2021/05/03 by Julien Louys, Todd J. Braje, Chun-Hsiang Chang +16 · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Evolution and Paleontology Studies
paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.2023005118
openalex publication_date 2021/05/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
for at least 50 thousand y (ka). Over such lengthy intervals it is scarcely surprising that significant evolutionary, behavioral, and cultural changes occurred. However, the deep-time link between human arrival and island extinctions has never been explored globally. Here, we examine archaeological and paleontological records of all Pleistocene islands with a documented hominin presence to examine whether humans have always been destructive agents. We show that extinctions at a global level cannot be associated with Pleistocene hominin arrival based on current data and are difficult to disentangle from records of environmental change. It is not until the Holocene that large-scale changes in technology, dispersal, demography, and human behavior visibly affect island ecosystems. The extinction acceleration we are currently experiencing is thus not inherent but rather part of a more recent cultural complex.