Assessing the Causes of Late Pleistocene Extinctions on the Continents

2004/09/30 by Anthony D. Barnosky, Paul L. Koch, Robert S. Feranec +2 · 81 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Evolution and Paleontology Studies

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1101476

openalex publication_date 2004/09/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

One of the great debates about extinction is whether humans or climatic change caused the demise of the Pleistocene megafauna. Evidence from paleontology, climatology, archaeology, and ecology now supports the idea that humans contributed to extinction on some continents, but human hunting was not solely responsible for the pattern of extinction everywhere. Instead, evidence suggests that the intersection of human impacts with pronounced climatic change drove the precise timing and geography of extinction in the Northern Hemisphere. The story from the Southern Hemisphere is still unfolding. New evidence from Australia supports the view that humans helped cause extinctions there, but the correlation with climate is weak or contested. Firmer chronologies, more realistic ecological models, and regional paleoecological insights still are needed to understand details of the worldwide extinction pattern and the population dynamics of the species involved.

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