Editing Last Interglacial (section)

== Fauna ==
[[File:Eemian landscape.jpg|thumb|250x250px|Collage of temperate forest environments in Europe during the Eemian, with animals including [[fallow deer]], [[aurochs]], [[Merck's rhinoceros]] and [[straight-tusked elephant]]s.]]
[[File:European_Last_Interglacial_landscapes_(cropped).jpg|thumb|270x270px|A European Last Interglacial landscape, featuring the [[straight-tusked elephant]] (background right), the [[narrow-nosed rhinoceros]] (far left), [[European fallow deer]] (foreground left), [[wild boar]] (foreground right), [[steppe bison]] (background centre left), [[wild horse]] (background centre) and [[aurochs]] (background centre right)]]
The warmness of the interval allowed temperate-adapted taxa to extend their range considerably northward, with the range of the [[hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus amphibius'') notably extending as far north as [[North Yorkshire]] in northern England,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schreve |first=Danielle C. |date=January 2009 |title=A new record of Pleistocene hippopotamus from River Severn terrace deposits, Gloucester, UK—palaeoenvironmental setting and stratigraphical significance |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0016787809000054 |journal=Proceedings of the Geologists' Association |language=en |volume=120 |issue=1 |pages=58–64 |doi=10.1016/j.pgeola.2009.03.003|bibcode=2009PrGA..120...58S }}</ref> though their range outside of southern Europe did not extend much further east of than the [[Rhine]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=van Kolfschoten |first=Th. |date=August 2000 |title=The Eemian mammal fauna of central Europe |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0016774600021752 |journal=Netherlands Journal of Geosciences |volume=79 |issue=2–3 |pages=269–281 |doi=10.1017/s0016774600021752 |bibcode=2000NJGeo..79..269V |issn=0016-7746}}</ref> The temperate landscapes of Europe were inhabited by large now extinct megafauna including the [[straight-tusked elephant]] (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus''), the [[narrow-nosed rhinoceros]] (''Stephanorhinus hemitoechus''), [[Merck's rhinoceros]] (''Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis''), [[Irish elk]] (''Megaloceros giganteus'') and [[aurochs]] (''Bos primigenius''), alongside still-living species like [[red deer]] (''Cervus elaphus''), [[European fallow deer|fallow deer]] (''Dama dama''), [[roe deer]] (''Capreolus capreolus'') and [[wild boar]] (''Sus scrofa''), with predators including lions (the extinct ''[[Panthera spelaea]]'') and [[cave hyenas]] (''Crocuta'' (''Crocuta'') ''spelaea''), [[brown bear]]s (''Ursus arctos'') and [[Wolf|wolves]] (''Canis lupus'').<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last1=Davoli |first1=Marco |last2=Monsarrat |first2=Sophie |last3=Pedersen |first3=Rasmus Østergaard |last4=Scussolini |first4=Paolo |last5=Karger |first5=Dirk Nikolaus |last6=Normand |first6=Signe |last7=Svenning |first7=Jens-Christian |date=January 2024 |title=Megafauna diversity and functional declines in Europe from the Last Interglacial to the present |journal=Global Ecology and Biogeography |language=en |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=34–47 |bibcode=2024GloEB..33...34D |doi=10.1111/geb.13778 |issn=1466-822X |doi-access=free|hdl=11573/1714498 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Pushkina |first=Diana |date=July 2007 |title=The Pleistocene easternmost distribution in Eurasia of the species associated with the Eemian Palaeoloxodon antiquus assemblage |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2907.2007.00109.x |journal=Mammal Review |language=en |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=224–245 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2907.2007.00109.x |issn=0305-1838}}</ref> The Last Interglacial ecosystems of Europe, which existed prior to the [[Late Pleistocene extinctions|global wave of megafauna extinctions]] that occurred during the following Last Glacial Period, has been suggested as a "baseline" reference point for the analysis and restoration of modern European ecosystems.<ref name=":13" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pearce |first1=Elena A. |last2=Mazier |first2=Florence |last3=Normand |first3=Signe |last4=Fyfe |first4=Ralph |last5=Andrieu |first5=Valérie |last6=Bakels |first6=Corrie |last7=Balwierz |first7=Zofia |last8=Bińka |first8=Krzysztof |last9=Boreham |first9=Steve |last10=Borisova |first10=Olga K. |last11=Brostrom |first11=Anna |last12=de Beaulieu |first12=Jacques-Louis |last13=Gao |first13=Cunhai |last14=González-Sampériz |first14=Penélope |last15=Granoszewski |first15=Wojciech |date=2023-11-10 |title=Substantial light woodland and open vegetation characterized the temperate forest biome before Homo sapiens |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=9 |issue=45 |pages=eadi9135 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adi9135 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=10637746 |pmid=37948521}}</ref>

Following the melting of the [[Laurentide Ice Sheet]], a number of North American megafauna species migrated northwards to inhabit northern Canada and Alaska during the Last Interglacial, including the American camel ''[[Camelops hesternus]],''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zazula |first=Grant D. |last2=Turner |first2=Derek G. |last3=Ward |first3=Brent C. |last4=Bond |first4=Jeffrey |date=September 2011 |title=Last interglacial western camel (Camelops hesternus) from eastern Beringia |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S027737911100182X |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=30 |issue=19-20 |pages=2355–2360 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.06.010}}</ref> [[Mastodon|mastodons]] (genus ''Mammut'')<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zazula |first=Grant D. |last2=MacPhee |first2=Ross D. E. |last3=Metcalfe |first3=Jessica Z. |last4=Reyes |first4=Alberto V. |last5=Brock |first5=Fiona |last6=Druckenmiller |first6=Patrick S. |last7=Groves |first7=Pamela |last8=Harington |first8=C. Richard |last9=Hodgins |first9=Gregory W. L. |last10=Kunz |first10=Michael L. |last11=Longstaffe |first11=Fred J. |last12=Mann |first12=Daniel H. |last13=McDonald |first13=H. Gregory |last14=Nalawade-Chavan |first14=Shweta |last15=Southon |first15=John R. |date=2014-12-30 |title=American mastodon extirpation in the Arctic and Subarctic predates human colonization and terminal Pleistocene climate change |url=https://pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1416072111 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=111 |issue=52 |pages=18460–18465 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1416072111 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=4284604 |pmid=25453065}}</ref> the large ground sloth ''[[Megalonyx jeffersonii]],'' and the bear sized giant beaver ''[[Castoroides]],'' with the lower latitudes of Canada being inhabited (in addition to the aformentioned taxa) by species like [[Columbian mammoth]] (''Mammuthus columbi''), [[stag-moose]] (''Cervalces''), and the llama ''[[Hemiauchenia]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harington |first=C. Richard |date=2007-12-18 |title=Vertebrates of the Last Interglaciation in Canada: A Review, with New Data |url=http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/032837ar |journal=Géographie physique et Quaternaire |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=375–387 |doi=10.7202/032837ar |issn=1492-143X}}</ref> The [[steppe bison]] (''Bison priscus'') migrated into the heartlands of North America from Alaska at the beginning of the Last Interglacial, giving rise to the giant long-horned bison ''[[Bison latifrons]]'' (which is first known from the Snowmass site in Colorado, dating to around 120,000 years ago) and ultimately all North American bison species, and marking the beginning of the [[Rancholabrean]] faunal age in North America.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Froese |first1=Duane |last2=Stiller |first2=Mathias |last3=Heintzman |first3=Peter D. |last4=Reyes |first4=Alberto V. |last5=Zazula |first5=Grant D. |last6=Soares |first6=André E. R. |last7=Meyer |first7=Matthias |last8=Hall |first8=Elizabeth |last9=Jensen |first9=Britta J. L. |last10=Arnold |first10=Lee J. |last11=MacPhee |first11=Ross D. E. |date=March 28, 2017 |title=Fossil and genomic evidence constrains the timing of bison arrival in North America |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=114 |issue=13 |pages=3457–3462 |bibcode=2017PNAS..114.3457F |doi=10.1073/pnas.1620754114 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=5380047 |pmid=28289222 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Also during this time period the [[American lion]] (''Panthera atrox'') appeared and become widespread across North America, having descended from populations of the Eurasian cave lion (''[[Panthera spelaea]]'') that had migrated into Alaska during the preceding Penultimate Glacial Period.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bravo-Cuevas |first1=Victor Manuel |last2=Priego-Vargas |first2=Jaime |last3=Cabral-Perdomo |first3=Miguel Ángel |last4=Pineda Maldonado |first4=Marco Antonio |date=2016-07-20 |title=First occurrence of &lt;i&gt;Panthera atrox&lt;/i&gt; (Felidae, Pantherinae) in the Mexican state of Hidalgo and a review of the record of felids from the Pleistocene of Mexico |url=https://fr.copernicus.org/articles/19/131/2016/ |journal=Fossil Record |language=en |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=131–141 |doi=10.5194/fr-19-131-2016 |doi-access=free |issn=2193-0074}}</ref>

The range of cold-adapted taxa like the [[woolly mammoth]] (''Mammuthus primigenius'') contracted towards [[Refugium (population biology)|refugia]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nogués-Bravo |first1=David |last2=Rodríguez |first2=Jesús |last3=Hortal |first3=Joaquín |last4=Batra |first4=Persaram |last5=Araújo |first5=Miguel B |date=2008-04-01 |editor-last=Barnosky |editor-first=Anthony |title=Climate Change, Humans, and the Extinction of the Woolly Mammoth |journal=PLOS Biology |language=en |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=e79 |doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060079 |issn=1545-7885 |pmc=2276529 |pmid=18384234 |doi-access=free}}</ref>