Dear Juha and all,
I may have missed something in scanning the replies so far, but i would also
like to add that archaeological distributions of species can not only
reflect changes over time due to husbandry, introductions,
hunting/extinction etc, but also to natural climate change. Who'd have
believed that there were pelicans and European pond terrapins in East Anglia
a few thousand years ago if we hadn't found their remains? The northern
ranges of lots of species have disjunct patchy distributions resulting from
thermal decline since the Holocene climatic optimum. Finds of their bones in
archaeological sites often fill in gaps in our knowledge of where species
used to be but aren't found today.
cheers
Chris
Dr Chris Gleed-Owen
Research & Monitoring Officer
The Herpetological Conservation Trust
655A Christchurch Road
Boscombe
Bournemouth
Dorset BH1 4AP
tel: 01202 391319 fax: 01202 392785 mob: 07810 770560
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