Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Local Insect Fauna, History of Its Origin, and Fossil Record: an Example from the Old Crow River Basin, Northwestern Yukon, Canada

  • Published:
Entomological Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Less than a half of the modern insect fauna in the northern Yukon has its origin in the Pleistocene; the other species are recent immigrants, mainly from different regions of the East Beringia. The changes resulted from destruction of the steppe-tundra environment at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary. The origin of the recent regional insect fauna cannot be reconstructed on the sole basis of its composition.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. Abellán, P., Benetti, C.J., Angus, R.B., and Ribera, I., 2011, A review of Quaternary range shifts in European aquatic Coleoptera, Global Ecol. Biogeogr., vol. 20, p. 87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00572.x

  2. Alonso-Zarazaga, M.A., Barrios, H., Borovec, R., Bouchard, P., Caldara, R., Colonnelli, E., Gültekin, L., Hlaváč , P., Korotyaev, B., Lyal, C.H.C., Machado, A., Meregalli, M., Pierotti, H., Ren, L., Sánchez-Ruiz, M., Sforzi, A., Silfverberg, H., Skuhrovec, J., Trýzna, M., Velázquez de Castro, A., and Yunakov, N.N., Cooperative Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera Curculionoidea, Monografías electrónicas SEA 8, Zaragoza: Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa, 2017. http://sea-entomologia.org/monoelec.html

  3. Anderson, R.S., Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea, excluding Scolytinae and Platypodinae) of the Yukon, in Insects of the Yukon, Danks, H.V. and Downes, J.A., Eds., Ottawa: Biological Survey of Canada, 1997, p. 523.

  4. Angus, R.B., Challenges and rewards in the identification of Pleistocene fossil beetles, with the description of a new species of Hydraena Kugelann (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae) from the Hoxnian Interglacial, Quat. Proc., 1997, vol. 5, p. 5.

  5. Berman, D.I., Korotyaev, B.A., and Alfimov, A.V., Contribution to the weevil fauna (Coleoptera: Apionidae, Curculionidae) of the mountain steppes in the Yukon Territory, Canada, with reference to the Pleistocene history of Beringia, Entomol. Rev., 2001, vol. 81, no. 8, p. 993.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bousquet, Y., Bouchard, P., Davies, A.E., and Sikes, D.S., Checklist of beetles (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska. Second edition, ZooKeys, 2013, vol. 360, p. 1. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.360.4742

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bright, D.E. and Bouchard, P., The Weevils of Canada and Alaska, Vol. 2: The Broad-Nosed Weevils of Canada and Alaska (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Entiminae) (The Insects and Arachnids of Canada. Part 25), Ottawa: NRC Research Press, 2008.

  8. Campbell, J.M., New species and records of New World Micropeplidae (Coleoptera), Can. Entomol., 1978, vol. 2, no. 110, p. 1247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Coope, G.R., An insect fauna from Mid-Weichselian deposits at Brandon, Warwickshire, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. B Biol. Sci., 1968, vol. 254, p. 425.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Coope, G.R., Late Cenozoic fossil Coleoptera: evolution, biogeography and ecology, Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 1979, vol. 10, p. 247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Coope, G.R., The invasion of Northern Europe during the Pleistocene by Mediterranean species of Coleoptera, in Biological Invasions in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, di Castri, F., Hansen, A. J., and Debusche, M., Eds., Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1990, p. 203.

  12. Coope, G.R., The response of insect faunas to glacial-interglacial climatic fluctuations, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. B Biol. Sci., 1994, vol. 344, p. 19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Coope, G.R., Several million years of stability among insect species because of, or in spite of, ice age climatic instability? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. B Biol. Sci., 2004, vol. 359, p. 209. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2003.1393

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Elias, S.A., Quaternary Insects and Their Environments, Washington, London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

  15. Elias, S.A., Beetle records: late Tertiary and early Quaternary, in Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, Elias, S.A., Ed., Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007, p. 163.

  16. Grebennikov, V.V., First Alaocybites weevil (Insecta: Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) from the Eastern Palaearctic: a new microphthalmic species and generic relationships, Arthropod Syst. Phyl., 2010, vol. 68, p. 331.

  17. Kiselev, S.V., Late Pleistocene beetles of the Trans-Ural Region, Paleontol. Zh., 1973, vol. 4, p. 70.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kiselev, S.V., On the Pleistocene beetles of the Kolyma Lowland, Byull. Mosk. Ob-va Ispyt. Prir. Otdel. Geol., 1974, no. 5, p. 149.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Kiselev, S.V., A Quaternary insect site on the Krestovka River, Kolyma Lowland, Byull. Mosk. Ob-va Ispyt. Prir. Otdel. Geol., 1976, no. 2, p. 150.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Kiselev, S.V., Pozdnekainozoiskie zhestkokrylye Severo-Vostoka Sibiri (Late Cenozoic Beetles of Northeast Siberia), Moscow: Nauka, 1981.

  21. Kiselev, S.V. and Nazarov, V.I., Late Cenozoic insects of Northern Eurasia, Paleontol. J. Suppl., 2009, vol. 43, no. 7, p. 1. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030109070016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kuzmina, S.A., Quaternary insects and environment of the Northeastern Asia, Paleontol. J. Suppl., 2015, vol. 49, no. 7, p. 679. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030115070011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Kuzmina, S.A., Macroentomology analysis: Methods, opportunities, and examples of reconstructions of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental conditions in the Quaternary of the Northeastern Siberia, Contemp. Probl. Ecol., 2017, vol. 10, no. 4, p. 336. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995425517040035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Kuzmina, S.A. and Korotyaev, B.A., A new pill beetle species of the genus Morychus Er. (Coleoptera, Byrrhidae) from the Northeast of the USSR, Entomol. Obozr., 1987, vol. 66, no. 2, p. 342.

  25. Kuzmina, S.A. and Korotyaev, B.A., A new species of the weevil genus Phyllobius Germar, 1824 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae) from the Pleistocene of northeastern Siberia, Invertebr. Zool., 2019, vol. 16, no. 2, p. 154. https://doi.org/10.15298/invertzool.16.2.04

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Kuzmina, S.A. and Matthews, J.V., Late Cenozoic insects of Beringia, Euroasian Entomol. J., 2012, vol. 11, suppl. 1, p. 59.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Kuzmina, S., Froese, D.G., Jensen, B.J.L., Hall, E., and Zazula, G.D., Middle Pleistocene (MIS 7) to Holocene fossil insect assemblages from the Old Crow basin, northern Yukon, Canada, Quat. Int., 2014, vol. 341, p. 216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.10.025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Lindroth, C.H., The ground-beetles (Carabidae, excl. Cicindelinae) of Canada and Alaska, parts 1–6, Opusc. Entomol., 1961, suppl. 20, p. 1; 1963, suppl. 24, p. 209; 1966, suppl. 29, p. 408; 1968, suppl. 33, p. 649; 1969, suppl. 34, p. 945; 1969, suppl. 35, p. 1.

  29. Matthews, J.V., Jr., Insects and plant macrofossils from two Quaternary exposures in the Old Crow–Porcupine region, Yukon Territory, Canada, Arct. Alp. Res., 1975, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Matthews, J.V., Jr., A method for comparison of northern fossil insect assemblages, Géogr. Phys. Quat., 1983, vol. 37, p. 297.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Matthews, J.V., Jr., and Telka, A., Insect fossils from the Yukon, in Insects of the Yukon, Danks, H.V. and Downes, J.A., Eds., Ottawa: Biological Survey of Canada, 1997, p. 911.

  32. Matthews, J.V., Jr., Schweger, C.E., and Jansenns, J.A., The last (Koy-Yukon) interglaciation in the northern Yukon: evidence from Unit 4 at Ch’ijee’s Bluff, Bluefish Basin, Géogr. Phys. Quat., 1990, vol. 44, p. 341.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Medvedev, L.N. and Voronova, N.N., Coleopterological analysis of geological sections of mammoth cemeteries in northern Yakutia, in Mamontovaya fauna Russkoi ravniny i Vostochnoi Sibiri (Mammoth Fauna of the Russian Plain and East Siberia), Svetovidov, A.N., Ed., Leningrad: Nauka, 1977, p. 72.

  34. Morgan, A. and Morgan, A.V., Beetles, in Methods in Quaternary Ecology Warner, B.G., Ed., Geological Association of Canada, 1990, p. 113.

  35. Morlan, R.E. and Matthews, J.V., Jr., Taphonomy and paleoecology of fossil insect assemblages from Old Crow River (CRH-15), Northern Yukon Territory, Canada, Géogr. Phys. Quat., 1983, vol. 37, no. 2, p. 147.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Preece, S.J., Pearce, N.J.G., Westgate, J.A., Froese, D.G., Jensen, B.J.L., and Perkins, W., Old Crow tephra: a single cataclysmic eruption near the end of MIS 6 across eastern Beringia, Quat. Sci. Rev., 2011, vol. 33, p. 2069.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Schweger, C.E., The Old Crow and Bluefish basins, northern Yukon: development of the Quaternary history, in Late Cenozoic History of the Interior of Alaska and the Yukon, Carter, L.D., Hamilton, T.D., and Galloway, J.P., Eds., United States Geological Survey, 1989, p. 30.

  38. Schweger, C.E. and Matthews, J.V., Jr., The last (Koy-Yukon) interglaciation in the Yukon: comparisons with Holocene and interstadial pollen records, Quat. Int., 1991, vol. 10, no. 12, p. 85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Shackleton, N.J., Sánchez-Goñi, M.F., Pailler, D., and Lancelot, Y., Marine Isotope Substage 5e and the Eemian Interglacial, Global Planet. Change, 2003, vol. 36, no. 3, p. 151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Sher, A.V., The role of Beringian Land in the development of Holarctic mammalian fauna in the Late Cenozoic, in Beringia in the Cenozoic Era, Kontrimavichus, V.L., Ed., New Delhi: Amerind, 1984, p. 296.

  41. Sher, A.V., Actualism and disconformism in the study of Pleistocene mammal ecology, Zh. Obshch. Biol., 1990, vol. 51, no. 2, p. 163.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Sher, A.V., Giterman, R.E., Zazhigin, V.S., and Kiselev, S.V., New data on the Late Cenozoic sediments of the Kolyma Lowland, Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR Ser. Geol., 1977, no. 5, p. 69.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Stuart, G.S.L., Helmer, J.W., and Hills, L.V., The Holocene paleoecology of Jenny Lake area, Southwest Yukon, and its implications for prehistory, Arctic, 1989, vol. 42, no. 4, p. 347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Westgate, J.A., Hamilton, T.D., and Gorton, M.P., Old Crow tephra: a new late Pleistocene stratigraphic marker across north-central Alaska and western Yukon Territory, Quat. Res., 1983, vol. 19, p. 38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Westgate, J.A., Pearce, G.W., Preece, Sh.J., Schweger, Ch.E., Morlan, R.E., Pearce, N.J.G., and Perkins, T.W., Tephrochronology, magnetostratigraphy and mammalian faunas of Middle and Early Pleistocene sediments at two sites on the Old Crow River, northern Yukon Territory, Canada, Quat. Res., 2013, vol. 79, p. 75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2012.09.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to my Canadian and American colleagues D. Froese, B. Jensen, G. Zazula, E. Hall, F. Calmels, R. Mac-Phee, and C. Fleming for help during fieldwork in 2007 and 2008, and to the late A. Telka who participated in collecting recent insects in the southwestern Yukon. Thanks are also due to B.M. Kataev for help with processing the lists of ground beetle species.

Funding

The field research was supported under International Polar Year (IPY) Program ID No: 292, A. Completion of this work was possible due to support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project 20-04-00165.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 117647, Moscow, Russia

    S. A. Kuzmina

Authors
  1. S. A. Kuzmina
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. A. Kuzmina.

Ethics declarations

Statement on the welfare of animals. All the applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All the procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kuzmina, S.A. Local Insect Fauna, History of Its Origin, and Fossil Record: an Example from the Old Crow River Basin, Northwestern Yukon, Canada. Entmol. Rev. 102, 621–638 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873822050062

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0013873822050062

Keywords:

Search

Navigation