In this article, we describe the research history and recent studies on elephant fossils from Hokkaido and present five new results of AMS 14C dating. Recently, the dates of many Naumann’s elephants, Palaeoloxodon naumanni, and mammoths, Mammthus primigenius, from Hokkaido were clarified by AMS 14C dating, and enabling discussions on the relationship of global climatic changes and the north-south migrations of the two fossil elephant species.
Examination of previous AMS 14C dates, together with the five new dates presented herein, reviel that the range of Naumann’s elephants and, that of mammoths overlapped at around 34,000-35,000 cal BP and at 45,000 cal BP. However, it is known that these two kinds of elephant inhabited different environments, as shown by pollen analyses and plant macrofossils at some localities. The apparent overlapping ranges of the two kinds of elephant during these periods is a result of measurement errors, and it shows that it is difficult to mark their precise location on a graph of global climate change. We should not trust only results of AMS 14C dating, but must also consider the relationship between elephants and habitat in a comprehensive way by including paleoenvironment of data.
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