Pleistocene Overkill and North American Mammalian Extinctions

Abstract

Clovis groups in Late Pleistocene North America occasionally hunted several now extinct large mammals. But whether their hunting drove 37 genera of animals to extinction has been disputed, largely for want of kill sites. Overkill proponents argue that there is more archaeological evidence than we ought to expect, that humans had the wherewithal to decimate what may have been millions of animals, and that the appearance of humans and the disappearance of the fauna is too striking to be a mere coincidence. Yet, there is less to these claims than meets the eye. Moreover, extinctions took place amid sweeping climatic and environmental changes as the Pleistocene came to an end. It has long been difficult to link those changes to mammalian extinctions, but the advent of ancient DNA, coupled with high-resolution paleoecological, radiocarbon, and archeological records, should help disentangle the relative role of changing climates and people in mammalian extinctions.

Revisiting Paleoindian exploitation of extinct North American mammals

“…One of us has recently addressed the problematic nature of this taphonomic rebuttal (Meltzer 2015), 772…”

“…And yet despite the relative scarcity of the surviving taxa in the fossil record from that period, fully 8 of 784 these 9 genera occur in kill/scavenging sites (Meltzer 2015). More striking, the survivors occur in a far 785 greater number of kill/scavenging sites than do the extinct genera, indicating that the number of such sites M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 33 and Grund 2012).…”

“…involved (e.g., Grayson 1977Grayson , 1984Grayson , 1989Grayson , 1991Grayson , 2001Meltzer 1986Meltzer , 1993aMeltzer , 1993bMeltzer , 1995 for more 34 recent assessments on our part, see Grayson 2007Grayson , 2015Meltzer 2009Meltzer , 2015Meltzer et al 2014). 35…”

Elephant and Mammoth Hunting during the Paleolithic: A Review of the Relevant Archaeological, Ethnographic and Ethno-Historical Records

“…The overkill hypothesis, for both North America and Western Europe, first developed by Martin [71,72], was attacked by Grayson and Meltzer [73] and Meltzer [74], who claimed that there is no evidence supporting it whatsoever (but see [75,76] for counter-attacks). Nikolskiy and Pitulko [77] suggest, based on the data yielded from Yana site (Siberia), that the humans that occupied the site hunted mammoths infrequently, and that such a sporadic pattern of hunting cannot be the cause of mammoth extinction.…”

Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic

“…(10,000-45,000 calendar y ago) when some 65% of terrestrial megafauna genera (animals weighing >45 kg) became globally extinct (1). Based on what we know about recent species extinctions, the causes of extinction are usually synergistic, often species-specific, and therefore, complex, which implies that there is no universal explanation for end-Pleistocene extinctions (2,3). Globally and specifically in the Arctic (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10), megafaunal extinctions have been variously blamed on overhunting, rapid climate change, habitat loss, and introduced diseases (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10).…”