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 Beringia existed during a time when much of Canada was covered in massive sheets of ice. Because of its arid climate, Beringia remained untouched by glaciers. Instead, the landscape consisted mainly of vast steppe tundra which could support a broad variety of flora and fauna. Part of Beringia's uniqueness stems from the formation of this huge subcontinent during the last (Wisconsinan) Ice Age. By 40,000 years ago, significant ice advance began building to a glacial maximum which occurred about 20,000 years ago. It is this last glacial maximum that is best documented in Beringia, with lowered sea levels (as much as 125 metres) and the formation of the wide grassy tundra that joined the continents of Asia and North America. Beringia was home to Mammoth Steppe fauna and the first humans in North America. Cold and arid, Beringia was clothed in the hardy grasses, herbs, dwarf birch and willows of the Mammoth Steppe. This plant life supported such extinct species as the woolly mammoth, the mastodon, the steppe bison, the giant beaver, the North American horse, and camel. Also present were large predators - the giant short-faced bear, the American lion and the scimitar cat. Following the herds of the Mammoth Steppe, and certainly one of the most formidable hunters, were the first people. Ultimately to populate the entire North and South American continents, ancestors of Yukon's First Nations people made their home in Beringia during the last Ice Age by about 24,000 years ago. |
