More about the Programme
Mammalian fossils provide a rich source of information for the reconstruction of environmental conditions of the past. The Quaternary was characterised by strong climatic changes, a phenomenon which can be expected to recur in the future, although modified by anthropogenic factors.
Mammals react to changing biotopes with migration. Thus the occurrence of specific species at different sites allows climatic alterations to be deciphered. However, some climatic alterations - the youngest ones, between 100 000 and 10 000 years ago - were of a different quality since, in addition to distributional changes, large numbers of species became extinct. These extinction pulses may be related to the rapidity of such changes. Climatic changes induced by anthropogenic factors seem to act even more rapidly than those in the past. Thus, a record of the past and present status of European mammals will not only be informative about the character of past changes but will allow prediction and detection of future environmental changes.
Enormous amounts of data on the mammalian species and faunas throughout Europe have been published, but in so many languages and places that it has been difficult until now for different countries to be covered in one survey. In addition, many of the data published in the last century need to be updated. However, a survey covering Europe in its entirety is necessary for the significant changes to be seen. To handle such large quantities of data, modern technology offers the instrument of a database. Using such a database to show the distribution of species and faunas within Europe during limited time slices will allow the reconstruction of environmental conditions. It is planned in addition to incorporate all relevant data from neighbouring fields like archaeology, palaeobotany and geology.
Following the decision of the Programme Steering Committee to install the database at the Institute of Palaeontology at the University in Bonn, the hardware was purchased. Global compatability of datasets is assured by modifying the set up of the American database FAUNMAP to take into consideration the specific biological, geographical and stratigraphical situation in Europe.
The implementation of the database model was completed in September 1995 and tested with the first set of validated data. Additional data are being continuously added to the database. Data on the major late Quaternary sites in Germany have already been compiled. Questionnaires will be circulated among colleagues in Europe asking for contributions of specific data from their countries. At the time of writing, the database includes information from 130 localities with about 715 separate analysis units. This amounts to approximately 6500 taxon/locality occurrences that are documented in their geographical and stratigraphical framework. The data have been culled from 165 papers. At any time these data can be queried about the distribution of specific taxa in specific time-slices. Selected data can be printed as lists or as maps at different scales.
Programme management
Steering Committee chaired by Professor Wighart von Koenigswald
(University of Bonn, Germany).
4 contributing organisations.
