Radiocarbon dating the extinct caribou on Franz Josef Land

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Abstract
Seven old, shed caribou (Rangifer tarandus) antlers from Alexandra Land, in the high arctic Franz Josef Land archipelago where no caribou are found today, were dated to between 3870 ± 70 and 2245 ± 70 radiocarbon years BP. All were found on the ground above the highest shoreline, thus not transported there by sea‐ice. That the ages all fall into a relatively narrow time‐span suggests that they originate from a population of caribou that really lived on Alexandra Land. We suggest that they migrated there after the culmination of the Holocene climatic optimum (c. 6000 to 4500 BP) when the climate again became colder and the sea‐ice more persistent. The climate during that period can be compared with that of Nordaustlandet on Svalbard today, where a population of caribou still exists.