The evidence for human agency in the late Pleistocene Megafaunal extinctions

Abstract

When, how, and why humans started to affect ecosystems worldwide has been a central question in natural science during recent decades. In this chapter, we focus on what we consider probably the first of these events: the generalized extinction of continental animals with a body mass of over 44 kg (megafauna) all over the world between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago. With a particular focus on the Americas, we summarize the evidence supporting human agency as the main driver of megafaunal collapse and compare this line of evidence with that supporting climate change as the principally responsible agent.