How open were temperate forests in Europe prior to the expansion of Homo sapiens?
Past interglacials, i.e. periods with similarly warm climatic conditions than today, offer valuable lessons about the vegetation structure and composition under anthropogenically non-disturbed conditions. Based on the fossil pollen data from 96 sites across Europe, an international team led by researchers of the Aarhus University, Denmark, modelled the vegetation structure of the last interglacial period (129’000 – 116’000 years ago). They conclude that temperate forests were possibly more open than generally thought and discuss the potential role of extinct large herbivores like elephants, rhinoceros, and aurochs.
