Late Pleistocene extinctions

For extinctions that occurred during the Holocene, see Holocene extinction.

Late Pleistocene in northern Spain, by Mauricio Antón. Left to right: wild horse; woolly mammoth; reindeer; cave lion; woolly rhinoceros
Mural of the La Brea Tar Pits by Charles R. Knight, including sabertooth cats (Smilodon fatalis, left) ground sloths (Paramylodon harlani, right) and Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi, background)

The Late Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene saw the extinction of the majority of the world's megafauna (typically defined as animal species having body masses over 44 kilograms (97 lb)),[1] which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity across the globe.[2] The extinctions during the Late Pleistocene are differentiated from previous extinctions by its extreme size bias towards large animals (with small animals being largely unaffected), and widespread absence of ecological succession to replace these extinct megafaunal species,[3] and the regime shift of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence. The timing and severity of the extinctions varied by region and are thought to have been driven by varying combinations of human and climatic factors.[3] Human impact on megafauna populations is thought to have been driven by hunting ("overkill"),[4][5] as well as possibly environmental alteration.[6] The relative importance of human vs climatic factors in the extinctions has been the subject of long-running controversy.[3]

Major extinctions occurred in Australia-New Guinea (Sahul) beginning approximately 50,000 years ago and in the Americas about 13,000 years ago, coinciding in time with the early human migrations into these regions.[7] Extinctions in northern Eurasia were staggered over tens of thousands of years between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago,[2] while extinctions in the Americas were virtually simultaneous, spanning only 3000 years at most.[4][8] Overall, during the Late Pleistocene about 65% of all megafaunal species worldwide became extinct,[9] rising to 72% in North America, 83% in South America and 88% in Australia,[10] with all mammals over 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) becoming extinct in Australia and the Americas,[1] and around 80% globally.[11] Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia experienced more moderate extinctions than other regions.[10]

  1. ^ a b Pires MM (30 May 2024). "The Restructuring of Ecological Networks by the Pleistocene Extinction". Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 52 (1): 133–158. Bibcode:2024AREPS..52..133P. doi:10.1146/annurev-earth-040722-104845. ISSN 0084-6597. S2CID 266133527.
  2. ^ a b Stuart AJ (1999), MacPhee RD (ed.), "Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions: A European Perspective", Extinctions in Near Time, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 257–269, doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-5202-1_11, ISBN 978-1-4419-3315-7, retrieved 28 May 2023
  3. ^ a b c Sandom C, Faurby S, Sandel B, Svenning JC (22 July 2014). "Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 281 (1787): 20133254. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.3254. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 4071532. PMID 24898370.
  4. ^ a b Faith JT, Surovell TA (8 December 2009). "Synchronous extinction of North America's Pleistocene mammals". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 106 (49): 20641–20645. Bibcode:2009PNAS..10620641F. doi:10.1073/pnas.0908153106. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2791611. PMID 19934040.
  5. ^ Dembitzer J, Barkai R, Ben-Dor M, Meiri S (15 January 2022). "Levantine overkill: 1.5 million years of hunting down the body size distribution". Quaternary Science Reviews. 276: 107316. Bibcode:2022QSRv..27607316D. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107316. S2CID 245236379.
  6. ^ Bird MI, Hutley LB, Lawes MJ, Lloyd J, Luly JG, Ridd PV, Roberts RG, Ulm S, Wurster CM (July 2013). "Humans, megafauna and environmental change in tropical Australia" (PDF). Journal of Quaternary Science. 28 (5): 439–452. Bibcode:2013JQS....28..439B. doi:10.1002/jqs.2639. S2CID 129936890.
  7. ^ Koch PL, Barnosky AD (1 January 2006). "Late Quaternary Extinctions: State of the Debate". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 37 (1): 215–250. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132415. S2CID 16590668.
  8. ^ Prado JL, Martinez-Maza C, Alberdi MT (May 2015). "Megafauna extinction in South America: A new chronology for the Argentine Pampas". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 425: 41–49. Bibcode:2015PPP...425...41P. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.02.026.
  9. ^ Frédérik Saltré, Marta Rodríguez-Rey, Barry W. Brook, Christopher N. Johnson (2016). "Climate change not to blame for late Quaternary megafauna extinctions in Australia". Nature Communications. 7: 10511. Bibcode:2016NatCo...710511S. doi:10.1038/ncomms10511. PMC 4740174. PMID 26821754.
  10. ^ a b Anthony D. Barnosky, Paul L. Koch, Robert S. Feranec, Scott L. Wing, Alan B. Shabel (2004). "Assessing the Causes of Late Pleistocene Extinctions on the Continents". Science. 306 (5693): 70–75. Bibcode:2004Sci...306...70B. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.574.332. doi:10.1126/science.1101476. PMID 15459379. S2CID 36156087.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).