An extensive ancient landmass concealed beneath the North Sea may have sustained woodlands and diverse fauna millennia sooner than scientists previously believed.
Recent findings indicate Doggerland, the ancient land bridge linking Britain and continental Europe, could have been a thriving habitat for flora, fauna, and possibly nascent human settlements long before extensive forests covered Britain and northern Europe.
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The investigation, spearheaded by University of Warwick researchers and featured in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), utilized sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) to meticulously chart Doggerland’s environmental conditions with unparalleled precision.
Scientists analyzed genetic remnants found in marine sediments, enabling them to pinpoint specific plant species inhabiting the region from the close of the last Ice Age until its eventual submersion by rising sea levels.
These discoveries indicate that temperate forest varieties, including oak, elm, and hazel, existed in southern Doggerland over 16,000 years ago—thousands of years prior to what pollen data from mainland Britain suggested. Furthermore, DNA from lime (Tilia), a thermophilic tree, was identified, predating its known presence in Britain by approximately two millennia.
A particularly astonishing revelation was the detection of genetic material from Pterocarya, a tree related to walnuts, believed to have disappeared from north-western Europe around 400,000 years ago. This species’ continued presence implies its endurance in the area for a much longer period than previously conjectured by scientists.
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To unearth these revelations, investigators examined 252 sediment samples extracted from 41 marine cores, collected along an ancient fluvial network dubbed the Southern River. These sediments, amassed over millennia, safeguarded fragments of archaic DNA, enabling scientists to reconstruct Doggerland’s ecological timeline from approximately 16,000 years ago up to its eventual disappearance under the North Sea.
Professor Robin Allaby from the University of Warwick’s School of Life Sciences, who served as the study’s principal author, remarked: “By analysing sedaDNA from Southern Doggerland at a scale not seen before, we have reconstructed the environment of this lost land from the end of the last Ice Age until the North Sea arrived. We unexpectedly found trees thousands of years earlier than anyone expected — and evidence that the North Sea fully formed later than previously thought.
“From a human perspective, this is the best evidence that Doggerland’s wooded environment could have supported early Mesolithic communities prior to flooding and may help explain why relatively little early Mesolithic evidence survives on mainland Britain today.”
This investigation additionally re-evaluates previous beliefs concerning Doggerland’s submergence.
DNA evidence indicates that portions of the terrain persisted above sea level even following significant inundations, such as the Storegga tsunami approximately 8,150 years ago. Certain zones might have remained dry land until as recently as 7,000 years ago.
The findings bolster increasing proof that localized “microrefugia” enabled temperate plant varieties to endure northern Europe’s glacial climate, offering an explanation for Reid’s Paradox—the swift re-colonization of trees in the region subsequent to the last Ice Age’s retreat.
The existence of forested environments so early in Doggerland’s past also prompts fresh inquiries into the area’s significance for ancient human populations. Woodland ecosystems might have sustained animals like wild boar and other game, potentially supplying abundant provisions for nascent Mesolithic groups well before the emergence of the more recognized Maglemosian culture roughly 10,300 years ago.
Co-author Professor Vincent Gaffney from the University of Bradford stated: “For many years, Doggerland was often described as a land bridge – only significant as a route for prehistoric settlement of the British Isles. Today, we understand that Doggerland was not only a heartland of early human settlement, but also that the presence of the land mass may have provided a refuge for plants and animals and acted as a fulcrum for how prehistoric communities settled and resettled northern Europe over millennia.”
As researchers persist in exploring the North Sea’s submerged territories, Doggerland is progressively recognized not merely as a migration corridor, but as a flourishing ecosystem that held vital importance in the ecological and human narratives of Ice Age Europe.
Header Image Credit : University of Bradford Submerged Landscape & Research Centre
Sources : University of Warwick – https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2508402123
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