Late Pleistocene Extinctions on:
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The timing of extinctions on the Indian subcontinent is uncertain due to a lack of reliable dating. Similar issues have been reported for Chinese sites, though there is no evidence for any of the megafaunal taxa having survived into the Holocene in that region. Extinctions in Southeast Asia and South China have been proposed to be the result of environmental shift from open to closed forested habitats.
* Ungulates
** '' Even-Toed Ungulates''
*** Several Bovidae spp.
**** ''
The Palearctic realm spans the entirety of the European continent and stretches into
North American extinctions (noted as herbivores (H) or carnivores (C)) included:
* Ungulates
** ''Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Various Bovidae spp.
**** Most forms of Pleistocene
South America suffered among the worst losses of the continents, with around 83% of its megafauna going extinct. These extinctions postdate the arrival of modern humans in South America around 15,000 years ago. Both human and climatic factors have been attributed as factors in the extinctions by various authors. Although some megafauna has been historically suggested to have survived into the early Holocene based on radiocarbon dates this may be the result of dating errors due to contamination. The extinctions are coincident with the end of the
A scarcity of reliably dated megafaunal bone deposits has made it difficult to construct timelines for megafaunal extinctions in certain areas, leading to a divide among researches about when and how megafaunal species went extinct.
There are at least three hypotheses regarding the extinction of the Australian megafauna:
#that they went extinct with the arrival of the Aboriginal Australians on the continent,
#that they went extinct due to natural climate change.
This theory is based on evidence of megafauna surviving until 40,000 years ago, a full 30,000 years after ''homo sapiens'' first landed in Australia, and thus that the two groups coexisted for a long time. Evidence of these animals existing at that time come from fossil records and ocean sediment. To begin with, sediment core drilled in the Indian Ocean off the SW coast of Australia indicate the existence of a fungus called Sporormiella, which survived off the dung of plant-eating mammals. The abundance of these spores in the sediment prior to 45,000 years ago indicates that many large mammals existed in the southwest Australian landscape until that point. The sediment data also indicates that the megafauna population collapsed within a few thousand years, around the 45,000 years ago, suggesting a rapid extinction event. In addition, fossils found at South Walker Creek, which is the youngest megafauna site in northern Australia, indicate that at least 16 species of megafauna survived there until 40,000 years ago. Furthermore, there is no firm evidence of ''homo sapiens'' living at South Walker Creek 40,000 years ago, therefore no human cause can be attributed to the extinction of these megafauna. However, there is evidence of major environmental deterioration of South Water Creek 40,000 years ago, which may have caused the extinct event. These changes include increased fire, reduction in grasslands, and the loss of fresh water. The same environmental deterioration is seen across Australia at the time, further strengthening the climate change argument. Australia's climate at the time could best be described as an overall drying of the landscape due to lower precipitation, resulting in less fresh water availability and more drought conditions. Overall, this led to changes in vegetation, increased fires, overall reduction in grasslands, and a greater competition for already scarce fresh water. These environmental changes proved to be too much for the Australian megafauna to cope with, causing the extinction of 90% of megafauna species.
#The third hypothesis shared by some scientists is that human impacts and natural climate changes led to the extinction of Australian megafauna. About 75% of Australia is semi-arid or arid, so it makes sense that megafauna species used the same fresh water resources as humans. This competition could have led to more hunting of megafauna. Furthermore, ''Homo sapiens'' used fire agriculture to burn impassable land. This further diminished the already disappearing grassland which contained plants that were a key dietary component of herbivorous megafauna. While there is no scientific consensus on this, it is plausible that ''homo sapiens'' and natural climate change had a combined impact. Overall, there is a great deal of evidence for humans being the culprit, but by ruling out climate change completely as a cause of the Australian megafauna extinction we are not getting the whole picture. The climate change in Australia 45,000 years ago destabilized the ecosystem, making it particularly vulnerable to hunting and fire agriculture by humans; this is probably what led to the extinction of the Australian megafauna.
Several studies provide evidence that climate change caused megafaunal extinction during the Pleistocene in Australia. One group of researchers analyzed fossilized teeth found at Cuddie Springs in southeastern Australia. By analyzing 
In Sahul (a former continent composed of 
*** ''
Circumstantially, the close correlation in time between the appearance of humans in an area and extinction there provides weight for this scenario. Radiocarbon dating has supported the plausibility of this correlation being reflective of causation. The megafaunal extinctions covered a vast period of time and highly variable climatic situations. The earliest extinctions in Australia were complete approximately 50,000 BP, well before the Last Glacial Maximum and before rises in temperature. The most recent extinction in New Zealand was complete no earlier than 500 BP and during a period of cooling. In between these extremes megafaunal extinctions have occurred progressively in such places as North America, South America and Madagascar with no climatic commonality. The only common factor that can be ascertained is the arrival of humans. This phenomenon appears even within regions. The mammal extinction wave in Australia about 50,000 years ago coincides not with known climatic changes, but with the arrival of humans. In addition, large mammal species like the giant kangaroo '' Protemnodon'' appear to have succumbed sooner on the Australian mainland than on Tasmania, which was colonised by humans a few thousand years later. A study published in 2015 supported the hypothesis further by running several thousand scenarios that correlated the time windows in which each species is known to have become extinct with the arrival of humans on different continents or islands. This was compared against climate reconstructions for the last 90,000 years. The researchers found correlations of human spread and species extinction indicating that the 
Text and images are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. On a related note, the population declines of still extant megafauna during the Pleistocene have also been shown to correlate with human expansion rather than climate change.
The extinction's extreme bias towards larger animals further supports a relationship with human activity rather than climate change. There is evidence that the average size of mammalian fauna declined over the course of the Quaternary, a phenomenon that was likely linked to disproportionate hunting of large animals by humans.
Extinction through human hunting has been supported by archaeological finds of mammoths with projectile points embedded in their skeletons, by observations of modern naive animals allowing hunters to approach easily and by computer models by Mosimann and Martin, and Whittington and Dyke, and most recently by Alroy.
Major objections have been raised regarding the hunting hypothesis. Notable among them is the sparsity of evidence of human hunting of megafauna. There is no archeological evidence that in North America megafauna other than mammoths, mastodons,
The Second-Order Predation Hypothesis says that as humans entered the New World they continued their policy of killing predators, which had been successful in the Old World but because they were more efficient and because the fauna, both herbivores and carnivores, were more naive, they killed off enough carnivores to upset the ecological balance of the continent, causing overpopulation, environmental exhaustion, and environmental collapse. The hypothesis accounts for changes in animal, plant, and human populations.
The scenario is as follows:
* After the arrival of ''H. sapiens'' in the New World, existing predators must share the prey populations with this new predator. Because of this competition, populations of original, or first-order, predators cannot find enough food; they are in direct competition with humans.
* Second-order predation begins as humans begin to kill predators.
* Prey populations are no longer well controlled by predation. Killing of nonhuman predators by ''H. sapiens'' reduces their numbers to a point where these predators no longer regulate the size of the prey populations.
* Lack of regulation by first-order predators triggers boom-and-bust cycles in prey populations. Prey populations expand and consequently overgraze and over-browse the land. Soon the environment is no longer able to support them. As a result, many herbivores starve. Species that rely on the slowest recruiting food become extinct, followed by species that cannot extract the maximum benefit from every bit of their food.
* Boom-bust cycles in herbivore populations change the nature of the vegetative environment, with consequent climatic impacts on relative humidity and continentality. Through overgrazing and overbrowsing, mixed parkland becomes grassland, and climatic continentality increases.
The second-order predation hypothesis has been supported by a computer model, the Pleistocene extinction model (PEM), which, using the same assumptions and values for all variables (herbivore population, herbivore recruitment rates, food needed per human, herbivore hunting rates, etc.) other than those for hunting of predators. It compares the overkill hypothesis (predator hunting = 0) with second-order predation (predator hunting varied between 0.01 and 0.05 for different runs). The findings are that second-order predation is more consistent with extinction than is overkill (results graph at left). The Pleistocene extinction model is the only test of multiple hypotheses and is the only model to specifically test combination hypotheses by artificially introducing sufficient climate change to cause extinction. When overkill and climate change are combined they balance each other out. Climate change reduces the number of plants, overkill removes animals, therefore fewer plants are eaten. Second-order predation combined with climate change exacerbates the effect of climate change. (results graph at right). The second-order predation hypothesis is further supported by the observation above that there was a massive increase in bison populations.
However, this hypothesis has been criticised on the grounds that the multispecies model produces a mass extinction through indirect competition between herbivore species: small species with high reproductive rates subsidize predation on large species with low reproductive rates. All prey species are lumped in the Pleistocene extinction model. Also, the control of population sizes by predators is not fully supported by observations of modern ecosystems. The hypothesis further assumes decreases in vegetation due to climate change, but deglaciation doubled the habitable area of North America. Any vegetational changes that did occur failed to cause almost any extinctions of small vertebrates, and they are more narrowly distributed on average, which detractors cite as evidence against the hypothesis.
The Late Pleistocene
The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...
to the beginning of the Holocene saw the extinction of the majority of the world's megafauna
In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...
(typically defined as animal species having body masses over ), which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity across the globe. 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
Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire) or more or less.
Bacteria allows for the cycling of nutrients such as ca ...
to replace these extinct megafaunal species, 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. Human impact on megafauna populations is thought to have been driven by hunting ("overkill"), as well as possibly environmental alteration. The relative importance of human vs climatic factors in the extinctions has been the subject of long-running controversy.
Major extinctions occurred in Australia-New Guinea ( Sahul) beginning approximately 50,000 years ago and in the Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
about 13,000 years ago, coinciding in time with the early human migrations into these regions. Extinctions in northern Eurasia were staggered over tens of thousands of years between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, while extinctions in the Americas were virtually simultaneous, spanning only 3000 years at most. Overall, during the Late Pleistocene about 65% of all megafaunal species worldwide became extinct, rising to 72% in North America, 83% in South America and 88% in Australia, with all mammals over becoming extinct in Australia and the Americas, and around 80% globally. Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia experienced more moderate extinctions than other regions.
Extinctions by biogeographic realm
Summary
Introduction
The Late Pleistocene saw the extinction of many mammals weighing more than , including around 80% of mammals over 1 tonne. The proportion of megafauna extinctions is progressively larger the further the human migratory distance from Africa, with the highest extinction rates in Australia, and North and South America. The increased extent of extinction mirrors the migration pattern of modern humans: the further away from Africa, the more recently humans inhabited the area, the less time those environments (including its megafauna) had to become accustomed to humans (and vice versa). There are two main hypotheses to explain this extinction: * Climate change associated with the advance and retreat of major ice caps or ice sheets causing reduction in favorable habitat. * Human hunting causing attrition of megafauna populations, commonly known as "overkill". There are some inconsistencies between the current available data and the prehistoric overkill hypothesis. For instance, there are ambiguities around the timing of Australian megafauna extinctions. Evidence supporting the prehistoric overkill hypothesis includes the persistence of megafauna on some islands for millennia past the disappearance of their continental cousins. For instance, ground sloths survived on the Antilles long after North and South American ground sloths were extinct, woolly mammoths died out on remote Wrangel Island 6,000 years after their extinction on the mainland, whileSteller's sea cow
Steller's sea cow (''Hydrodamalis gigas'') is an extinct sirenian described by Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741. At that time, it was found only around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia; its range extended across ...
s persisted off the isolated and uninhabited Commander Islands for thousands of years after they had vanished from the continental shores of the north Pacific. The later disappearance of these island species correlates with the later colonization of these islands by humans.
The original debates as to whether human arrival times or climate change constituted the primary cause of megafaunal extinctions necessarily were based on paleontological evidence coupled with geological dating techniques. Recently, genetic analyses of surviving megafaunal populations have contributed new evidence, leading to the conclusion: "The inability of climate to predict the observed population decline of megafauna, especially during the past 75,000 years, implies that human impact became the main driver of megafauna dynamics around this date."
Recent research indicates that each species responded differently to environmental changes, and no one factor by itself explains the large variety of extinctions. The causes may involve the interplay of climate change, competition between species, unstable population dynamics
Population dynamics is the type of mathematics used to model and study the size and age composition of populations as dynamical systems.
History
Population dynamics has traditionally been the dominant branch of mathematical biology, which has ...
, and human predation.
Africa
Although Africa was one of the least affected regions, the region still suffered extinctions, particularly around the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition. These extinctions were likely predominantly climatically driven by changes to grassland habitats. * Ungulates ** '' Even-Toed Ungulates'' ***Suidae
Suidae is a family of artiodactyl mammals which are commonly called pigs, hogs or swine. In addition to numerous fossil species, 18 extant species are currently recognized (or 19 counting domestic pigs and wild boars separately), classified into ...
(swine)
**** '' Metridiochoerus '' (ssp.)
**** ''Kolpochoerus
''Kolpochoerus'' is an extinct genus of the pig family Suidae related to the modern-day genera ''Hylochoerus'' and ''Potamochoerus''. It is believed that most of them inhabited African forests, as opposed to the bushpig and red river hog that inha ...
'' (ssp.)
*** Bovidae (bovines, antelope)
**** Giant buffalo (''Syncerus antiquus'')
**** '' Megalotragus''
**** '' Rusingoryx''
**** Southern springbok (''Antidorcas australis'')
**** Bond's springbok (''Antidorcas bondi'')
**** '' Damaliscus hypsodon''
**** '' Damaliscus niro''
**** Atlantic gazelle (''Gazella atlantica'')
**** ''Gazella tingitana
''Gazella tingitana'' is an extinct species of gazelle from the Late Pleistocene of Morocco.
Arambourg described ''G. tingitana'' in 1957 from material at Mugharet el 'Aliya in Morocco, now dated to between 85 and 37 ka (85,000 - 37,000 BP). It ...
''
**** Caprinae
***** '' Makapania?''
*** Cervidae (deer)
****''Megaceroides algericus
''Megaceroides algericus'' is an extinct species of deer known from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene of North Africa. It is one of only two species of deer known to have been native to the African continent, alongside the Barbary stag, a subs ...
'' (North Africa)
**'' Odd-toed Ungulates''
*** Rhinoceros (Rhinocerotidae).
**** Narrow-nosed rhinoceros (''Stephanorhinus hemitoechus'', North Africa)
**** '' Ceratotherium mauritanicum''
***Wild ''Equus'' spp.
**** Caballine horses
*****''Equus algericus'' (North Africa)
****Subgenus '' Asinus'' (asses)
*****''Equus melkiensis'' (North Africa)
**** Zebras
***** Giant zebra (''Equus capensis'')
***** Saharan zebra (''Equus mauritanicus'')
*Proboscidea
The Proboscidea (; , ) are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. From ...
** Elephantidae (elephants)
***'' Palaeoloxodon iolensis''? (other authors suggest that this taxon went extinct at the end of the Middle Pleistocene)
* Rodentia
** ''Paraethomys filfilae''?
South Asia and Southeast Asia
The timing of extinctions on the Indian subcontinent is uncertain due to a lack of reliable dating. Similar issues have been reported for Chinese sites, though there is no evidence for any of the megafaunal taxa having survived into the Holocene in that region. Extinctions in Southeast Asia and South China have been proposed to be the result of environmental shift from open to closed forested habitats.
* Ungulates
** '' Even-Toed Ungulates''
*** Several Bovidae spp.
**** ''Bos palaesondaicus
''Bos palaesondaicus'' occurred on Pleistocene Java (Indonesia) and belongs to the Bovinae subfamily. It has been described by the Dutch paleoanthropologist Eugène Dubois in 1908.Dubois, E. (1908). Das Geologische Alter der Kendengoder Trinil ...
'' (ancestor to the banteng
The banteng (''Bos javanicus''; ), also known as tembadau, is a species of cattle found in Southeast Asia. The head-and-body length is between . Wild banteng are typically larger and heavier than their domesticated counterparts, but are otherw ...
)
**** Cebu tamaraw
The Cebu tamaraw (''Bubalus cebuensis'') is a fossil dwarf buffalo discovered in the Philippines, and first described in 2006.
Anatomy and morphology
The most distinctive feature of ''B. cebuensis'' was its small size. Large contemporary domest ...
(''Bubalus cebuensis'')
**** ''Bubalus grovesi
''Bubalus grovesi'' is an extinct species of water buffalo that lived in southern Sulawesi during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene.
''B. grovesi'' was an extremely small buffalo species, estimated at only . It experienced a body size reduc ...
''
**** Short-horned water buffalo (''Bubalus mephistopheles'')
**** '' Bubalus palaeokerabau''
*** Hippopotamidae
**** '' Hexaprotodon'' (Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia)
** '' Odd-toed Ungulates''
***''Equus
Equus may refer to:
* ''Equus'' (genus), a genus of animals including horses, donkeys and zebras
* ''Equus'' (play), a play by Peter Shaffer
* ''Equus'' (film), a film adaptation of the Peter Shaffer play
* Equus (comics), a comic book characte ...
'' spp.
**** ''Equus namadicus
''Equus namadicus'' is a prehistoric equid, known from remains dating to the Middle and Late Pleistocene from across the Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the I ...
'' (Indian subcontinent)
**** Yunnan horse
The Yunnan horse (''Equus yunnanensis'') was an extinct horse that once roamed in Pleistocene East AsiaElewa, Ashraf M. T. (2008). Mass Extinction. Springer p. 172Colbert, EH. (1940)Pleistocene mammals from the Ma Kai valley of northern Yunnan, ...
(''Equus yunanensis'')
*** Giant tapir (''Tapirus augustus,'' Southeast Asia and Southern China)
*** '' Taprus sinensis''
* Pholidota
** Giant Asian pangolin ('' Manis palaeojavanica'')
* Carnivora
Carnivora is a Clade, monophyletic order of Placentalia, placental mammals consisting of the most recent common ancestor of all felidae, cat-like and canidae, dog-like animals, and all descendants of that ancestor. Members of this group are f ...
** Caniformia
Caniformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "dog-like" carnivorans. They include dogs (wolves, foxes, etc.), bears, raccoons, and mustelids. The Pinnipedia (seals, walruses and sea lions) are also assigned to this group. ...
*** Arctoidea
**** Bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
s
***** '' Ailuropoda baconi'' (ancestor to the giant panda
The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes us ...
)
* Afrotheria
** Afroinsectiphilia
*** Orycteropodidae/Tubulidentata
**** Aardvark (''Orycteropus afer''; extirpated in South Asia circa 13,000 BCE)
** Paenungulata
*** Tethytheria
**** Proboscidea
The Proboscidea (; , ) are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. From ...
ns
***** Stegodontidae
****** '' Stegodon'' spp''.'' (including ''Stegodon florensis'' on Flores, ''Stegodon orientalis'' in East and Southeast Asia, and ''Stegodon'' sp. in the Indian subcontinent)
***** Elephantidae
****** ''Palaeoloxodon
''Palaeoloxodon'' is an extinct genus of elephant. The genus originated in Africa during the Pliocene era, and expanded into Eurasia during the Pleistocene era. The genus contains some of the largest known species of elephants, over four metres t ...
'' spp.
******* '' Palaeoloxodon namadicus'' (Indian subcontinent, possibly also Southeast Asia)
* Birds
** Japanese flightless duck (''Shiriyanetta hasegawai'')
** '' Leptoptilos robustus''
*Reptiles
** Crocodilia
***'' Alligator munensis''?
** Testudines (turtles and tortoises)
***''Manouria oyamai
''Manouria'' is a genus of tortoises in the family Testudinidae. The genus was erected by John Edward Gray in 1854.
Species
The following five species are recognized as being valid, two of which are extant, and three of which are extinct:
*''Ma ...
''
* Primates
** Several simian
The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) and Catarrhi ...
(Simiiformes) spp.
*** ''Pongo'' ( orangutans)
**** '' Pongo weidenreichi'' (South China)
*** Various '' Homo'' spp. (archaic humans)
**** '' Homo erectus soloensis'' (Java)
**** '' Homo floresiensis'' (Flores)
**** '' Homo luzonensis'' (Luzon, Philippines)
**** Denisovans
The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Denisovans are known from few physical remains and consequently, most of what is known ...
(''Homo'' sp.)
Europe, Northern and East Asia
The Palearctic realm spans the entirety of the European continent and stretches into northern Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...
, through the Caucasus and central Asia to northern China
Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climate ...
, Siberia and Beringia
Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...
. Extinctions were more severe in Northern Eurasia than in Africa or South and Southeast Asia. These extinctions were staggered over tens of thousands of years, spanning from around 50,000 years Before Present (BP) to around 10,000 years BP, with temperate adapted species like the straight-tusked elephant
The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (781,000–30,000 years before present). Recovered individuals have reac ...
and the narrow-nosed rhinoceros generally going extinct earlier than cold adapted species like the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. Climate change has been considered a probable major factor in the extinctions, possibly in combination with human hunting.
* Ungulates
** ''Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Various Bovidae spp.
**** Steppe bison
The steppe bisonSeveral literatures address the species as ''primeval bison''. or steppe wisent (''Bison'' ''priscus'')
– Y ...
(''Bison priscus'')
**** Baikal yak (''Bos baikalensis'')
**** European water buffalo (''Bubalus murrensis'')
**** European tahr (''Hemitragus cedrensis'')
**** Giant muskox (''Praeovibos priscus'')
**** Northern saiga antelope (''Saiga borealis'')
**** Twisted-horned antelope ('' Spirocerus kiakhtensis'')
**** Goat-horned antelope ('' Parabubalis capricornis'')
**** ''– Y ...
Bubalus wansijocki
''Bubalus wansijocki'' (sometimes misspelled ''Bubalus wansjocki'') is an extinct species of water buffalo known from northern China during the Late Pleistocene.
A 2014 study on extinct Chinese buffalo species indicates that the related ''Bubalus ...
'' (extinct buffalo native to North China)
*** Various deer (Cervidae) spp.
**** Giant deer/Irish elk (''Megaloceros giganteus'')
**** Cretan deer (''Candiacervus'' spp.)
**** ''Haploidoceros
''Haploidoceros'' is an extinct genus of deer that lived in Europe during the Pleistocene. It contains a single species, ''Haploidoceros mediterraneus''. Fossils have been found mainly in France, as well as the Iberian peninsula.
Taxonomy
''Hap ...
mediterraneus''
**** '' Sinomegaceros'' spp. (including ''Sinomegaceros yabei'' in Japan, and ''Sinomegaceros ordosianus'' and possibly ''Sinomegaceros pachyosteus'' in China).
**** Dwarf Ryuku deer (''Cervus astylodon'')
*** All native '' Hippopotamus'' spp.
**** '' Hippopotamus amphibius'' (European range, still extant in Africa)
**** Maltese dwarf hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus melitensis'')
**** Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus minor'')
**** Sicilian dwarf hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus pentlandi'')
*** ''Camelus knoblochi
''Camelus knoblochi'' is an extinct species of camel from the Pleistocene. Remains are known from several localities in the south of Eastern Europe (northern Caucasus, the Sea of Azov, Caspian, Middle and Lower Volga regions), in the east and wes ...
'' and other ''Camel
A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...
us'' spp.
** ''Odd-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Various ''Equus'' spp. e.g.
**** Various wild horse subspecies (e.g. ''Equus c.'' ''gallicus'', ''Equus'' ''c.'' ''latipes'', ''Equus c.'' ''uralensis'')
**** '' Equus dalianensis'' (wild horse species known from North China)
**** European wild ass (''Equus hydruntinus'') (survived in refugia in Anatolia until late Holocene)
**** ''Equus ovodovi
Equus may refer to:
* Equus (genus), ''Equus'' (genus), a genus of animals including horses, donkeys and zebras
* Equus (play), ''Equus'' (play), a play by Peter Shaffer
* Equus (film), ''Equus'' (film), a film adaptation of the Peter Shaffer play ...
'' (survived in refugia in North China until late Holocene)
*** All native Rhinoceros (Rhinocerotidae) spp.
**** '' Elasmotherium''
**** Woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'')
**** '' Stephanorhinus'' spp.
***** Merck's rhinoceros (''Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis'')
***** Narrow-nosed rhinoceros (''Stephanorhinus hemiotoechus'')
* Carnivora
** ''Caniformia
Caniformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "dog-like" carnivorans. They include dogs (wolves, foxes, etc.), bears, raccoons, and mustelids. The Pinnipedia (seals, walruses and sea lions) are also assigned to this group. ...
''
*** ''Canidae
Canidae (; from Latin, ''canis'', "dog") is a biological family of dog-like carnivorans, colloquially referred to as dogs, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid (). There are three subfamilies found within th ...
''
**** Caninae
***** Wolves
****** Cave wolf (''Canis lupus spelaeus'')
****** Dire wolf (''Aenocyon dirus'')
***** Dholes
****** European dhole (''Cuon alpinus europaeus'')
***** Sardinian dhole (''Cynotherium sardous'')
*** Arctoidea
**** Various ''Ursus'' spp.
***** Steppe brown bear
The steppe brown bear (''Ursus arctos priscus'') is a disputed extinct subspecies of brown bear that lived in Eurasia during either the Pleistocene or the early Holocene Epoch, epochs, but its geological age is uncertain.Villalba de Alvarado, M. ...
(''Ursus arctos'' "''priscus''")
***** Gamssulzen cave bear (''Ursus ingressus'')
***** Pleistocene small cave bear (''Ursus rossicus'')
***** Cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'')
***** Giant polar bear (''Ursus maritimus tyrannus'')
**** Musteloidea
***** Mustelidae
****** Several otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...
(Lutrinae) spp.
******* Robust Pleistocene European otter (''Cyrnaonyx'')
******* '' Algarolutra''
******* Sardinian giant otter (''Megalenhydris barbaricina'')
******* Sardinian dwarf otter (''Sardolutra'')
******* Cretan otter (''Lutrogale cretensis'')
** '' Feliformia''
*** Various Felidae
Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the ...
(cats) spp.
**** '' Homotherium latidens'' (sometimes called the scimitar-toothed cat)
**** Cave lynx (''Lynx pardinus spelaeus'')
**** Issoire lynx
''Lynx issiodorensis'', sometimes called the Issoire lynx, is an extinct species of lynx that inhabited Europe during the late Pliocene to Pleistocene epochs, and may have originated in Africa during the late Pliocene. It is named after the town ...
(''Lynx issiodorensis'')
**** ''Panthera
''Panthera'' is a genus within the family (biology), family Felidae that was named and described by Lorenz Oken in 1816 who placed all the spotted cats in this group. Reginald Innes Pocock revised the classification of this genus in 1916 as co ...
'' spp.
***** Cave lion (''Panthera spelaea'')
***** European ice age leopard
''Panthera pardus spelaea'', sometimes called the European Ice Age leopard or Late Pleistocene leopard, is a fossil leopard subspecies, which roamed Europe in the Late Pleistocene. The youngest known bone fragments date to about 32,000 to 26,000 ...
(''Panthera pardus spelaea'')
*** Hyaenidae (hyenas)
**** Cave hyena
The cave hyena (''Crocuta crocuta spelaea''), also known as the Ice Age spotted hyena, was a paleosubspecies of spotted hyena which ranged from the Iberian Peninsula to eastern Siberia. It is one of the best known mammals of the Ice Age and is w ...
(''Crocuta crocuta spelaea'' and ''Crocuta crocuta ultima'')
****'' "Hyaena" prisca''
* All native Elephant (Elephantidae) spp.
** '' Mammoths''
*** Woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'')
*** Dwarf Sardinian mammoth (''Mammuthus lamarmorai'')
** Straight-tusked elephant
The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (781,000–30,000 years before present). Recovered individuals have reac ...
(''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') (Europe)
** ''Palaeoloxodon naumanni
''Palaeoloxodon naumanni'', occasionally called Naumann's elephant, is an extinct species belonging to the genus ''Palaeoloxodon'' found in the Japanese archipelago during the Middle to Late Pleistocene around 430,000 to 24,000 years ago. It is na ...
'' (Japan, possibly also Korea and northern China)
** '' Palaeoloxodon huaihoensis'' (China)
** Dwarf elephant
*** '' Palaeoloxodon creutzburgi'' (Crete)
*** Cyprus dwarf elephant
''Palaeoloxodon cypriotes'', the Cyprus dwarf elephant, is an extinct species that inhabited the island of Cyprus during the Late Pleistocene. Remains comprise 44 molars, found in the north of the island, seven molars discovered in the south-east ...
(''Palaeoloxodon cypriotes'')
*** ''Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis
''Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis'' is an extinct species of elephant from Malta and Sicily belonging to the genus ''Palaeoloxodon''. It is derived from the European mainland straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus''). ''P. mnaidriensis' ...
'' (Sicily)
* Rodents
** ''Allocricetus bursae''
** '' Cricetus major'' (alternatively ''Cricetus cricetus major'')
** '' Dicrostonyx gulielmi'' (ancestor to the Arctic lemming)
** Giant Eurasian porcupine (''Hystrix refossa'')
** '' Leithia'' spp. (Maltese and Sicilian giant dormouse)
** '' Marmota paleocaucasica''
** '' Microtus grafi''
** '' Mimomys'' spp.
*** ''M. pyrenaicus''
*** ''M. chandolensis''
** ''Pliomys lenki
''Pliomys'' is an extinct genus of forest voles, subfamily Arvicolinae, tribe Pliomyini (Musser and Carleton, 2005). One member is the extinct species ''Pliomys episcopalis''. The genus was described by Méhely in 1914, and is paraphyletic with ...
''
** ''Spermophilus citelloides
''Spermophilus'' is a genus of ground squirrels in the squirrel family. As traditionally defined the genus was very species-rich, ranging through Europe, Asia and North America, but this arrangement was found to be paraphyletic to the certai ...
''
** '' Spermophilus severskensis''
** '' Spermophilus superciliosus''
** '' Trogontherium cuvieri'' (large beaver)
** '' Lagomorpha''
*** '' Lepus tanaiticus'' (alternatively ''Lepus timidus tanaiticus'')
*** Pika (''Ochotona'') spp. e.g.
**** Giant pika
The giant pika or Wharton's pika (''Ochotona whartoni'') is an extinct mammal species in the family Ochotonidae. It lived during the Pleistocene and early Holocene in northern parts of North America (Alaska, US and Canada). Very similar forms ha ...
(''Ochotona whartoni'')
*** ''Tonomochota'' spp.
**** ''T. khasanensis''
**** ''T. sikhotana''
**** ''T. major''
* Birds
** Asian ostrich (''Struthio asiaticus'')
** Yakutian goose (''Anser djuktaiensis'')
** Various European crane spp. (Genus '' Grus'')
*** ''Grus primigenia''
*** ''Grus melitensis''
** Cretan owl
The Cretan owl (''Athene cretensis'') is an extinct species of owl from the Pleistocene of the island of Crete, in the eastern Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean B ...
(''Athene cretensis'')
*Primates
** '' Homo''
*** Denisovans (''Homo'' sp.)
*** Neanderthals
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an Extinction, extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ag ...
(''Homo'' (''sapiens'') ''neanderthalensis''; survived until about 40,000 years ago on the Iberian peninsula)
* Reptiles
** ''Solitudo
''Solitudo'' is an extinct genus of tortoise that was found during the Pliocene and Pleistocene on the Mediterranean islands of Menorca, Malta and Sicily. The genus includes three described species, ''Solitudo robusta'', ''Solitudo gymnesica'' a ...
sicula''; survived in Sicily until about 12,500 years ago.
** '' Lacerta siculimelitensis''; from Malta.
Extinctions in North America were concentrated at the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 13,800–11,400 years Before Present, which were coincident with the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling period, as well as the emergence of the hunter-gatherer Clovis culture. The relative importance of human and climactic factors in the North American extinctions has been the subject of significant controversy. Extinctions totalled around 35 genera. The radiocarbon record for North America south of the Alaska-Yukon region has been described as "inadequate" to construct a reliable chronology.
North American extinctions (noted as herbivores (H) or carnivores (C)) included:
* Ungulates
** ''Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Various Bovidae spp.
**** Most forms of Pleistocene bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
(only ''Bison bison'' in North America, and ''Bison bonasus'' in Eurasia, survived)
***** Ancient bison (''Bison antiquus'') (H)
***** Long-horned/Giant bison (''Bison latifrons'') (H)
***** Steppe bison
The steppe bisonSeveral literatures address the species as ''primeval bison''. or steppe wisent (''Bison'' ''priscus'')
– Y ...
(''Bison priscus'') (H)
***** '' Bison occidentalis'' (H)
**** Several members of '' Caprinae'' (the muskox survived)
***** Giant muskox (''Praeovibos priscus'') (H)
***** – Y ...
Shrub-ox
The shrub-ox (''Euceratherium collinum'') is an extinct genus and species of ovibovine caprine native to North America along with '' Bootherium'' (''Bootherium bombifrons'') and Soergel's ox (''Soergelia mayfieldi''). Descriptions
''Eucer ...
(''Euceratherium collinum'') (H)
***** Harlan's muskox (''Bootherium bombifrons'') (H)
***** Soergel's ox (''Soergelia mayfieldi'') (H)
***** Harrington's mountain goat (''Oreamnos harringtoni''; smaller and more southern distribution than its surviving relative) (H)
**** Saiga antelope (''Saiga tatarica''; extirpated) (H)
*** Deer
**** Stag-moose (''Cervalces scotti'') (H)
**** American mountain deer (''Odocoileus lucasi'') (H)
**** '' Torontoceros hypnogeos'' (H)
*** Various Antilocapridae genera ( pronghorns survived)
**** ''Capromeryx'' (H)
**** ''Stockoceros
''Stockoceros'' is an extinct genus of the North American artiodactyl family Antilocapridae (pronghorns), known from Mexico and the southwestern United States. Its horns are each divided near their base into two prongs of roughly equal length.
T ...
'' (H)
**** '' Tetrameryx'' (H)
**** Pacific pronghorn
''Antilocapra pacifica'', also known as the Pacific pronghorn, is an extinct antilocaprid from the Late Pleistocene of California.
Description
The Pacific pronghorn was described in 1991 from material found near the San Joaquin River delta near A ...
(''Antilocapra pacifica'') (H)
*** Several peccary (Tayassuidae) spp.
**** Flat-headed peccary
''Platygonus compressus'', the flat-headed peccary, is an extinct mammal species from the Tayassuidae family, that lived in North-America during the Pleistocene. It was first described in 1848 by John L. Leconte.
Description
The flat-heade ...
(''Platygonus'') (H)
**** Long-nosed peccary (''Mylohyus'') (H)
**** Collared peccary (''Dicotyles tajacu''; extirpated, range semi-recolonised) (H) (''Muknalia minimus'' is a junior synonym)
*** Various members of Camelidae
**** Western camel (''Camelops hesternus'') (H)
**** Stilt legged llamas (''Hemiauchenia'' ssp.) (H)
**** Stout legged llamas (''Palaeolama'' ssp.) (H)
** ''Odd-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** All native forms of Equidae
**** Caballine true horses (''Equus cf. ferus'') from the Late Pleistocene of North America have historically been assigned to many different species, including ''Equus fraternus
''Equus fraternus'' is an extinct species of '' Equus,'' which was native to North America. Specimens of ''E. fraternus'' have been found in Florida, Louisiana and Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in ...
'', '' Equus scotti'' and ''Equus lambei
''Equus lambei'', commonly known as the Yukon horse or Yukon wild horse, is an extinct species of the genus '' Equus''. ''Equus lambei'' ranged across North America until approximately 10,000 years ago. Based on recent examinations of the m ...
,'' but the taxonomy of these horses is unclear, and many of these species may be synonymous with each other, perhaps only representing a single species.
**** Stilt-legged horse (''Haringtonhippus francisci'' / ''Equus francisci''; (H)
*** Tapirs ('' Tapirus''; three species)
**** California tapir (''Tapirus californicus'') (H)
**** Merriam's tapir (''Tapirus merriami'') (H)
**** Vero tapir (''Tapirus veroensis'') (H)
**Order Notoungulata
*** '' Mixotoxodon'' (H)
* Carnivora
** ''Feliformia''
*** Several Felidae
Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the ...
spp.
**** Sabertooths (Machairodontinae
Machairodontinae is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the family Felidae (true cats). They were found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, living from about 16 million until ...
)
***** '' Smilodon fatalis'' (sabertooth cat) (C)
***** ''Homotherium serum
''Homotherium'', also known as the scimitar-toothed cat or scimitar cat, is an extinct genus of machairodontine saber-toothed predator, often termed scimitar-toothed cats, that inhabited North America, South America, Eurasia, and Africa during th ...
'' scimitar-toothed cat (C)
**** American cheetah (''Miracinonyx trumani'' ; not true cheetah)
**** Cougar
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...
(''Puma concolor''; megafaunal ecomorph extirpated from North America, South American populations recolonised former range) (C)
**** Jaguarundi
The jaguarundi (''Herpailurus yagouaroundi'') is a wild cat native to the Americas. Its range extends from central Argentina in the south to northern Mexico, through Central and South America east of the Andes. The jaguarundi is a medium-sized ...
(''Herpailurus yagouaroundi''; extirpated, range semi-recolonised) (C)
**** Margay (''Leopardus weidii''; extirpated) (C)
**** Ocelot
The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...
(''Leopardus pardalis''; extirpated, range marginally recolonised) (C)
**** Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
s
***** Pleistocene North American jaguar (''Panthera onca augusta''; range semi-recolonised by other subspecies) (C)
***** '' North America Jaguar''
***** '' Panthera balamoides'' (dubious, suggested to be a junior synonym of the short faced bear '' Arctotherium'')
**** Lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
s
***** American lion (''Panthera atrox'') (C)
***** Cave lion (''Panthera spelaea''; present only in Alaska and Yukon) (C)
** ''Caniformia''
*** Canidae
**** Dire wolf (''Aenocyon dirus'') (C)
**** Pleistocene coyote (''Canis latrans orcutti'') (C)
**** Megafaunal wolf e.g.
***** Beringian wolf (''Canis lupus'' ssp.) (C)
**** Dhole (''Cuon alpinus''; extirpated) (C)
**** ''Protocyon troglodytes
''Protocyon'' is an extinct genus of large canid endemic to South and North America during the Late Pleistocene living from 781 to 12thousand years ago.
Description
''Protocyon'' was a hypercarnivore, suggested by its dental adaptations. Like man ...
'' (C)
*** Arctoidea
**** Musteloidea
***** Mephitidae
****** Short-faced skunk (''Brachyprotoma obtusata'') (C)
***** Mustelidae
****** Steppe polecat
The steppe polecat (''Mustela eversmanii''), also known as the white or masked polecat, is a species of mustelid native to Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because of its wide distrib ...
(''Mustela eversmanii''; extirpated) (C)
**** Various bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
(Ursidae) spp.
***** Arctodus simus
''Arctodus'' is an extinct genus of short-faced bear that inhabited North America during the Pleistocene (~2.5 Mya until 12,000 years ago). There are two recognized species: the lesser short-faced bear (''Arctodus pristinus'') and the giant short- ...
'' (C)''
***** Florida spectacled bear (''Tremarctos floridanus'') (C)
***** South American short-faced bear
''Arctotherium'' ("''bear beast''") is an extinct genus of the Pleistocene short-faced bears endemic to Central and South America. ''Arctotherium'' migrated from North America to South America during the Great American Interchange, following the f ...
(''Arctotherium wingei'') (C)
***** Giant polar bear (''Ursus maritimus tyrannus''; a possible inhabitant) (C)
* Afrotheria
** Paenungulata
*** Tethytheria
**** ''All native spp. of Proboscidea
The Proboscidea (; , ) are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. From ...
''
***** Mastodons
****** American mastodon (''Mammut americanum'') (H)
****** Pacific mastodon (''Mammut pacificus'') (H) (validity uncertain)
***** Gomphotheriidae spp.
****** '' Cuvieronius'' (H)
***** Mammoth (''Mammuthus'') spp.
****** Columbian mammoth (''Mammuthus columbi'') (H)
****** Pygmy mammoth (''Mammuthus exilis'') (H)
****** Woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') (H)
**** '' Sirenia''
***** Dugongidae
****** Steller's sea cow
Steller's sea cow (''Hydrodamalis gigas'') is an extinct sirenian described by Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741. At that time, it was found only around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia; its range extended across ...
(''Hydrodamalis gigas''; extirpated from North America, survived in Beringia into 18th century) (H)
* Euarchontoglires
** Bats
*** Stock's vampire bat (''Desmodus stocki'') (C)
*** Pristine mustached bat
The pristine mustached bat (''Pteronotus (Phyllodia) pristinus'') is an extinct Late Quaternary species of bat in the endemic Neotropical family Mormoopidae. It was distributed in Cuba and possibly Florida (United States).
Distribution
This bat ...
(''Pteronotus'' (''Phyllodia'') ''pristinus'') (C)
** Rodents
*** Giant beaver (''Castoroides'') spp.
**** '' Castoroides ohioensis'' (H)
**** '' Castoroides leiseyorum'' (H)
*** Klein's porcupine (''Erethizon kleini'') (H)
*** Giant island deer mouse (''Peromyscus nesodytes'') (C)
*** '' Neochoerus'' spp. e.g.
**** Pinckney's capybara (''Neochoerus pinckneyi'') (H)
**** '' Neochoerus aesopi'' (H)
*** ''Neotoma findleyi
''Neotoma findleyi'', or Findley's woodrat, is an extinct species of rodent that was found in New Mexico. It lived during the Pleistocene, going extinct during the Rancholabrean.
Naming
The rat was named in honour of James S. Findley, who traine ...
''
*** '' Neotoma pygmaea''
*** ''Synaptomys australis
''Synaptomys australis'', the Florida bog lemming, is an extinct species of bog lemming that occurred in Florida during the Late Pleistocene.
Taxonomy
Although the bog lemmings are not indigenous to Florida at the present time, remains are known ...
''
*** All giant hutia ''(Heptaxodontidae) spp.''
**** Blunt-toothed giant hutia (''Amblyrhiza inundata''; could grow as large as an American black bear
The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), also called simply a black bear or sometimes a baribal, is a medium-sized bear endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. American black bear ...
) (H)
**** Plate-toothed giant hutia
The plate-toothed giant hutia (''Elasmodontomys obliquus'') is an extinct species of rodent in the family Heptaxodontidae. It is the only species within the genus ''Elasmodontomys''. It was found in Puerto Rico.
The rodent is thought to have we ...
(''Elasmodontomys obliquus'') (H)
**** Twisted-toothed mouse (''Quemisia gravis'') (H)
**** Osborn's key mouse
Osborn's key mouse (''Clidomys osborni''), also known as the larger Jamaican giant hutia, is a now extinct species of large rodent in the family Heptaxodontidae. It was found on the island of Jamaica and likely became extinct before the end of th ...
(''Clidomys osborn's'') (H)
**** ''Xaymaca fulvopulvis'' (H)
** Lagomorphs
*** Aztlan rabbit (''Aztlanolagus'' sp.) (H)
*** Giant pika
The giant pika or Wharton's pika (''Ochotona whartoni'') is an extinct mammal species in the family Ochotonidae. It lived during the Pleistocene and early Holocene in northern parts of North America (Alaska, US and Canada). Very similar forms ha ...
(''Ochotona whartoni'') (H)
* Eulipotyphla
** ''Notiosorex dalquesti
''Notiosorex dalquesti'', or Dalquest's shrew, is an extinct species of shrew that was found in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico during the Pleistocene and possibly the Holocene.
Fossils of Dalquest's shrew were once thought t ...
''
** ''Notiosorex harrisi
''Notiosorex harrisi'' is an extinct species of shrew from the subfamily Soricinae.
It is one of several extinct species of ''Notiosorex'' described from the fossil record and the specific epithet is a patronymic to honor Arthur H. Harris for ...
''
* Xenarthra
** Pilosa
*** Giant anteater (''Myrmecophaga tridactyla''; extirpated, range partially recolonised) (C)
*** All remaining ground sloth
Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribbe ...
spp.
**** '' Eremotherium'' ( megatheriid giant ground sloth) (H)
**** ''Nothrotheriops
''Nothrotheriops'' is a genus of Pleistocene ground sloth found in North America, from what is now central Mexico to the southern United States. This genus of bear-sized xenarthran was related to the much larger, and far more famous ''Megatherium ...
'' (nothrotheriid
Nothrotheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths that lived from approximately 17.5 mya—10,000 years ago, existing for approximately . Previously placed within the tribe Nothrotheriini or subfamily Nothrotheriinae within Megatheriidae, they ...
ground sloth) (H)
**** Megalonychid ground sloth spp.
***** '' Megalonyx'' (H)
***** '' Nohochichak'' (H)
***** ''Xibalbaonyx
''Xibalbaonyx'' is an extinct genus of megalonychid ground sloth known from the Late Pleistocene of Mexico. Three species are known: ''X. oviceps'' and ''X. exiniferis'' from the Yucatan peninsula and ''X. microcaninus'' from Jalisco. The genus ...
'' (H)
***** ''Meizonyx
''Meizonyx'' is an extinct genus of megalonychid ground sloth from the Pleistocene of El Salvador and southern Mexico. The type and only species, ''Meizonyx salvadorensis,'' was described in 1985 from a mandible found in Barranca del Sisimico an ...
''
**** Mylodontid ground sloth spp.
***** '' Paramylodon'' (H)
** Cingulata
*** All members of ''Glyptodontinae
Glyptodonts are an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armoured armadillos. They arose in South America around 48 million years ago and spread to southern North America after the continents became connected several million years ago. The best-kn ...
''
**** ''Glyptotherium
''Glyptotherium'' (from Greek for 'grooved or carved beast') is a genus of glyptodont (an extinct group of large, herbivorous armadillos) that lived from the Early Pliocene, about 4.9 million years ago, to the Early Holocene, around 7,000 years ...
'' (H)
*** Beautiful armadillo
''Dasypus bellus'', the beautiful armadillo, is an extinct armadillo species endemic to North America and South America from the Pleistocene, living from 1.8 mya—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately .
Slightly larger than its living ...
(''Dasypus bellus'') (H)
*** '' Pachyarmatherium''
*** All '' Pampatheriidae'' spp.
**** '' Holmesina'' (H)
**** ''Pampatherium
''Pampatherium'' is an extinct genus of xenarthran that lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene. Some species went extinct right at the Pleistocene-Holocene border.
Distribution
''Pampatherium humboldtii'' and ''P. typum'' lived in South Ame ...
'' (H)
* Birds
** ''Water Fowl''
*** Ducks
**** Bermuda flightless duck (''Anas pachyscelus'') (H)
**** Californian flightless sea duck (''Chendytes lawi'') (C)
**** Mexican stiff-tailed duck (''Oxyura zapatima'') (H)
*** '' Neochen barbadiana'' (H)
** '' Turkey (''Meleagris'') spp.''
*** Californian turkey
The Californian turkey (''Meleagris californica'') is an extinct species of turkey indigenous to the Pleistocene and Early Holocene of California. It has been estimated that the Californian turkey went extinct about 10,000 years ago.
Fossil ev ...
(''Meleagris californica'') (H)
*** ''Meleagris crassipes'' (H)
** ''Various Gruiformes
The Gruiformes are an order (biology), order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird family (biology), families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like".
Traditionally, a number of wading and t ...
spp.''
*** All cave rail (''Nesotrochis'') spp. e.g.
**** Antillean cave rail
The Antillean cave rail (''Nesotrochis debooyi''), also known as DeBooy's rail, is an extinct species of flightless bird which occurred on Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. Bone fragments of this species were first unearthed by ar ...
(''Nesotrochis debooyi'') (C)
*** Barbados rail
The Barbados rail is a fossil rail species endemic to Barbados with an undetermined taxonomic status.Storrs Olson: A new species of Nesotrochis from Hispaniola, with notes on other fossil rails from the West Indies (Aves: Rallidae) In: Proceeding ...
( Incertae sedis) (C)
*** Cuban flightless crane
''Antigone cubensis'', sometimes called the Cuban flightless crane,
is a large, extinct species of crane which was endemic to the island of Cuba in the Caribbean. The species was originally placed in the genus '' Grus'', as ''Grus cubensis'', ...
(''Antigone cubensis'') (H)
*** La Brea crane (''Grus pagei'') (H)
** ''Various flamingo (Phoenicopteridae) spp.''
*** Minute flamingo
''Phoenicopterus minutus'' is an extinct species of flamingo which inhabited California during the Late Pleistocene. It was originally discovered in San Bernardino County, California in the Lake Manix beds, where it coexisted with a second, larg ...
(''Phoenicopterus minutus'') (C)
*** Cope's flamingo
''Phoenicopterus copei'' is an extinct species of flamingo that inhabited North America during the Late Pleistocene. Its fossils have been discovered in Oregon, California, Mexico and Florida. Many of these localities preserve the remains of juve ...
(''Phoenicopterus copei'') (C)
** Dow's puffin
Dow's puffin (''Fratercula dowi'') is an extinct seabird in the auk family described in 2000 from subfossil remains found in the Channel Islands of California. It was approximately as large as the modern horned puffin and its beak appared to hav ...
(''Fratercula dowi'') (C)
** Pleistocene Mexican diver spp.
***''Plyolimbus baryosteus'' (C)
*** '' Podiceps'' spp.
****''Podiceps parvus'' (C)
** Stork
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...
s
*** La Brea/Asphalt stork (''Ciconia maltha'') (C)
*** Wetmore's stork (''Mycteria wetmorei'') (C)
** Pleistocene Mexican cormorant
Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...
s spp. (genus ''Phalacrocorax
''Phalacrocorax'' is a genus of fish-eating birds in the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae. Members of this genus are also known as the Old World cormorants.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Phalacrocorax'' was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin ...
'')
***''Phalacrocorax goletensis'' (C)
*** ''Phalacrocorax chapalensis'' (C)
** All remaining teratorn (Teratornithidae) spp.
*** ''Aiolornis incredibilis'' (C)
*** ''Cathartornis gracilis'' (C)
*** ''Oscaravis olsoni'' (C)
*** ''Teratornis merriami'' (C)
*** ''Teratornis woodburnensis'' (C)
** Several New World vultures (Cathartidae) spp.
*** Pleistocene black vulture (''Coragyps occidentalis'' ssp.) (C)
*** Megafaunal Californian condor (''Gymnogyps amplus'') (C)
*** Clark's condor (''Breagyps clarki'') (C)
*** Cuban condor (''Gymnogyps varonai'') (C)
** Several Accipitridae spp.
*** American neophrone vulture (''Neophrontops americanus'') (C)
*** Woodward's eagle (''Amplibuteo woodwardi'') (C)
*** Cuban great hawk (''Buteogallus borrasi'') (C)
*** Daggett's eagle (''Buteogallus daggetti'') (C)
*** Fragile eagle
Fragile or The Fragile may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Fragile'' (film), a 2005 film by Jaume Balagueró
* "Fragile" (''Smallville''), a television episode
Literature
* ''Fragile'' (manga), a 2016 Japanese series by Bin Kusamizu and Sab ...
(''Buteogallus fragilis'') (C)
*** Cuban giant hawk (''Gigantohierax suarezi'') (C)
*** Errant eagle (''Neogyps errans'') (C)
*** Grinnell's crested eagle (''Spizaetus grinnelli'') (C)
*** Willett's hawk-eagle (''Spizaetus willetti'') (C)
*** Caribbean titan hawk (''Titanohierax'') (C)
** Several owl (Strigiformes) spp.
*** Brea miniature owl (''Asphaltoglaux'') (C)
*** Kurochkin's pygmy owl
Kurochkin's pygmy owl (''Glaucidium kurochkini'') is an extinct species of pygmy owl that existed in what is now California, U.S.A. during the Late Pleistocene Epoch.
Discovery and naming
The holotype of ''Glaucidium kurochkini'' is LACM RLB K9 ...
(''Glaucidium kurochkini'') (C)
*** Brea owl (''Oraristix brea'') (C)
*** Cuban giant owl
The Cuban giant owl or giant cursorial owl (''Ornimegalonyx'') is an extinct genus of giant owl that measured in height. It is closely related to the many species of living owls of the genus ''Strix''.Feduccia, Alan (1996) "The Origin and Evoluti ...
(''Ornimegalonyx'') (C)
** Bermuda flicker (''Colaptes oceanicus'') (C)
** Several caracara (Caracarinae) spp.
*** Bahaman terrestrial caracara ('' Caracara'' sp.) (C)
*** Puerto Rican terrestrial caracara ('' Caracara'' sp.) (C)
*** Jamaican caracara
The Jamaican caracara (''Caracara tellustris'') is a prehistoric species of terrestrial bird in the falcon family, Falconidae. It was native to the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean, where it probably inhabited dry forests in the island's south ...
(''Carcara tellustris'') (C)
*** Cuban caracara (''Milvago
''Milvago'' is a genus of bird of prey in the family Falconidae.
Species
''Milvago'' contains two extant species:
They are native to South America and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, with ''M. chimachima'' just reaching to the Isthm ...
'' sp.) (C)
*** Hispaniolan caracara (''Milvago
''Milvago'' is a genus of bird of prey in the family Falconidae.
Species
''Milvago'' contains two extant species:
They are native to South America and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, with ''M. chimachima'' just reaching to the Isthm ...
'' sp.) (C)
** Psittacopasserae
*** Psittaciformes
**** Mexican thick-billed parrot (''Rhynchopsitta phillipsi'') (H)
* Several giant tortoise spp.
** '' Hesperotestudo'' (H)
** '' Gopherus'' spp.
*** ''Gopherus donlaloi
''Gopherus'' is a genus of fossorial tortoises commonly referred to as gopher tortoises. The gopher tortoise is grouped with land tortoises that originated 60 million years ago, in North America. A genetic study has shown that their closest relat ...
'' (H)
** '' Chelonoidis'' spp.
*** ''Chelonoidis marcanoi
''Chelonoidis'' is a genus of turtles in the tortoise family erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1835.
They are found in South America and the Galápagos Islands, and formerly had a wide distribution in the West Indies.
The multiple subspecies ...
'' (H)
*** '' Chelonoidis alburyorum'' (H)
The survivors are in some ways as significant as the losses: bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
(H), grey wolf (C), lynx
A lynx is a type of wild cat.
Lynx may also refer to:
Astronomy
* Lynx (constellation)
* Lynx (Chinese astronomy)
* Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory
Places Canada
* Lynx, Ontar ...
(C), grizzly bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...
(C), American black bear
The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), also called simply a black bear or sometimes a baribal, is a medium-sized bear endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. American black bear ...
(C), deer (e.g. caribou
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
, moose, wapiti (elk), '' Odocoileus'' spp.) (H), pronghorn (H), white-lipped peccary (H), muskox (H), bighorn sheep (H), and mountain goat (H); the list of survivors also include species which were extirpated during the Quaternary extinction event, but recolonised at least part of their ranges during the mid-Holocene from South American relict populations, such as the cougar
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...
(C), jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
(C), giant anteater (C), collared peccary (H), ocelot
The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...
(C) and jaguarundi
The jaguarundi (''Herpailurus yagouaroundi'') is a wild cat native to the Americas. Its range extends from central Argentina in the south to northern Mexico, through Central and South America east of the Andes. The jaguarundi is a medium-sized ...
(C). All save the pronghorns and giant anteaters were descended from Asian ancestors that had evolved with human predators. Pronghorns are the second-fastest land mammal (after the cheetah), which may have helped them elude hunters. More difficult to explain in the context of overkill is the survival of bison, since these animals first appeared in North America less than 240,000 years ago and so were geographically removed from human predators for a sizeable period of time. Because ancient bison evolved into living bison, there was no continent-wide extinction of bison at the end of the Pleistocene (although the genus was regionally extirpated in many areas). The survival of bison into the Holocene and recent times is therefore inconsistent with the overkill scenario. By the end of the Pleistocene, when humans first entered North America, these large animals had been geographically separated from intensive human hunting for more than 200,000 years. Given this enormous span of geologic time, bison would almost certainly have been very nearly as naive as native North American large mammals.
The culture that has been connected with the wave of extinctions in North America is the paleo-American culture associated with the Clovis people
The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone and bone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna, particularly two mammoths, at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in 1936 ...
(''q.v.''), who were thought to use spear throwers to kill large animals. The chief criticism of the "prehistoric overkill hypothesis" has been that the human population at the time was too small and/or not sufficiently widespread geographically to have been capable of such ecologically significant impacts. This criticism does not mean that climate change scenarios explaining the extinction are automatically to be preferred by default, however, any more than weaknesses in climate change arguments can be taken as supporting overkill. Some form of a combination of both factors could be plausible, and overkill would be a lot easier to achieve large-scale extinction with an already stressed population due to climate change.
South America
South America suffered among the worst losses of the continents, with around 83% of its megafauna going extinct. These extinctions postdate the arrival of modern humans in South America around 15,000 years ago. Both human and climatic factors have been attributed as factors in the extinctions by various authors. Although some megafauna has been historically suggested to have survived into the early Holocene based on radiocarbon dates this may be the result of dating errors due to contamination. The extinctions are coincident with the end of the Antarctic Cold Reversal
The Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR) was an important episode of cooling in the climate history of the Earth during the deglaciation at the close of the last ice age. It illustrates the complexity of the climate changes at the transition from the Plei ...
(a cooling period earlier and less severe than the Northern Hemisphere Younger Dryas) and the emergence of Fishtail projectile point
Fishtail points, also known as Fell points are a style of Paleoindian projectile point widespread in South America at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Their chronological timing is disputed, with some authors favouring a short chronology spanning ...
s, which became widespread across South America. Fishtail projectile points are thought to have been used in big game hunting, though direct evidence of exploitation of extinct megafauna by humans is rare, though megafauna exploitation has been documented at a number of sites. Fishtail points rapidly disappeared after the extinction of the megafauna, and were replaced by other styles more suited to hunting smaller prey. Some authors have proposed the "Broken Zig-Zag" model, where human hunting and climate change causing a reduction in open habitats preferred by megafauna were synergistic factors in megafauna extinction in South America.
* Ungulates
** ''Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Several Cervidae (deer) spp.
**** '' Morenelaphus''
**** '' Antifer''
**** '' Agalmaceros blicki'' (potentially synonym of modern white-tailed deer)
**** '' Odocoileus salinae''
*** Various Camelidae spp.
**** ''Eulamaops
''Eulamaops'' is an extinct genus of camelid, endemic to South America during the Pleistocene (Lujanian, 781,000—12,000 years ago), existing about . Fossil remains of ''Eulamaops'' have been found in the Luján Formation in Argentina
A ...
''
**** Stilt legged llama '' Hemiauchenia''
**** Stout legged llama '' Palaeolama''
** ''Odd-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Several species of tapirs ( Tapiridae)
**** ''Tapirus cristatellus''
*** All Pleistocene wild horse genera ( Equidae)
**** ''Equus neogeus
''Amerhippus'' is an extinct South American horse of uncertain taxonomic identity. It is sometimes classified as a subgenus of the genus '' Equus'', containing several extinct species of horses that lived in South America, or a single, morphologi ...
''
**** '' Hippidion''
***** ''Hippidion devillei''
***** ''Hippidion principale''
***** ''Hippidion saldiasi''
** ''All remaining Meridiungulata genera''
*** Order Litopterna
Litopterna (from grc, λῑτή πτέρνα "smooth heel") is an extinct order of fossil hoofed mammals from the Cenozoic era. The order is one of the five great orders of South American ungulates that were endemic to the continent, until the G ...
**** Macraucheniidae
***** '' Macrauchenia''
***** ''Macraucheniopsis
''Macraucheniopsis'' is an extinct genus of litoptern mammal belonging to the family Macraucheniidae from the Middle to Late Pleistocene of Argentina. It, along with ''Macrauchenia'', ''Neolicaphrium'', and ''Xenorhinotherium'' were among the you ...
''
***** '' Xenorhinotherium''
**** Proterotheriidae
***** '' Neolicaphrium recens''
*** Order Notoungulata
**** Toxodontidae
***** '' Piauhytherium'' (Some authors regard this taxon as synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
of '' Trigodonops'')
***** '' Mixotoxodon''
***** '' Toxodon''
***** '' Trigodonops''
* Primates
** Platyrrhini (New World monkeys)
*** Atelidae
**** '' Protopithecus''
**** '' Caipora''
**** ''Cartelles
''Cartelles'' is an extinct genus of New World monkey. Fossils of this species were found in Bahia, Brazil within the Toca da Boa Vista caves, and were originally described as belonging to another extinct Atelidae genus, ''Protopithecus''.
Des ...
''
**** '' Alouatta mauroi''
* Carnivora
** ''Feliformia''
*** Several ''Felidae
Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the ...
'' spp.
**** Saber-toothed cat (''Smilodon'') spp.
***** ''Smilodon fatalis'' (northwestern South America)
***** ''Smilodon populator'' (eastern and southern South America)
**** Patagonian jaguar (''Panthera onca mesembrina
''Panthera onca mesembrina'' is an extinct subspecies of the jaguar that was endemic to southern South America during the Pleistocene epoch (1.8 mya–11,000 years ago). Its fossils have been excavated primarily in Argentina and Chile, though fe ...
'') (some authors have suggested that these remains actually belong to the American lion instead)
** ''Caniformia''
*** Canidae
**** Dire wolf ('' Aenocyon dirus'')
**** Nehring's wolf (''Canis nehringi
''Canis nehringi'' is an extinct species of canid. ''Canis gezi'', a poorly known small wolf from the Ensenadan of South America, appears to have given rise to ''Canis nehringi'', a Lujanian species from Argentina. Betra's analysis in 1988, place ...
'')
**** '' Protocyon''
**** Pleistocene bush dog ('' Speothos pacivorus'')
*** Ursidae (bears)
**** South American short-faced bear ('' Arctotherium'' spp.)
***** '' Arctotherium bonairense''
***** '' Arctotherium tarijense''
***** '' Arctotherium wingei''
* Rodents
** '' Neochoerus''
* Bats
** Giant vampire bat ('' Desmodus draculae'')
*Proboscidea (elephants and relatives)
** Gomphotheridae
*** '' Cuvieronius''
*** '' Notiomastodon''
* Xenarthrans
** All remaining ground sloth
Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribbe ...
genera
*** Megatheriidae spp.
**** '' Eremotherium''
**** '' Megatherium''
*** Nothrotheriidae spp.
**** ''Nothropus
''Nothropus'' is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Nothrotheriidae, endemic to South America during the Pleistocene epoch. It lived from 0.781 mya—12,000 years ago existing for approximately . It was believed to be a ground-dwell ...
''
**** '' Nothrotherium''
*** Megalonychidae spp.
**** ''Ahytherium
''Ahytherium'' is an extinct genus of megalonychid sloth that lived during the Pleistocene of what is now Brazil. It contains a single species, ''A. aureum''. Discovery and taxonomy
The almost-complete skeleton of ''Ahytherium'' alongside rema ...
''
**** ''Australonyx
''Australonyx'' is an extinct genus of ground sloths, endemic to South America during the Late Pleistocene. It was found in Brazil.
Discovery
The holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to ...
''
**** ''Diabolotherium
''Diabolotherium'' is an extinct genus of megatheriine ground sloth, known from the Late Pleistocene of Peru. Unlike most other extinct mainland sloths, it seems to have been a climber, similar to extinct sloths from the Caribbean. Fossils of t ...
''
**** ''Megistonyx
''Megistonyx'' is an extinct genus of ground sloth endemic to South America during the Late Pleistocene (Lujanian). It is known from one skeleton collected in the Andes of Venezuela, and is closely related to '' Ahytherium''.
History of disco ...
''
*** Mylodontidae spp. (including Scelidotheriinae
Scelidotheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths within the order Pilosa, suborder Folivora and superfamily Mylodontoidea, related to the other extinct mylodontoid family, Mylodontidae, as well as to the living two-toed sloth family Choloe ...
)
**** '' Catonyx''
**** '' Glossotherium''
**** '' Lestodon''
**** '' Mylodon''
**** '' Scelidotherium''
**** ''Scelidodon
''Scelidodon'' is an extinct genus of South American ground sloths. Its remains have been found in the Yupoí and Uspara Formations of Argentina, the Ulloma, Umala, Ñuapua and Tarija Formations of Bolivia, in Brazil, in Chile and in Peru.< ...
''
**** '' Mylodonopsis''
**** '' Ocnotherium''
**** '' Valgipes''
** All remaining Glyptodontinae
Glyptodonts are an extinct subfamily of large, heavily armoured armadillos. They arose in South America around 48 million years ago and spread to southern North America after the continents became connected several million years ago. The best-kn ...
spp.
*** '' Doedicurus''
*** '' Glyptodon/Chlamydotherium''
*** '' Heteroglyptodon''
*** '' Hoplophorus''
*** '' Lomaphorus''
*** '' Neosclerocalyptus''
*** '' Neuryurus''
*** '' Panochthus''
*** '' Parapanochthus''
*** ''Plaxhaplous
''Plaxhaplous'' was a genus of glyptodont, an extinct relative of the modern armadillo. It lived in the Pleistocene epoch. The type species is ''Plaxhaplous canaliculatus''. ''Plaxhaplous canaliculatus'' fossils were found in Argentina, near Luj ...
''
*** '' Sclerocalyptus''
** Several Dasypodidae spp.
*** Beautiful armadillo ('' Dasypus bellus'')
*** '' Eutatus''
*** '' Pachyarmatherium''
*** '' Propaopus''
** All Pampatheriidae spp.
*** '' Holmesina'' (et ''Chlamytherium occidentale'')
*** ''Pampatherium
''Pampatherium'' is an extinct genus of xenarthran that lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene. Some species went extinct right at the Pleistocene-Holocene border.
Distribution
''Pampatherium humboldtii'' and ''P. typum'' lived in South Ame ...
''
*** ''Tonnicinctus
''Tonnicinctus'' is an extinct species of pampatheriid that lived in Argentina during the Pleistocene and Holocene.
Description
''Tonnicinctus'' inhabited cool grassland regions. It was a medium-sized pampatheriid, smaller than its better-know ...
''
* Birds
** Various Caracarinae spp.
*** Venezuelan caracara (''Caracara major Caracara or Carcara may refer to:
Biology
* ''Caracara'' (genus), a genus of birds with two extant species
* Caracara (subfamily), a subfamily of birds with five genera
* Cara cara navel a kind of orange
Art and entertainment
* "Caracara" (s ...
'')
*** Seymour's caracara (''Caracara seymouri Caracara or Carcara may refer to:
Biology
* ''Caracara'' (genus), a genus of birds with two extant species
* Caracara (subfamily), a subfamily of birds with five genera
* Cara cara navel a kind of orange
Art and entertainment
* "Caracara" (s ...
'')
*** Peruvian caracara (''Milvago brodkorbi
''Milvago'' is a genus of bird of prey in the family Falconidae.
Species
''Milvago'' contains two extant species:
They are native to South America and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, with ''M. chimachima'' just reaching to the Isthm ...
'')
** Various '' Cathartidae spp.''
*** '' Pampagyps imperator''
*** '' Geronogyps reliquus''
*** '' Wingegyps cartellei''
*** '' Pleistovultur nevesi''
** Various Tadorninae spp.
*** '' Neochen debilis''
*** '' Neochen pugil''
** '' Psilopterus'' (small terror bird remains dated to the Late Pleistocene, but these are disputed)
* Reptiles
* Crocs & Gators
** ''Caiman venezuelensis
''Caiman venezuelensis'' is an extinct species of caiman that lived in South America during the Pleistocene. The holotype of ''C. venezuelensis'' — OR-1677, a partial left premaxilla bone — was discovered in the locality of El Breal of Orocu ...
''
* Testudines
** ''Chelonoidis lutzae
''Chelonoidis'' is a genus of turtles in the tortoise family erected by Leopold Fitzinger in 1835.
They are found in South America and the Galápagos Islands, and formerly had a wide distribution in the West Indies.
The multiple subspecies of t ...
'' (Argentina)
** '' Peltocephalus maturin''
Sahul (Australia-New Guinea) and the Pacific
A scarcity of reliably dated megafaunal bone deposits has made it difficult to construct timelines for megafaunal extinctions in certain areas, leading to a divide among researches about when and how megafaunal species went extinct.
There are at least three hypotheses regarding the extinction of the Australian megafauna:
#that they went extinct with the arrival of the Aboriginal Australians on the continent,
#that they went extinct due to natural climate change.
This theory is based on evidence of megafauna surviving until 40,000 years ago, a full 30,000 years after ''homo sapiens'' first landed in Australia, and thus that the two groups coexisted for a long time. Evidence of these animals existing at that time come from fossil records and ocean sediment. To begin with, sediment core drilled in the Indian Ocean off the SW coast of Australia indicate the existence of a fungus called Sporormiella, which survived off the dung of plant-eating mammals. The abundance of these spores in the sediment prior to 45,000 years ago indicates that many large mammals existed in the southwest Australian landscape until that point. The sediment data also indicates that the megafauna population collapsed within a few thousand years, around the 45,000 years ago, suggesting a rapid extinction event. In addition, fossils found at South Walker Creek, which is the youngest megafauna site in northern Australia, indicate that at least 16 species of megafauna survived there until 40,000 years ago. Furthermore, there is no firm evidence of ''homo sapiens'' living at South Walker Creek 40,000 years ago, therefore no human cause can be attributed to the extinction of these megafauna. However, there is evidence of major environmental deterioration of South Water Creek 40,000 years ago, which may have caused the extinct event. These changes include increased fire, reduction in grasslands, and the loss of fresh water. The same environmental deterioration is seen across Australia at the time, further strengthening the climate change argument. Australia's climate at the time could best be described as an overall drying of the landscape due to lower precipitation, resulting in less fresh water availability and more drought conditions. Overall, this led to changes in vegetation, increased fires, overall reduction in grasslands, and a greater competition for already scarce fresh water. These environmental changes proved to be too much for the Australian megafauna to cope with, causing the extinction of 90% of megafauna species.
#The third hypothesis shared by some scientists is that human impacts and natural climate changes led to the extinction of Australian megafauna. About 75% of Australia is semi-arid or arid, so it makes sense that megafauna species used the same fresh water resources as humans. This competition could have led to more hunting of megafauna. Furthermore, ''Homo sapiens'' used fire agriculture to burn impassable land. This further diminished the already disappearing grassland which contained plants that were a key dietary component of herbivorous megafauna. While there is no scientific consensus on this, it is plausible that ''homo sapiens'' and natural climate change had a combined impact. Overall, there is a great deal of evidence for humans being the culprit, but by ruling out climate change completely as a cause of the Australian megafauna extinction we are not getting the whole picture. The climate change in Australia 45,000 years ago destabilized the ecosystem, making it particularly vulnerable to hunting and fire agriculture by humans; this is probably what led to the extinction of the Australian megafauna.
Several studies provide evidence that climate change caused megafaunal extinction during the Pleistocene in Australia. One group of researchers analyzed fossilized teeth found at Cuddie Springs in southeastern Australia. By analyzing oxygen isotopes
There are three known stable isotopes of oxygen (8O): Oxygen-16, , Oxygen-17, , and Oxygen-18, .
Radioactive isotope, Radioactive isotopes ranging from to have also been characterized, all short-lived. The longest-lived radioisotope is with a ...
, they measured aridity, and by analyzing carbon isotopes and dental microwear texture analysis, they assessed megafaunal diets and vegetation. During the middle Pleistocene, southeastern Australia was dominated by browsers, including fauna that consumed C4 plants. By the late Pleistocene, the C4 plant dietary component had decreased considerably. This shift may have been caused by increasingly arid conditions, which may have caused dietary restrictions. Other isotopic analyses of eggshells and wombat teeth also point to a decline of C4 vegetation after 45 Ka. This decline in C4 vegetation is coincident with increasing aridity. Increasingly arid conditions in southeastern Australia during the late Pleistocene may have stressed megafauna, and contributed to their decline.
In Sahul (a former continent composed of Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and New Guinea), the sudden and extensive spate of extinctions occurred earlier than in the rest of the world. Most evidence points to a 20,000 year period after human arrival circa 63,000 BCE, but scientific argument continues as to the exact date range. In the rest of the Pacific (other Australasian
Australasian is the adjectival form of Australasia, a geographical region including Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continen ...
islands such as New Caledonia, and Oceania) although in some respects far later, endemic fauna also usually perished quickly upon the arrival of humans in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.
* Marsupials
** Various members of '' Diprotodontidae''
*** '' Diprotodon'' (largest known marsupial)
*** '' Hulitherium tomasetti''
*** ''Maokopia
''Maokopia'' is an extinct genus of Zygomaturinae from the Late Pleistocene of Irian Jaya, New Guinea. It is known from a partial skull and was a comparatively small species of diprotodontid, weighing 100 kg. Murray (1992) suggested that it ...
ronaldi''
*** '' Zygomaturus''
** '' Palorchestes'' ("marsupial tapir")
** Various members of '' Vombatidae''
*** '' Lasiorhinus angustidens'' (giant wombat)
*** '' Phascolonus'' (giant wombat)
*** ''Ramasayia
''Ramsayia'' was a genus of giant wombat, weighing around 100 kg. ''Ramsayia'' went extinct in the Late Pleistocene.
References
Prehistoric vombatiforms
Prehistoric marsupial genera
{{paleo-marsupial-stub ...
magna'' (giant wombat)
*** '' Vombatus hacketti'' (Hackett's wombat)
*** ''Warendja
''Warendja'' is an extinct genus of marsupial, present from the Late Miocene to the Late Pleistocene
The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper ...
wakefieldi'' (dwarf wombat)
*** '' Sedophascolomys'' (giant wombat)
** ''Phascolarctos stirtoni
The giant koala (''Phascolarctos stirtoni'') is an extinct arboreal marsupial which existed in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch. ''Phascolarctos stirtoni'' was about one third larger than the contemporary koala, ''P. cinereus'', and has ha ...
'' (giant koala)
** Marsupial lion (''Thylacoleo carnifex)''
** ''Borungaboodie
''Borungaboodie'' is an extinct genus of potoroo that lived in Southwest Australia during the Pleistocene. The genus is represented by a single species known as ''Borungaboodie hatcheri'', or more informally, the giant potoroo.
Discovery and nam ...
'' (giant potoroo)
** Various members of '' Macropodidae'' (kangaroos, wallabies, etc.)
*** ''Procoptodon
''Procoptodon'' is an extinct genus of giant short-faced (sthenurine) kangaroos that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. ''P. goliah'', the largest known kangaroo species that ever existed, stood at about . They weighed about . Other ...
'' (short-faced kangaroos) e.g.
**** ''Procoptodon goliah
''Procoptodon'' is an extinct genus of giant short-faced ( sthenurine) kangaroos that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. ''P. goliah'', the largest known kangaroo species that ever existed, stood at about . They weighed about . Othe ...
''
*** ''Sthenurus
''Sthenurus'' ("strong tail") is an extinct genus of kangaroos. With a length around 3 m (10 ft), some species were twice as large as modern extant species. ''Sthenurus'' was related to the better-known ''Procoptodon''. The subfamily S ...
'' (giant kangaroo)
*** ''Simosthenurus
''Simosthenurus,'' also referred to as the short-faced kangaroo, is an extinct genus of megafaunal macropods that existed in Australia, specifically Tasmania, during the Pleistocene. Analysis of ''Simosthenurus'' fossils has contributed to the fi ...
'' (giant kangaroo)
*** Various '' Macropus'' (giant kangaroo) spp. e.g.
**** ''Macropus ferragus
''Macropus ferragus'' is an extinct species of kangaroo that lived in Australia during the Late Pleistocene.
Description
''Macropus ferragus'' was a large species of kangaroo. It has been estimated to stand up to and weigh around .
Fossils have ...
''
**** ''Macropus titan
''Macropus titan'' is an extinct species of kangaroo (a marsupial) that lived during the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11, ...
''
**** ''Macropus pearsoni
''Macropus pearsoni'' is an extinct Australian vertebrate species belonging to the family Macropodidae, and is in the same genus (''Macropus'') as extant kangaroos. ''M. pearsoni'' lived during the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often ref ...
''
*** '' Protemnodon'' spp. (giant wallaby)
*** Troposodon ( wallaby)
*** ''Bohra Bohra or Bora may refer to:
Groups of people
*A Musta'li trading community:
**Alavi Bohra, a branch of the Mustaali community
**Dawoodi Bohra, a branch of the Mustaali community
** Suleimani Bohra, a Mustaali Ismaili community that predominantly re ...
'' (giant tree kangaroo
Tree-kangaroos are marsupials of the genus ''Dendrolagus'', adapted for arboreal locomotion. They inhabit the tropical rainforests of New Guinea and far northeastern Queensland, along with some of the islands in the region. All tree-kangaroos ...
)
*** '' Propleopus oscillans'' (omnivorous, giant musky rat-kangaroo)
*** '' Nombe''
*** '' Congruus''
** Various forms of '' Sarcophilus'' (Tasmanian devil
The Tasmanian devil (''Sarcophilus harrisii'') (palawa kani: purinina) is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. Until recently, it was only found on the island state of Tasmania, but it has been reintroduced to New South Wales in ...
)
*** '' Sarcophilus laniarius'' (25% larger than modern species, unclear if it is actually a distinct species from living Tasmanian devil)
*** '' Sarcophilus moornaensis''
* Monotreme
Monotremes () are prototherian mammals of the order Monotremata. They are one of the three groups of living mammals, along with placentals (Eutheria), and marsupials (Metatheria). Monotremes are typified by structural differences in their brain ...
s: egg-laying mammals.
** Echidna
*** '' Murrayglossus hacketti'' (giant echidna)
*** ''Megalibgwilia ramsayi
''Megalibgwilia'' is a genus of echidna known only from Australian fossils that incorporates the oldest-known echidna species. The genus ranged from the Miocene until the late Pleistocene, becoming extinct about 50,000 years ago. ''Megalibgwilia ...
''
* Birds
** Pygmy Cassowary (''Casuarius lydekkeri
''Casuarius lydekkeri'', also called the pygmy cassowary, is an extinct species of cassowary.
Distribution and habitat
''Casuarius lydekkeri'' was distributed in New South Wales during the Pleistocene, its bones being found in caves near Wellin ...
'')
** '' Genyornis'' (a dromornithid
** Giant malleefowl (''Progura gallinacea'')
** '' Cryptogyps lacertosus''
** '' Dynatoaetus gaffae''
** Several Phoenicopteridae spp.
*** '' Xenorhynchopsis'' spp. (Australian flamingo)
*** ''Xenorhynchopsis minor''
*** ''Xenorhynchopsis tibialis''
* Reptiles
** Crocs & Gators
*** ''Ikanogavialis
''Ikanogavialis'' is an extinct genus of gavialid crocodilian. Fossils have been found in the Urumaco Formation in Urumaco, Venezuela and the Solimões Formation of Brazil. The strata from which remains are found are late Miocene in age, rather t ...
'' (the last fully marine crocodilian)
*** '' Paludirex'' (Australian freshwater mekosuchine crocodiian)
*** '' Quinkana'' (Australian terrestrial mekosuchine crocodilian, apex predator)
*** '' Volia'' (a two-to-three meter long mekosuchine crocodylian, apex predator of Pleistocene Fiji)
***'' Mekosuchus''
****'' Mekosuchus inexpectatus'' (New Caledonian land crocodile)
****''Mekosuchus kalpokasi'' (Vanuatu land crocodile)
** '' Varanus sp.'' (Pleistocene and Holocene New Caledonia)
** Megalania (''Varanus pricus'') (a giant predatory monitor lizard comparable or larger than the Komodo dragon)
** Snakes
*** ''Wonambi
''Wonambi'' is an extinct genus of madtsoiid snakes that lived in late Neogene to late Quaternary Australia. Species of ''Wonambi'' were constrictor snakes unrelated to Australian pythons.
Description
''Wonambi'' was a fairly large snake, ...
'' (a five-to-six-metre-long Australian constrictor snake)
** Several spp. of Meiolaniidae (giant armoured turtles)
*** '' Meiolania''
*** ''Ninjemys
''Ninjemys oweni'' ("Owen's Ninja Turtle") is an extinct large meiolaniid stem-turtle from Pleistocene Queensland (Australia). It resembled its relative, ''Meiolania'', save that the largest pair of horns on its head stuck out to the sides, rath ...
''
Causes
History of research
The megafaunal extinctions were already recognized as a distinct phenomenon by some scientists in the 19th century: Discussion of the topic became more widespread during the 20th century, particularly following the proposal of the "overkill hypothesis" by Paul Schultz Martin during the 1960s. By the end of the 20th century, two "camps" of researchers had emerged on the topic, one supporting climate change, the other supporting human hunting as the primary cause of the extinctions.Hunting
The hunting hypothesis suggests that humans hunted megaherbivores to extinction, which in turn caused the extinction of carnivores and scavengers which had preyed upon those animals. This hypothesis holds Pleistocene humans responsible for the megafaunal extinction. One variant, known as ''blitzkrieg'', portrays this process as relatively quick. Some of the direct evidence for this includes: fossils of some megafauna found in conjunction with human remains, embedded arrows and tool cut marks found in megafaunal bones, and European cave paintings that depict such hunting.Biogeographical
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, i ...
evidence is also suggestive: the areas of the world where humans evolved currently have more of their Pleistocene megafaunal diversity (the elephants and rhinos
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...
of Asia and Africa) compared to other areas such as Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, the Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
, Madagascar and New Zealand without the earliest humans. The overkill hypothesis, a variant of the hunting hypothesis, was proposed in 1966 by Paul S. Martin, Professor of Geosciences Emeritus at the Desert Laboratory
The Desert Laboratory is a historic biological research facility atop Tumamoc Hill (O'odham: ''Cemamagĭ Doʼag'') at 1675 West Anklam Road in Tucson, Arizona. It was founded by the Carnegie Institution in 1903 to study how plants survive and thr ...
of the University of Arizona.
Circumstantially, the close correlation in time between the appearance of humans in an area and extinction there provides weight for this scenario. Radiocarbon dating has supported the plausibility of this correlation being reflective of causation. The megafaunal extinctions covered a vast period of time and highly variable climatic situations. The earliest extinctions in Australia were complete approximately 50,000 BP, well before the Last Glacial Maximum and before rises in temperature. The most recent extinction in New Zealand was complete no earlier than 500 BP and during a period of cooling. In between these extremes megafaunal extinctions have occurred progressively in such places as North America, South America and Madagascar with no climatic commonality. The only common factor that can be ascertained is the arrival of humans. This phenomenon appears even within regions. The mammal extinction wave in Australia about 50,000 years ago coincides not with known climatic changes, but with the arrival of humans. In addition, large mammal species like the giant kangaroo '' Protemnodon'' appear to have succumbed sooner on the Australian mainland than on Tasmania, which was colonised by humans a few thousand years later. A study published in 2015 supported the hypothesis further by running several thousand scenarios that correlated the time windows in which each species is known to have become extinct with the arrival of humans on different continents or islands. This was compared against climate reconstructions for the last 90,000 years. The researchers found correlations of human spread and species extinction indicating that the human impact
Human Impact are an American noise rock supergroup made up of members from Unsane, Swans, and Cop Shoot Cop. Chris Spencer announced the band while also confirming that he will no longer be playing with Unsane. The band released their self title ...
was the main cause of the extinction, while climate change exacerbated the frequency of extinctions. The study, however, found an apparently low extinction rate in the fossil record of mainland Asia. A 2020 study published in '' Science Advances'' found that human population size and/or specific human activities, not climate change, caused rapidly rising global mammal extinction rates during the past 126,000 years. Around 96% of all mammalian extinctions over this time period are attributable to human impacts. According to Tobias Andermann, lead author of the study, "these extinctions did not happen continuously and at constant pace. Instead, bursts of extinctions are detected across different continents at times when humans first reached them. More recently, the magnitude of human driven extinctions has picked up the pace again, this time on a global scale." Text and images are available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. On a related note, the population declines of still extant megafauna during the Pleistocene have also been shown to correlate with human expansion rather than climate change.
The extinction's extreme bias towards larger animals further supports a relationship with human activity rather than climate change. There is evidence that the average size of mammalian fauna declined over the course of the Quaternary, a phenomenon that was likely linked to disproportionate hunting of large animals by humans.
Extinction through human hunting has been supported by archaeological finds of mammoths with projectile points embedded in their skeletons, by observations of modern naive animals allowing hunters to approach easily and by computer models by Mosimann and Martin, and Whittington and Dyke, and most recently by Alroy.
Major objections have been raised regarding the hunting hypothesis. Notable among them is the sparsity of evidence of human hunting of megafauna. There is no archeological evidence that in North America megafauna other than mammoths, mastodons, gomphothere
Gomphotheres are any members of the diverse, extinct taxonomic family Gomphotheriidae. Gomphotheres were elephant-like proboscideans, but do not belong to the family Elephantidae. They were widespread across Afro-Eurasia and North America during ...
s and bison were hunted, despite the fact that, for example, camels and horses are very frequently reported in fossil history. Overkill proponents, however, say this is due to the fast extinction process in North America and the low probability of animals with signs of butchery to be preserved. The majority of North American taxa have too sparse a fossil record to accurately assess the frequency of human hunting of them. A study by Surovell and Grund concluded "archaeological sites dating to the time of the coexistence of humans and extinct fauna are rare. Those that preserve bone are considerably more rare, and of those, only a very few show unambiguous evidence of human hunting of any type of prey whatsoever." Eugene S. Hunn Eugene S. Hunn (born 1943) is a professor emeritus in anthropology at the University of Washington. His research interests include ethnobiology, ethnoecology, and cognitive anthropology.
Hunn obtained his bachelor's degree in sociology from Stanfo ...
points out that the birthrate in hunter-gatherer societies is generally too low, that too much effort is involved in the bringing down of a large animal by a hunting party, and that in order for hunter-gatherers to have brought about the extinction of megafauna simply by hunting them to death, an extraordinary amount of meat would have had to have been wasted.
Second-order predation
The Second-Order Predation Hypothesis says that as humans entered the New World they continued their policy of killing predators, which had been successful in the Old World but because they were more efficient and because the fauna, both herbivores and carnivores, were more naive, they killed off enough carnivores to upset the ecological balance of the continent, causing overpopulation, environmental exhaustion, and environmental collapse. The hypothesis accounts for changes in animal, plant, and human populations.
The scenario is as follows:
* After the arrival of ''H. sapiens'' in the New World, existing predators must share the prey populations with this new predator. Because of this competition, populations of original, or first-order, predators cannot find enough food; they are in direct competition with humans.
* Second-order predation begins as humans begin to kill predators.
* Prey populations are no longer well controlled by predation. Killing of nonhuman predators by ''H. sapiens'' reduces their numbers to a point where these predators no longer regulate the size of the prey populations.
* Lack of regulation by first-order predators triggers boom-and-bust cycles in prey populations. Prey populations expand and consequently overgraze and over-browse the land. Soon the environment is no longer able to support them. As a result, many herbivores starve. Species that rely on the slowest recruiting food become extinct, followed by species that cannot extract the maximum benefit from every bit of their food.
* Boom-bust cycles in herbivore populations change the nature of the vegetative environment, with consequent climatic impacts on relative humidity and continentality. Through overgrazing and overbrowsing, mixed parkland becomes grassland, and climatic continentality increases.
The second-order predation hypothesis has been supported by a computer model, the Pleistocene extinction model (PEM), which, using the same assumptions and values for all variables (herbivore population, herbivore recruitment rates, food needed per human, herbivore hunting rates, etc.) other than those for hunting of predators. It compares the overkill hypothesis (predator hunting = 0) with second-order predation (predator hunting varied between 0.01 and 0.05 for different runs). The findings are that second-order predation is more consistent with extinction than is overkill (results graph at left). The Pleistocene extinction model is the only test of multiple hypotheses and is the only model to specifically test combination hypotheses by artificially introducing sufficient climate change to cause extinction. When overkill and climate change are combined they balance each other out. Climate change reduces the number of plants, overkill removes animals, therefore fewer plants are eaten. Second-order predation combined with climate change exacerbates the effect of climate change. (results graph at right). The second-order predation hypothesis is further supported by the observation above that there was a massive increase in bison populations.
However, this hypothesis has been criticised on the grounds that the multispecies model produces a mass extinction through indirect competition between herbivore species: small species with high reproductive rates subsidize predation on large species with low reproductive rates. All prey species are lumped in the Pleistocene extinction model. Also, the control of population sizes by predators is not fully supported by observations of modern ecosystems. The hypothesis further assumes decreases in vegetation due to climate change, but deglaciation doubled the habitable area of North America. Any vegetational changes that did occur failed to cause almost any extinctions of small vertebrates, and they are more narrowly distributed on average, which detractors cite as evidence against the hypothesis.
Competition for water
In southeastern Australia, the scarcity of water during the interval in which humans arrived in Australia suggests that human competition with megafauna for precious water sources may have played a role in the extinction of the latter.Landscape alteration
One consequence of the colonisation by humans of lands previously uninhabited by them may have been the introduction of new fire regimes because of extensive fire use by humans. There is evidence that anthropogenic fire use had major impacts on the local environments in both Australia and North America.Climate change
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, when scientists first realized that there had been glacial andinterglacial
An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene in ...
ages, and that they were somehow associated with the prevalence or disappearance of certain animals, they surmised that the termination of the Pleistocene ice age might be an explanation for the extinctions.
The most obvious change associated with the termination of an ice age is the increase in temperature. Between 15,000 BP and 10,000 BP, a 6 °C increase in global mean annual temperatures occurred. This was generally thought to be the cause of the extinctions. According to this hypothesis, a temperature increase sufficient to melt the Wisconsin ice sheet could have placed enough thermal stress on cold-adapted mammals to cause them to die. Their heavy fur, which helps conserve body heat in the glacial cold, might have prevented the dumping of excess heat, causing the mammals to die of heat exhaustion. Large mammals, with their reduced surface area-to-volume ratio, would have fared worse than small mammals. A study covering the past 56,000 years indicates that rapid warming events with temperature changes of up to had an important impact on the extinction of megafauna. Ancient DNA and radiocarbon data indicates that local genetic populations were replaced by others within the same species or by others within the same genus. Survival of populations was dependent on the existence of refugia and long distance dispersals, which may have been disrupted by human hunters.
Other scientists have proposed that increasingly extreme weather—hotter summers and colder winters—referred to as " continentality", or related changes in rainfall caused the extinctions. It has been shown that vegetation changed from mixed woodland- parkland to separate prairie and woodland. This may have affected the kinds of food available. Shorter growing seasons may have caused the extinction of large herbivores and the dwarfing of many others. In this case, as observed, bison and other large ruminants would have fared better than horses, elephants and other monogastrics, because ruminants are able to extract more nutrition from limited quantities of high- fiber food and better able to deal with anti-herbivory toxins. So, in general, when vegetation becomes more specialized, herbivores with less diet flexibility may be less able to find the mix of vegetation they need to sustain life and reproduce, within a given area. Increased continentality resulted in reduced and less predictable rainfall limiting the availability of plants necessary for energy and nutrition. It has been suggested that this change in rainfall restricted the amount of time favorable for reproduction. This could disproportionately harm large animals, since they have longer, more inflexible mating periods, and so may have produced young at unfavorable seasons (i.e., when sufficient food, water, or shelter was unavailable because of shifts in the growing season). In contrast, small mammals, with their shorter life cycles, shorter reproductive cycles, and shorter gestation
Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during pregna ...
periods, could have adjusted to the increased unpredictability of the climate, both as individuals and as species which allowed them to synchronize their reproductive efforts with conditions favorable for offspring survival. If so, smaller mammals would have lost fewer offspring and would have been better able to repeat the reproductive effort when circumstances once more favored offspring survival. A study looking at the environmental conditions across Europe, Siberia and the Americas from 25,000 to 10,000 YBP found that prolonged warming events leading to deglaciation and maximum rainfall occurred just prior to the transformation of the rangelands that supported megaherbivores into widespread wetlands that supported herbivore-resistant plants. The study proposes that moisture-driven environmental change led to the megafaunal extinctions and that Africa's trans-equatorial position allowed rangeland to continue to exist between the deserts and the central forests, therefore fewer megafauna species became extinct there.
Evidence in Southeast Asia, in contrast to Europe, Australia, and the Americas, suggests that climate change and an increasing sea level were significant factors in the extinction of several herbivorous species. Alterations in vegetation growth and new access routes for early humans and mammals to previously isolated, localized ecosystems were detrimental to select groups of fauna.
Some evidence from Europe also suggests climatic changes were responsible for extinctions there, as the individuals extinctions tended to occur during times of environmental change and did not correlate particularly well with human migrations.
In Australia, some studies have suggested that extinctions of megafauna began before the peopling of the continent, favouring climate change as the driver.
In Beringia, megafauna may have gone extinct because of particularly intense paludification and because the land connection between Eurasia and North America flooded before the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreated far enough to reopen the corridor between Beringia and the remainder of North America. Woolly mammoths became extirpated from Beringia because of climatic factors, although human activity also played a synergistic role in their decline. In North America, a Radiocarbon-dated Event-Count (REC) modelling study found that megafaunal declines in North America correlated with climatic changes instead of human population expansion.
In the North American Great Lakes region, the population declines of mastodons and mammoths have been found to correlate with climatic fluctuations during the Younger Dryas rather than human activity.
In the Argentine Pampas, the flooding of vast swathes of the once much larger Pampas grasslands may have played a role in the extinctions of its megafaunal assemblages.
Critics object that since there were multiple glacial advances and withdrawals in the evolutionary history of many of the megafauna, it is rather implausible that only after the last glacial maximum would there be such extinctions. Proponents of climate change as the extinction event's cause like 
David J. Meltzer
David Jeffrey Meltzer (born 1955) is an American archaeologist known for his influential studies of Paleoindians and Pleistocene mammalian extinction. According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, his research on Paleoindians' "varied ...
suggest that the last deglaciation may have been markedly different from previous ones. Also, one study suggests that the Pleistocene megafaunal composition may have differed markedly from that of earlier interglacials, making the Pleistocene populations particularly vulnerable to changes in their environment.
Studies propose that the annual mean temperature of the current interglacial that we have seen for the last 10,000 years is no higher than that of previous interglacials, yet most of the same large mammals survived similar temperature increases. In addition, numerous species such as mammoths on Wrangel Island and St. Paul Island survived in human-free refugia despite changes in climate. This would not be expected if climate change were responsible (unless their maritime climates offered some protection against climate change not afforded to coastal populations on the mainland). Under normal ecological assumptions island populations should be more vulnerable to extinction due to climate change because of small populations and an inability to migrate to more favorable climes.
Critics have also identified a number of problems with the continentality hypotheses. Megaherbivores have prospered at other times of continental climate. For example, megaherbivores thrived in Pleistocene Siberia, which had and has a more continental climate than Pleistocene or modern (post-Pleistocene, interglacial) North America. The animals that became extinct actually should have prospered during the shift from mixed woodland-parkland to prairie, because their primary food source, grass, was increasing rather than decreasing. Although the vegetation did become more spatially specialized, the amount of prairie and grass available increased, which would have been good for horses and for mammoths, and yet they became extinct. This criticism ignores the increased abundance and broad geographic extent of Pleistocene bison at the end of the Pleistocene, which would have increased competition for these resources in a manner not seen in any earlier interglacials. Although horses became extinct in the New World, they were successfully reintroduced by the Spanish in the 16th century—into a modern post-Pleistocene, interglacial climate. Today there are feral horses still living in those same environments. They find a sufficient mix of food to avoid toxins, they extract enough nutrition from forage to reproduce effectively and the timing of their gestation is not an issue. Of course, this criticism ignores the obvious fact that present-day horses are not competing for resources with ground sloths, mammoths, mastodons, camels, llamas, and bison. Similarly, mammoths survived the Pleistocene Holocene transition on isolated, uninhabited islands in the Mediterranean Sea until 4,000 to 7,000 years ago, as well as on Wrangel Island in the Siberian Arctic. Additionally, large mammals should have been able to migrate, permanently or seasonally, if they found the temperature too extreme, the breeding season too short, or the rainfall too sparse or unpredictable. Seasons vary geographically. By migrating away from the equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
, herbivores could have found areas with growing seasons more favorable for finding food and breeding successfully. Modern-day African elephants migrate during periods of drought to places where there is apt to be water. Large animals also store more fat in their bodies than do medium-sized animals and this should have allowed them to compensate for extreme seasonal fluctuations in food availability.
Some evidence weighs against climate change as a valid hypothesis as applied to Australia. It has been shown that the prevailing climate at the time of extinction (40,000–50,000 BP) was similar to that of today, and that the extinct animals were strongly adapted to an arid climate. The evidence indicates that all of the extinctions took place in the same short time period, which was the time when humans entered the landscape. The main mechanism for extinction was probably fire (started by humans) in a then much less fire-adapted landscape. Isotopic evidence shows sudden changes in the diet of surviving species, which could correspond to the stress they experienced before extinction.
Some evidence obtained from analysis of the tusks of mastodons from the American Great Lakes region appears inconsistent with the climate change hypothesis. Over a span of several thousand years prior to their extinction in the area, the mastodons show a trend of declining age at maturation. This is the opposite of what one would expect if they were experiencing stresses from deteriorating environmental conditions, but is consistent with a reduction in intraspecific competition that would result from a population being reduced by human hunting.
It may be observed that neither the overkill nor the climate change hypotheses can fully explain events: browsers, mixed feeders and non-ruminant grazer species suffered most, while relatively more ruminant grazers survived. However, a broader variation of the overkill hypothesis may predict this, because changes in vegetation wrought by either Second Order Predation (see below) or anthropogenic
Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to:
* Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity
Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows:
* Human im ...
fire preferentially selects against browse species.
Disease
The hyperdisease hypothesis, as advanced by Ross D. E. MacFee and Preston A. Marx, attributes the extinction of large mammals during the late Pleistocene to indirect effects of the newly arrived aboriginal humans. In more recent times, disease has driven many vulnerable species to extinction; the introduction of avian malaria and avipoxvirus, for example, has greatly decreased the populations of the endemic birds of Hawaii, with some going extinct. The hyperdisease hypothesis proposes that humans or animals traveling with them (e.g., chickens or domestic dogs) introduced one or more highly virulent diseases into vulnerable populations of native mammals, eventually causing extinctions. The extinction was biased toward larger-sized species because smaller species have greater resilience because of their life history traits (e.g., shorter gestation time, greater population sizes, etc.). Humans are thought to be the cause because other earlier immigrations of mammals into North America from Eurasia did not cause extinctions. A similar suggestion is that pathogens were transmitted by the expanding humans via the domesticated dogs they brought with them. A related theory proposes that a highly contagiousprion
Prions are misfolded proteins that have the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. They characterize several fatal and transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and many other animals. It ...
disease similar to chronic wasting disease or scrapie that was capable of infecting a large number of species was the culprit. Animals weakened by this "superprion" would also have easily become reservoirs of viral and bacterial diseases as they succumbed to neurological degeneration from the prion, causing a cascade of different diseases to spread among various mammal species. This theory could potentially explain the prevalence of heterozygosity at codon 129 of the prion protein gene in humans, which has been speculated to be the result of natural selection against homozygous genotypes that were more susceptible to prion disease and thus potentially a tell-tale of a major prion pandemic that affected humans of or younger than reproductive age far in the past and disproportionately killed before they could reproduce those with homozygous genotypes at codon 129.
If a disease was indeed responsible for the end-Pleistocene extinctions, then there are several criteria it must satisfy (see Table 7.3 in MacPhee & Marx 1997). First, the pathogen must have a stable carrier
Carrier may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Carrier'' (album), a 2013 album by The Dodos
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* ''Carrier'' (TV series), a ten-part documentary miniseries that aired on PBS in April 20 ...
state in a reservoir species. That is, it must be able to sustain itself in the environment when there are no susceptible hosts available to infect. Second, the pathogen must have a high infection rate, such that it is able to infect virtually all individuals of all ages and sexes encountered. Third, it must be extremely lethal, with a mortality rate of c. 50–75%. Finally, it must have the ability to infect multiple host species without posing a serious threat to humans. Humans may be infected, but the disease must not be highly lethal or able to cause an epidemic.
As with other hypotheses, a number of counterarguments to the hyperdisease hypothesis have been put forth. Generally speaking, disease has to be very virulent to kill off all the individuals in a genus or species. Even such a virulent disease as West Nile fever is unlikely to have caused extinction. The disease would need to be implausibly selective while being simultaneously implausibly broad. Such a disease needs to be capable of killing off wolves such as ''Canis dirus'' or goats such as ''Oreamnos harringtoni'' while leaving other very similar species (''Canis lupus'' and ''Oreamnos americanus'', respectively) unaffected. It would need to be capable of killing off flightless birds while leaving closely related flighted species unaffected. Yet while remaining sufficiently selective to afflict only individual species within genera it must be capable of fatally infecting across such clades as birds, marsupials, placentals, testudines, and crocodilian
Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period ( Cenomanian stage) and are the closest living ...
s. No disease with such a broad scope of fatal infectivity is known, much less one that remains simultaneously incapable of infecting numerous closely related species within those disparate clades. On the other hand, this objection does not account for the possibility of a variety of different diseases being introduced around the same era. Numerous species including wolves, mammoths, camelids, and horses had emigrated continually between Asia and North America over the past 100,000 years. For the disease hypothesis to be applicable there it would require that the population remain immunologically naive despite this constant transmission of genetic and pathogenic material. The dog-specific hypothesis in particular cannot account for several major extinction events, notably the Americas (for reasons already covered) and Australia. Dogs did not arrive in Australia until approximately 35,000 years after the first humans arrived there, and approximately 30,000 years after the Australian megafaunal extinction was complete.
Extraterrestrial impact
An extraterrestrial impact, which has occasionally been proposed as a cause of the Younger Dryas, has been suggested by some authors as a potential cause of the extinction of North America's megafauna due to the temporal proximity between a proposed date for such an impact and the following megafaunal extinctions. However, the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis lacks widespread support among scholars due to various inconsistencies in the hypothesis, and has been comprehensively refuted.Geomagnetic field weakening
Around 41,500 years ago, the Earth's magnetic field weakened in an event known as theLaschamp event
The Laschamp or Laschamps event was a geomagnetic excursion (a short reversal of the Earth's magnetic field). It occurred between 42,200 and 41,500 years ago, during the end of the Last Glacial Period. It was discovered from geomagnetic anomalie ...
. This weakening may have caused increased flux of UV-B radiation and has been suggested by a few authors as a cause of megafaunal extinctions in the Late Quaternary. The full effects of such events on the biosphere are poorly understood, however these explanations have been criticized as they do not account for the population bottleneck
A population bottleneck or genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events such as famines, earthquakes, floods, fires, disease, and droughts; or human activities such as specicide, widespread violen ...
s seen in many megafaunal species and nor is there evidence for extreme radio-isotopic changes during the event. Considering these factors, causation is unlikely.
Effects
The extinction of the megafauna has been argued by some authors to be disappearance of the mammoth steppe rather than the other way around. Alaska now has low nutrient soil unable to support bison, mammoths, and horses. R. Dale Guthrie has claimed this as a cause of the extinction of the megafauna there; however, he may be interpreting it backwards. The loss of large herbivores to break up the permafrost allows the cold soils that are unable to support large herbivores today. Today, in the arctic, where trucks have broken the permafrost grasses and diverse flora and fauna can be supported. In addition, Chapin (Chapin 1980) showed that simply adding fertilizer to the soil in Alaska could make grasses grow again like they did in the era of the mammoth steppe. Possibly, the extinction of the megafauna and the corresponding loss of dung is what led to low nutrient levels in modern-day soil and therefore is why the landscape can no longer support megafauna. However, more recent authors have viewed it as more likely that the collapse of the mammoth steppe was driven by climatic warming, which in turn impacted the megafauna, rather than the other way around. Megafauna play a significant role in the lateral transport of mineral nutrients in an ecosystem, tending to translocate them from areas of high to those of lower abundance. They do so by their movement between the time they consume the nutrient and the time they release it through elimination (or, to a much lesser extent, through decomposition after death). In South America'sAmazon Basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
, it is estimated that such lateral diffusion was reduced over 98% following the megafaunal extinctions that occurred roughly 12,500 years ago. Given that phosphorus availability is thought to limit productivity in much of the region, the decrease in its transport from the western part of the basin and from floodplains (both of which derive their supply from the uplift of the Andes) to other areas is thought to have significantly impacted the region's ecology, and the effects may not yet have reached their limits. The extinction of the mammoths allowed grasslands
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natural ...
they had maintained through grazing habits to become birch forests. The new forest and the resulting forest fires may have induced climate change. Such disappearances might be the result of the proliferation of modern humans.
Large populations of megaherbivores have the potential to contribute greatly to the atmospheric concentration of methane, which is an important greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs and Emission (electromagnetic radiation), emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse ...
. Modern ruminant herbivores produce methane as a byproduct of foregut fermentation in digestion, and release it through belching or flatulence. Today, around 20% of annual methane emissions come from livestock methane release. In the Mesozoic, it has been estimated that sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...
s could have emitted 520 million tons of methane to the atmosphere annually, contributing to the warmer climate of the time (up to 10 °C warmer than at present). This large emission follows from the enormous estimated biomass of sauropods, and because methane production of individual herbivores is believed to be almost proportional to their mass.
Recent studies have indicated that the extinction of megafaunal herbivores may have caused a reduction in atmospheric methane. One study examined the methane emissions from the bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
that occupied the Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
of North America before contact with European settlers. The study estimated that the removal of the bison caused a decrease of as much as 2.2 million tons per year. Another study examined the change in the methane concentration in the atmosphere at the end of the Pleistocene epoch after the extinction of megafauna in the Americas. After early humans migrated to the Americas about 13,000 BP, their hunting and other associated ecological impacts led to the extinction of many megafaunal species there. Calculations suggest that this extinction decreased methane production by about 9.6 million tons per year. This suggests that the absence of megafaunal methane emissions may have contributed to the abrupt climatic cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas. The decrease in atmospheric methane that occurred at that time, as recorded in ice core
An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier. Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper ones, and an ice core contains ic ...
s, was 2–4 times more rapid than any other decrease in the last half million years, suggesting that an unusual mechanism was at work.
The extermination of megafauna left many niches vacant, which has been cited as an explanation for the vulnerability and fragility of many ecosystems to destruction in the later Holocene extinction. The comparative lack of megafauna in modern ecosystems has reduced high-order interactions among surviving species, reducing ecological complexity. This depauperate, post-megafaunal ecological state has been associated with diminished ecological resilience to stressors. Many extant species of plants have adaptations that were advantageous in the presence of megafauna but are now useless in their absence. The demise of megafaunal ecosystem engineer
An ecosystem engineer is any species that creates, significantly modifies, maintains or destroys a habitat. These organisms can have a large impact on species richness and landscape-level heterogeneity of an area. As a result, ecosystem enginee ...
s in the Arctic that maintained open grassland environments has been highly detrimental to shorebirds of the genus '' Numenius.''
Relationship to later extinctions
There is no general agreement on where the Quaternary extinction event ends, and the Holocene, oranthropogenic
Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to:
* Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity
Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows:
* Human im ...
, extinction begins, or if they should be considered separate events at all. Some authors have argued that the activities of earlier archaic humans have also resulted in extinctions, though the evidence for this is equivocal.
This hypothesis is supported by rapid megafaunal extinction following recent human colonisation in Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, New Zealand and Madagascar, in a similar way that any large, adaptable predator moving into a new ecosystem would. In many cases, it is suggested even minimal hunting pressure was enough to wipe out large fauna, particularly on geographically isolated islands. Only during the most recent parts of the extinction have plants also suffered large losses.
See also
* * * * List of Ice Age species preserved as permafrost mummies * * * *References
External links
Hyperdisease hypothesis
* *Second-order predation
*Other links
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quaternary Extinction Event Extinction events Pleistocene Events that forced the climate Younger Dryas impact hypothesis Megafauna