Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 3.1
Extinctions of mammalian megafauna
Continent
% Megafaunal
extinctions
Example taxa lost
Approximate dates
of extinctions
(kyr bp)
Approximate
dates of earliest
human arrival
Australia
88
Giant ripper lizard, saw-
toothed crocodile, giant
ratite birds, giant wombats,
giant wallabies, marsupial
'lions, giant and short-faced
kangaroos
50-32
60-50
Eurasia
35
Straight-tusked elephants,
hippopotamus, woolly
rhinoceros, cave bear,
Asian antelope, spotted
hyaena, mammoth,
musk ox, giant deer
48-23, then 14-10
60-50
North America
72
Ground sloths, giant beaver,
capybara, short-faced bears,
sabre-toothed cats,
American cheetah, lion,
mammoth, mastodon,
horse, tapir, peccary,
camel, Pleistocene llama,
stag-moose, helemeted
musk ox, saiga antelope
Beginning 15.6 kyr
bp but mainly
13.5-11.5 kyr bp
30-20
South America
83
Pleistocene armadillos,
Pleistocene glyptodonts,
two-toed sloths, giant
ground sloths
12-8 bp
20-10
Compiled from Koch and Barnosky (2006), Elias and Schreve (2007), and Prescott et al. (2012).
in previous interglacials, which had little impact on megafauna. Furthermore, in areas where
humans were not present, mammoths and other Pleistocene fauna survived much longer, for
example mammoths persisted on Wrangel Island, of the coast of northeastern Siberia until
about 3,000 years ago (Prescott et al. 2012). Similarly, in New Zealand and Madagascar, mega-
fauna survived climate change and only collapsed in the late Holocene, when humans arrived
(Koch and Barnosky 2006, Johnson 2009).
Recent studies have confirmed that climate alone cannot explain megafaunal extinctions,
though combinations of environmental, ecological, and anthropogenic effects are possible
(Ripple and Van Valkenburgh 2010, Prescott et al. 2012). The evidence for human-mediated
extinction is particularly strong for North America and Australia (Robinson et al. 2005, Koch
and Barnosky 2006, Sandom et al. 2014). In North America, one of the major phases of
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