Historic population structure of walruses in North Atlantic
This seminar is open to all!
On November 8th at 12:30 to 13:30 in N-129:
Snæbjörn Pálsson, Professor in population biology at the Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland, will present:
Historic population structure of walruses in North Atlantic and exploitation of walrus by Icelanders and Greenlanders
Historical records from the 13th and 14th century, old place names and hundreds of fossil and subfossil skeletal remain finds suggest that the Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) was more common in Iceland during the settlement and Commonwealth period (c. 870–1262 AD) than in present times. Analyses of ancient DNA and radiocarbon dating support a local walrus population in Iceland from 6500 BCE which went extinct in the 12th century AD following the Norse settlement. Phylogeography and genetic diversity of Atlantic walrus populations was initially shaped by the last glacial maximum and subsequent rapid expansion of multiple migration waves during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The timing of diversification and establishment of distinct populations corresponds closely with the chronology of the retreat of the glacial sheets. The results supports hypotheses that the settlement of Iceland may have been driven by valuable natural resources, such as walrus ivory, meat and fat. Walrus ivory was a prized commodity in medieval Europe and was supplied by Norse intermediaries who expanded across the North Atlantic, from Iceland to Greenland. Tracking of walrus artifacts back to specific hunting grounds, demonstrates that Greenland Norse obtained ivory from High Arctic waters, especially the North Water Polynya between Northwest Greenland and Northeast Canada, and possibly from the interior Canadian Arctic.
The seminar will be in N-129 and on Zoom: