Paleoclimate modeling and paleoenvironmental interpretations for three instances of island dwelling mammoths

Abstract Island dwelling mammoths are rare, known from just three geographic locations: Wrangel Island, (Arctic Ocean) Siberia; the Pribolof Islands, (Bering Sea) Alaska; and the northern Channel Islands, (northeast Pacific Ocean) California. In each of these locations they appear to inhabit refugia formed by post-Pleistocene eustatic sea level rise. Mammoths existed without the presence of humans (Wrangel Island and the Pribolofs), until extinction, or until contemporary with human colonization (Santa Rosa Island). Using a paleoclimate model developed by the senior author (RAB), the paleoenvironmental conditions of these islands are depicted, analyzed, and interpreted. This provided paleoclimatic evidence for the environments of the latest Pleistocene and mid- to late Holocene mammoth populations and their demise.