Did Humans Cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mammalian Extinctions in South America in a Context of Shrinking Open Areas?

Cione, Alberto Luis; Tonni, Eduardo Pedro; Soibelzon, Leopoldo Héctor

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_7

Cited by 91 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…In general, Pleistocene faunas in North America had richer predator assemblages, whereas South American faunas had richer large-herbivore assemblages [6,48,49]. Although dates for Pleistocene fossils from South America are still sparse compared to North America, existing information indicates that the LQE took longer in South America than it did in North America [45,50]. Our findings suggest that the high diversity of large herbivores and the relatively lower diversity of predators might have favoured stability in South American assemblages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pleistocene megafaunal interaction networks became more vulnerable after human arrival

et al. 2015

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The end of the Pleistocene was marked by the extinction of almost all large land mammals worldwide except in Africa. Although the debate on Pleistocene extinctions has focused on the roles of climate change and humans, the impact of perturbations depends on properties of ecological communities, such as species composition and the organization of ecological interactions. Here, we combined palaeoecological and ecological data, food-web models and community stability analysis to investigate if differences between Pleistocene and modern mammalian assemblages help us understand why the megafauna died out in the Americas while persisting in Africa. We show Pleistocene and modern assemblages share similar network topology, but differences in richness and body size distributions made Pleistocene communities significantly more vulnerable to the effects of human arrival. The structural changes promoted by humans in Pleistocene networks would have increased the likelihood of unstable dynamics, which may favour extinction cascades in communities facing extrinsic perturbations. Our findings suggest that the basic aspects of the organization of ecological communities may have played an important role in major extinction events in the past. Knowledge of community-level properties and their consequences to dynamics may be critical to understand past and future extinctions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pleistocene megafaunal interaction networks became more vulnerable after human arrival

et al. 2015

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“…The description of a new species of Eutatus increases the knowledge on the diversity achieved by the genus in the late Pleistocene. This also provides new clues about the organisms that inhabited the north of Pampean region, where faunistic association might have been somewhat different from those classic Lujanian faunas widely studied in the center and south of Pampean region (Tonni et al, 2003;Cione et al, 2009). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new species of Eutatus Gervais (Xenarthra, Dasypodidae) from the Late Pleistocene of the Northern Pampean Region, Argentina

Brambilla

Ibarra

2017

Palaeontologia Electronica

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“…1). Most of these species became extinct during the Pleistocene, with D. avus extinct by the late Holocene, and the FIW extinct in the nineteenth century following human hunting [4][5][6][7] . The origin of the FIW has been a natural history mystery for over 320 years 8 .…”

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confidence: 99%

The origins of the enigmatic Falkland Islands wolf

et al. 2013

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The origins of the extinct Falkland Islands wolf (FIW), Dusicyon australis, have remained a mystery since it was first recorded by Europeans in the seventeenth century. It is the only terrestrial mammal on the Falkland Islands (also known as the Malvinas Islands), which lie B460 km from Argentina, leading to suggestions of either human-mediated transport or overwater dispersal. Previous studies used ancient DNA from museum specimens to suggest that the FIW diverged from its closest living relative, the South American maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) around 7 Ma, and colonized the islands B330 ka by unknown means. Here we retrieve ancient DNA from subfossils of an extinct mainland relative, Dusicyon avus, and reveal the FIW lineage became isolated only 16 ka (8-31 ka), during the last glacial phase. Submarine terraces, formed on the Argentine coastal shelf by low sea-stands during this period, suggest that the FIW colonized via a narrow, shallow marine strait, potentially while it was frozen over.

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Did Humans Cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mammalian Extinctions in South America in a Context of Shrinking Open Areas?

Cited by 91 publications

References 84 publications

Pleistocene megafaunal interaction networks became more vulnerable after human arrival

Pleistocene megafaunal interaction networks became more vulnerable after human arrival

A new species of Eutatus Gervais (Xenarthra, Dasypodidae) from the Late Pleistocene of the Northern Pampean Region, Argentina

The origins of the enigmatic Falkland Islands wolf

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