古埃及法老陵墓上的銘文和雕刻通常會(huì)有羚羊圖案,。一項(xiàng)新研究顯示,，在古埃及，當(dāng)發(fā)生顯著的氣候變化時(shí),，諸如大羚羊此類的哺乳動(dòng)物的數(shù)量也會(huì)發(fā)生波動(dòng),。
這項(xiàng)發(fā)現(xiàn)基于十多年前動(dòng)物學(xué)家Dale Osborn開展的針對(duì)古埃及哺乳動(dòng)物的考古學(xué)和古生物學(xué)調(diào)查。約6000年前,，38種大型哺乳動(dòng)物生活在這片土地上,，而如今僅剩8種。
加拿大溫哥華市西蒙弗雷澤大學(xué)生態(tài)學(xué)家Justin Yeakel說：“這項(xiàng)數(shù)字背后隱含著有趣的故事,。古代藝術(shù)證據(jù)和書面記錄是一致的,。”他在近日于美國明尼蘇達(dá)州明尼阿波利斯市召開的美國生態(tài)學(xué)會(huì)年會(huì)上展示了這一研究。例如,，Yeakel表示,，古希臘哲學(xué)家亞里士多德在2300年前說，在希臘,，盡管獅子很罕見但是存在,；不久之后,，獅子最后一次出現(xiàn)在當(dāng)?shù)氐乃囆g(shù)記錄中。
該研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn),，3次埃及食肉動(dòng)物數(shù)量銳減都恰逢氣候突變——轉(zhuǎn)向更干旱的天氣,。干旱氣候發(fā)生的時(shí)間也和人口數(shù)量發(fā)生變化的時(shí)間（約5500年前，在非洲濕潤期結(jié)束之時(shí)）相對(duì)應(yīng),。
Yeakel和巴西圣保羅大學(xué)生態(tài)分析員Mathias Pires發(fā)現(xiàn)了這種氣候關(guān)聯(lián),，他們調(diào)查了遠(yuǎn)古動(dòng)物滅絕和食物鏈穩(wěn)定性的關(guān)系。Yeakel說,，通常情況下,，食物鏈越短，動(dòng)物的數(shù)量越穩(wěn)定,。
并未參與該研究的美國加州大學(xué)圣克魯茲分校計(jì)算生態(tài)學(xué)家Carl Boettiger說：“食物鏈的構(gòu)成是復(fù)雜的,。無需具體知道誰捕獲誰，他們的研究能有力地推斷出食物鏈的穩(wěn)定性,。”
Yeakel及其同事認(rèn)為,，古埃及動(dòng)物的滅絕模式不能被解釋為偶然事件。某一個(gè)物種的存在或消失并不會(huì)對(duì)一個(gè)食物網(wǎng)產(chǎn)生多大影響,，這和今天很多地方的情況形成了強(qiáng)烈反差,，也許是人類過度開發(fā)而造成了劇變。（生物谷 Bioon.com）
相關(guān)英文閱讀
Ancient Egyptian rock inscriptions and carvings on pharaonic tombs chronicle hartebeest and oryx — horned beasts that thrived in the region more than 6,000 years ago. Researchers have now shown that those mammal populations became unstable in concert with significant shifts in Egypt’s climate.
The finding is based on a fresh interpretation of an archaeological and palaeontological record of ancient Egyptian mammals pieced together more than a decade ago by the zoologist Dale Osborn1. Thirty-eight large-bodied mammals existed in Egypt roughly six millennia ago, compared to just eight species today.
“There are interesting stories buried in the data — at the congruence of the artistic and written record,” says Justin Yeakel, an ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, who presented the research this week at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For example, the philosopher Aristotle said 2,300 years ago that lions were present, though rare, in Greece; shortly thereafter, the beasts appeared in the local art record for the last time, Yeakel says.
Overlaying records of climate and species occurrences over time, his team found that three dramatic declines in Egypt’s ratio of predators to prey coincided with abrupt climate shifts to more arid conditions. The timing of these aridification events also corresponds to major shifts in human populations at the end of the African Humid Period, about 5,500 years ago; during the Akkadian collapse, about 4,140 years ago in what is now Iraq; and about 3,100 years ago, when the Ugaritic civilization collapsed in what is now Syria.
