European bison ( Bison bonasus ) are one of the few European megafaunal species to survive the Late Pleistocene mass megafaunal extinction. Current conservation management efforts have proceeded in the absence of information about their evolutionary history, which has been obscured by recent severe population bottlenecks. We characterized mitochondrial genomes from 135 ancient bison samples spanning > 50,000 years (> 50 ka) ac...

After the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: ~ 26.5–19.0 ka cal BP), large-scale warming resulted in glacial retreat and climatic amelioration, prompting changes to local and regional ecosystems across Eurasia during the Late Glacial. Consequently, Magdalenian hunter-gatherers reoccupied parts of Central Europe that were mostly devoid of humans during the LGM. Petersfels and Gnirshöhle (~ 17.0–13.0 ka cal BP), two Magdalenian cave sit...

The Swabian Jura of southwestern Germany is famous for its Paleolithic sites which have been studied since the 1860s. While there is a rich tradition of research on the Magdalenian, many of the best-known sites were not excavated using modern methods, and recently, few discoveries of new sites have been made. Thus, much of the information on this period comes from sites lacking data collected using modern standards. This has l...

Climate warming and human landscape transformation during the Holocene resulted in environmental changes for wild animals. The last remnants of the European Pleistocene megafauna that survived into the Holocene were particularly vulnerable to changes in habitat. To track the response of habitat use and foraging of large herbivores to natural and anthropogenic changes in environmental conditions during the Holocene, we investig...

Hidrostal pumps have been successfully employed in live fish transport, yet their effectiveness in fish passage is incompletely understood. This study investigates juvenile salmonid mortality in experimental passage trials through Hidrostal pumps at an agricultural pump facility in Washington State, USA. The effects of impeller pitch, rotational speed and fish body size on passage survival were examined. Hatchery‐reared salmon...

Prior to the Holocene, the range of the saiga antelope ( Saiga tatarica ) spanned from France to the Northwest Territories of Canada. Although its distribution subsequently contracted to the steppes of Central Asia, historical records indicate that it remained extremely abundant until the end of the Soviet Union, after which its populations were reduced by over 95%. We have analysed the mitochondrial control region sequence va...