The Bering

Land Bridge
(during the last glacial
period)

By: Mae Anne Mangaoil

 Table of Contents What is the Bering Land
Bridge or Beringia?
What is the Bering Land Bridge or
Beringia? …………………………... 1
How was it formed?....................... 2
Land mass…………………………. 4
Climate……………………………… 5
Vegetation………………………….. 6
Wildlife……………………………... 8
Woolly Mammoth Migration ..........10
Figure 1- Map of the Beringia
Human Inhabitants ……………….. 11
This map shows the location of the Bering Land
Human Migration ………………….. 13 Bridge during the last glacial period (Elias
2015).
End of the Bering Land Bridge ….. 17
The Bering Land Bridge also known as
Works Cited ……………………….. 18
Beringia, formed during the glacial
periods of the Pleistocene Epoch, which
is about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago.
It joined the western and eastern area of

1
 Beringia, which is now present-day
northwestern Canada, northern and
western Alaska, and northeastern
Siberia (Pletcher 2018). Additionally, the
name “Beringia” was coined in the mid-
twentieth century by Eric Hulten who was
a Swedish botanist that studied plants in
Alaska and northeastern Siberia. He
used to describe this geographical area
using this name during his study (Briney
drop to up to 100m or more. Since the
basins beneath the Chukchi and Bering
seas were shallow, they became dry
lands during this time.
Additionally, these lands appeared about
38,000 years ago and remained until the
end of the Pleistocene (Elias 2015)
(Pletcher 2018).
Bering Strait

2019).

How was it formed?

During the ice age, a large portion of the
world’s water got locked up in massive
continental ice sheets, and were frozen
in glaciers. This caused the sea level to

2 3
 Figure 2- It shows how Siberia and Alaska, which
was once separated by water became connected
due to sea level drop caused by freezing
temperatures. The dry land is known as Beringia
(Del 2016).
_________________________________________
Land mass
It has been estimated that it covered a
vast region of dry land extending
northward into the southern Arctic
Ocean, and stretching eastward and as
far west as the present-day Lena River
delta in Siberia to the Mackenzie River
Delta in Canada’s Yukon territory. It then
continued southward for 1,000 miles
(1,600 kilometers) through the then-dry
seafloor of the Bering Strait and occupied
roughly the northern half of the Bering
4 5
Sea. Overall, it was estimated to be 12-
mile-wide and 1,000-mile-long (Bond
2017) (Pletcher 2018).
_____________________________________
Climate
According to research and studies,
although there was glaciation throughout
the Northern Hemisphere during the late
Wisconsin period with ice reaching
thickness of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) in
some places, Beringia had a dry climate,
and was therefore not glaciated
throughout the ice age (“Bering Land
Bridge” 2005) (Pletcher 2018). This was
because snowfall was very light in the
region. The wind blowing from the Pacific
Ocean lost its moisture before reaching
 Beringia when it was forced to rise over
the Alaska Range in central Alaska
(Briney 2019).

However, there were some pollen studies

that suggested that the climate of the Alaska Willow Wildflowers

Bering Land Bridge was arid and cool

between 29,500 and 13,300 cal BP.
More specifically, studies show that it has
cold and dry winters, and cool and dry
summers (Agers & Phllips 2008). Then Dwarf birch Arctic Willow
some evidence also suggested that at
Figure 3- Images of the various plants found in the
the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, Bering Land Bridge during the last glacial period
around 21,000 to 18,000 cal BP, the (“Plants” 2019).

conditions in Beringia rapidly changed

Because of its dry climate and light
(Hirst 2018).
precipitations, it supported a tundra
________________________________ vegetation. It mainly consisted of
grasses, wildflowers, and low shrubs
Vegetation such as willow and birch (“Bering Land

6 7
 Bridge 2005) (Elias 2014) (Pletcher hippopotamuses lived in subtropical
2018). However, it also has a few trees England. There were also toothed cats,
(Briney 2019). A few evidences American lions, muskox, and caribou
suggested that spruce trees were (Langlois & Pringle 2016) (“The Bering
present in some regions where Land Bridge Official Visitor’s Guide”).
temperatures were milder compared to
Figure 4-
the surrounding regions (Elias 2014). An image
of the
________________________________
woolly
mammoths
(“Wooly

Wildlife Mammoth”
2014).

There were several ice age mammals Figure 5-

An image
that were present during this period
of steppe
including woolly mammoths, giant short-
bisons
faced bears, steppe bison, western (“Steppe
camels, Pleistocene horses, antelope, Bison
2019)
and wooly rhinoceros. Additionally,
because of climate change, prehistoric
8 9
 Woolly Mammoth
Migration
The woolly mammoth was thought to
have crossed the Bering Land Bridge
from Asia to North America. They
believed to have begun coming to North
America 100,000 years ago and stayed
Figure 6- It shows the migration route of woolly
in Alaska and Canada (“When Did mammoth, which is the ancestor of the columbian
Columbian Mammoths Come to North mammoth (“When Did Columbian Mammoths Come
to North America?” 2019).
America?”). The successor of the woolly
mammoth, the columbian mammoth, _________________________________________

was believed to have travelled farther

Human Inhabitants
south to the United States and Mexico
(“When Did Columbian Mammoths According to a study and genetic
Come to North America?”). evidence, it was believed that people
lived on the Bering Land Bridge, the area
between Siberia and Alaska when it was

10 11
 a dry land. The wood and bark from cold, it was believed that they wore parkas and pants
(Langlois & Pringle 2016)
shrubs were believed to have been used
to start fires, and evidence from _____________________________________

archaeological sites suggested that

people burned mammal bones for fuel
(Elias 2014). This helped these people
survive through the cold of the Arctic
winter nights (Elias 2014).
Figure 7- A depiction of the first people, who lived in
the Bering Land Bridge, and were thought to be
hunter-gatherers. Additionally, in order to survive the
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Human Migration
The Bering Land Bridge has been
instrumental in enabling humans to cross
the Bering Sea and enter North America
during the last ice age (Briney 2019).
When the last ice age ended, the
continental ice sheets melted which
caused global sea levels to rise (Elias
2014). This opened new routes into the
continent, which caused humans to travel
into the Alaskan interior and Yukon, then
south of the Artic region toward the
Americas. These people were called
Paleoindians by archaeologists, and they
were the direct ancestors of nearly all of
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 the Native American tribes in both North
and South America. They
considered the original first people.
Moreover, it was believed that these
people walked across the Bering Land
Bridge around 11,000 B.C to 9,000 B.C,
and slowly migrated south establishing
three of the earliest cultures: Inuits,
Anasazi, and Mound Builders (Del 2016).
Figure 8- Image of the Canadian Inuits (Duke 2017).
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The Inuits were the inhabitants of the
were North American Artic, who traveled from
the Bering Strait to East Greenland,
which is about 6000 kilometers (“Who are
the Inuits” 2011).
On the other hand, the Anasazi or
Ancestral Pueblo culture were prehistoric
Native American civilization that existed
in the U.S. They build stone dwellings
called pueblos in the walls of steep cliffs
(“Accomplished Builders, Related To The
Earth” 2019). Meanwhile, Mound
Builders built large earth mounds, where
each group had different reasons for
building them (“Moundbuilders” 2011).
Lastly, despite these evidences,
scientists still disagree regarding when
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and how people arrived in the Americas, Legend:

and several continents. Red arrows represent possible land route

Blue arrow represents possible sea route

_____________________________________

The End of the Bering

Land Bridge
During the end of the last glacial period,
glaciers began to melt, which caused the
world’s sea level to rise. Around 10,500
years BP, the Bering land Bridge has
disappeared, and North America and
Asia became separated by the Bering
Strait and Chukchi Sea (Simon Fraser
University Museum of Archaeology and
Figure 9- Shows the possible Migration routes
Ethnology 2005).
of the first people (“How Did We Get To The
Americas” 2019).

16 17
 Works Cited
“Accomplished Builders, Related To The Earth.”
Manitou Cliff Dwellings, 2019,
www.cliffdwellingsmuseum.com/history/the-
anasazi/accomplished-builders-related-to-the-
earth/.
“Bering Land Bridge.” A JOURNEY TO A NEW LAND,
Simon Fraser University Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology, 15 Jan. 2005,
www.sfu.museum/journey/an-
en/secondaire1er-middle/pont_beringie-
beringia_bridge.
Bond, Mariah Arleen. “Bering Land Bridge: Beringia -
Ppt Video Online Download.” SlidePlayer, 5
Sept. 2017, slideplayer.com/slide/4420208/.
“Bridge to the New World.” National Geographic,
genographic.nationalgeographic.com/land-
bridge/.
Briney, Amanda. “Bering Land Bridge- Geographic
Overview.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 15 Feb.
2019, www.thoughtco.com/geographic-
overview-Bering-land-bridge-1435184.
Del. “Beringia: A Modern-Day Fable –Part I.”
NephiCode, 17 Jan. 2016,
nephicode.blogspot.com/2016/01/beringia-
modern-day-fable-part-i.html.
18
Duke, Selwyn. “Canadian Inuits: There May Be ‘Too
Many Polar Bears Now.’” The Global Warming
Policy Forum (GWPF), 12 Dec. 2017,
www.thegwpf.com/canadian-inuits-there-may-
be-too-many-polar-bears-now/.
Elias, Scott Armstrong. “ First Americans Lived on
Bering Land Bridge for Thousands of Years.”
Scientific American, 4 Mar. 2014,
www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-
americans-lived-on-bering-land-bridge-for-
thousands-of-years/.
Elias, Scott. “Beringia: Lost World of the Ice Age (U.S.
National Park Service).” National Parks
Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 11
Aug. 2015, www.nps.gov/articles/aps-v12-i2-
c8.htm.
Hirst, K. Kris. “The Bering Land Bridge: Peopling
America.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 11 Aug.
2018, www.thoughtco.com/bering-strait-and-
the-land-bridge-170084.
“How Did We Get To The Americas?” Venngage,
2019
infograph.venngage.com/p/207291/peopling-
of-the-new-world.
Langlois, Krista, and Heather Pringle. “A Sunken
Bridge the Size of a Continent.” Hakai
Magazine, 20 Sept. 2016,
www.hakaimagazine.com/features/sunken-
bridge-size-continent/.
19
 “Moundbuilders.” Indians of the Midwest , 2011,
publications.newberry.org/indiansofthemidwes
t/people-places-time/eras/moundbuilders/.
“Plants.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of
the Interior, 2019,
www.nps.gov/bela/learn/nature/plants.htm.
Pletcher, Kenneth. “Beringia.” Encyclopedia
Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 31
Dec. 2018,
www.britannica.com/place/Beringia.
Simon Fraser University Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology. “Bering Land Bridge | Post
Secondary Level | A Journey to a New Land.”
Bering Land Bridge | Post Secondary Level |
A JOURNEY TO A NEW LAND, 15 Jan. 2005,
www.sfu.museum/journey/an-
en/postsecondaire-post
secondary/pont_beringie-beringia_bridge.
“Steppe Bison.” Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre,
2019, www.beringia.com/exhibit/ice-age-
animals/steppe-bison.
“The Bering Land Bridge.” Peoples of Mesa Verde,
2011,
www.crowcanyon.org/educationanproducts/pe
oples_mesa_verde/paleoindian_bering_land_
bridge.asp.
“The Bering Land Bridge Official Visitor's Guide.”
National Parks Service, U.S. Department of
20
the Interior,
www.nps.gov/bela/planyourvisit/brochures.ht
m.
Thomas A . Ager, and R. Lawrence Philips. “Pollen
Evidence for Late Pleistocene Bering Land
Bridge Environments from Norton Sound,
Northeastern Bering Sea, Alaska.” Arctic,
Antarctic, and Alpine Research, no. 3, 2008,
p. 451. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1657/1523-
0430(07-076)\[AGER\]2.0.CO;2.
“When Did Columbian Mammoths Come to North
America?” Children’s Discovery Museum of
San Jose,2019
www.cdm.org/mammothdiscovery/North
America.html.
“Who Are the Inuits?” Who Are the Inuits? , Centre
De Santé Inuulitsivik, 2011,
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culture/who-are-the-inuits.
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Stories, and More, 1 Mar. 2014,
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mammoth/#woolly-mammoth-standing.jpg.
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