An Early Holocene Bowhead Whale (<i>Balaena Mysticetus</i>) in Nansen Sound, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Abstract

At about 10,000 B.P. northern Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere islands underwent a climatic amelioration that caused the demise of the last glaciation. Generally, by 8,000 B.P. accelerated retreat left extensive coastal areas ice free. The occurrence of an early Holocene (7475±220 B.P.) bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus L.) skeleton several hundred kilometres north of its present range concurs with other biological and glaciological evidence to indicate that the early Holocene climate in the High Arctic was less severe than at present.