New Scientist
Image: Polar Cruises
Iceland was once home to a unique subspecies of walrus, but the animals had vanished by the mid-14th century, just 500 years after the arrival of Norse settlers. The discovery suggests hunters were responsible for the walrus’s disappearance, providing some of the clearest evidence so far that humans began driving marine mammals extinct earlier than generally thought.
Researchers have known for years that walruses once lived on Iceland, but opinion has been divided on whether they vanished before or after humans arrived. To settle the debate, Tange Olsen and Xénia Keighley at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark carbon dated the remains of 34 walruses found in western Iceland. Read more on newscientist.com…
