek, Klondike Goldfields region of Yukon Territory, Canada". Paludicola. 4 (4): 137–150.
  11. 1 2 3 Jopling, A. V.; Irving, W. N.; Beebe, B. F. (1981). "Stratigraphic, Sedimentological and Faunal Evidence for the Occurrence of Pre-Sangamonian in Northern Yukon". Arctic. 34 (1): 3–33. doi: 10.14430/arctic2499 . Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  12. 1 2 Turvey, Samuel T. (May 28, 2009). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-953509-5 . Retrieved 2014-04-11.

Additional references of the Paleobiology Database

  1. 1 2 Guthrie, R. D.; Matthews, Jr., J. V. (1971). "The Cape Deceit fauna—Early pleistocene mammalian assemblage from the Alaskan arctic". Quaternary Research. 1 (4): 474–510. Bibcode:1971QuRes...1..474G. doi:10.1016/0033-5894(71)90060-3. S2CID   86601856.
  2. 1 2 3 A. V. Jopling; et al. (1981). "Stratigraphic, Sedimentological and Faunal Evidence for the Occurrence of Pre-Sangamonian Artefacts in Northern Yukon". Arctic. 34 (1). doi: 10.14430/arctic2499 .
  3. 1 2 Harington, C. R. (1978). "Quaternary vertebrate faunas of Canada and Alaska and their suggested chronological sequence". Syllogeus. 15.
  4. 1 2 Harington, C. R. (1990). "Vertebrates of the last interglaciation in Canada: A review". Geographie Physique et Quaternaire. 44 (3): 375. doi: 10.7202/032837ar .
  5. 1 2 Storer, J. E. (2004). "A Middle Pleistocene (late Irvingtonian) mammalian fauna from Thistle Creek, Klondike Goldfields region of Yukon Territory, Canada". Paludicola. 4 (4): 137–150.
  6. 1 2 Tedford, R. H.; Wang, X; Taylor, B. E. (2009). "Phylogenetic Systematics of the North American Fossil Caninae (Carnivora: Canidae)" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 325: 1–218. doi:10.1206/574.1. hdl:2246/5999. S2CID   83594819.
  7. ↑ Additional contributors to utilized records of Paleobiology Database (authorizers supplying these records) include John Alroy, Jonathan Marcot.
  8. ↑ "The Paleobiology Database collection: Old Crow River (Lower OCR 11) (Pleistocene of Canada)" . Retrieved 2015-03-14.
  9. ↑ "The Paleobiology Database collection: Old Crow River (Lower OCR 12) (Pleistocene of Canada)" . Retrieved 2015-03-14.
  10. ↑ "The Paleobiology Database collection: Old Crow River site 14N (Pleistocene of Canada)" . Retrieved 2015-03-14. authorized by Jonathan Marcot
  11. ↑ "The Paleobiology Database collection: Old Crow River Locality 44 (Pleistocene of Canada)" . Retrieved 2015-03-14.
  12. ↑ "The Paleobiology Database collection: Thistle Creek (Pleistocene of Canada)" . Retrieved 2015-03-14.
  13. ↑ "The Paleobiology Database collection: Cape Deceit (Pleistocene of the United States)" . Retrieved 2015-03-14.
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