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OSL and AMS 14C Age of the Most Complete Mammoth Fossil Skeleton from Northeastern China and its Paleoclimate Significance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2018

Hucai Zhang ,
Fengqin Chang ,
Huayong Li ,
Guoqing Peng ,
Lizeng Duan ,
Hongwei Meng ,
Xiujuan Yang  and
Zhenyi Wei
Hucai Zhang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Plateau Lake Ecology and Environment Change, Institute of Plateau Lake Ecology and Pollution Management, School of Resource Environment and Earth Science, Yunnan University, Kunming Chenggong 650504, China
Fengqin Chang*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Plateau Lake Ecology and Environment Change, Institute of Plateau Lake Ecology and Pollution Management, School of Resource Environment and Earth Science, Yunnan University, Kunming Chenggong 650504, China
Huayong Li
Affiliation:
School of Resource Environment and Tourism, Anyang Normal University, Anyang 455000, China
Guoqing Peng
Affiliation:
Quaternary Paleontology Research Center, Museum of Daqing, Daqing 163313, China
Lizeng Duan
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Plateau Lake Ecology and Environment Change, Institute of Plateau Lake Ecology and Pollution Management, School of Resource Environment and Earth Science, Yunnan University, Kunming Chenggong 650504, China
Hongwei Meng
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Plateau Lake Ecology and Environment Change, Institute of Plateau Lake Ecology and Pollution Management, School of Resource Environment and Earth Science, Yunnan University, Kunming Chenggong 650504, China
Xiujuan Yang
Affiliation:
Museum of Heilongjiang Province, Haerbin 150001, China
Zhenyi Wei
Affiliation:
Museum of Heilongjiang Province, Haerbin 150001, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: fqchang@niglas.ac.cn.
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Abstract

Applying radiocarbon (14C) dating using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to the skeleton of a mammoth and the associated plant remains have been dated. The fossil of Zhalai Nur mammoth was dated to 43,500 +1000/–900 14C yr BP. The results of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, which show that a fluvially deposited gravel layer, from that the mammoth fossils were excavated, formed between 51,300±2100 and 26,600±1200 yr BP, place the new AMS 14C dates in a well-developed chronological framework. Through this study, it can be summarized that, firstly, using suitable sample material, it is possible to obtain reliable AMS 14C results, even when the ages of the target materials approach the upper limits of the method. Second, it reveals that a depositional hiatus exists during the Late Pleistocene, between ca. 26,000 yr BP and ca. 13,000 yr BP. Finally, large rivers and widely distributed areas of alluvial-fluvial deposits existed in this present-day desert area between ca. 51,000 and 26,000 yr BP. These results may shed new light on the study of the Mammuthus-Colelodonta-Bubalus fauna, the most important and fully developed fauna during the Late Pleistocene in northeastern China. They also deepen our understanding about the eco-environments of the region.

Keywords

age determinationAMS 14C datingmammothnortheastern ChinaOSL dating
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 347 - 358
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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