© предоставлено пресс-службой ТГУ
TOMSK, Apr 4 – RIA Tomsk. Scientists of Russia and America studied the remains of ancient porcupines
found in Mountain Altai and the Urals and established that heat-loving
porcupines lived in these territories 30-40 thousand years ago and died out
with the onset of the last glacial maximum, the press service of Tomsk State University (TSU) reported on Tuesday.
It is specified that results of researches are published in the prestigious
magazine in the field of sciences about Earth - "Quaternary Science
Reviews". According to TSU, similar publications based on the Russian
material were not available before. The reason is that finds of porcupines in
Siberia are rare. Samples with which scientists worked are found in 1980-2000.
All this time the age of the remains was unknown.
"The group of experts including scientists of Siberia, the Urals and
University of Arizona (USA) carried out radio-carbon dating of teeth and bones
of the ancient porcupines found in caves of Mountain Altai and the Urals.
<…> Results of the research showed that the remains of porcupines living
in the territory of the modern Urals, are more than 40 thousand years old.
Their Siberian relatives were significantly younger, the age of porcupines is
about 30-40 thousand years", – is said in the message.
© с сайта ТГУ
According to scientists, on the territory of modern Russia porcupines lived
during the interstadial period - between two glacial maxima. About 27 thousand
years ago bedan fall of temperature, which changed the situation in the Altai
Mountains: forests decreased, the temperature and precipitation decreased, and
the area occupied by grasses and shrubs increased.
"The developed conditions became unsuitable for dwelling of
heat-loving mammals, therefore approximately at this time porcupines have
forever disappeared from the region", – is specified in the message of the
university. It is emphasized that it was succeeded to reconstruct the past and
to establish age of ancient mammals just now thanks to close scientific
cooperation of the Russian and American scientists.