Emily Chan
Furthermore, the megafauna losses were very specific. The largest species were affected the most, while smaller plants and animals weren’t impacted much. This suggests that the losses were due to human hunting, not climate change.
Based on the remains that have been uncovered so far, at least 161 species of mammals became extinct during this period.
There were 57 species of megaherbivores 50,000 years ago, but only 11 are left today. Megaherbivores are large, land-dwelling creatures that mainly eat plants.
Regions where humans had a longer evolutionary history with large animals did not experience extinction events that were as severe.
For instance, hominins have been present in Africa and parts of Asia for millions of years. In those places, not as many megafauna species went extinct compared to the Americas and Australia.
This means that animals in Africa and Asia might have evolved to learn behaviors that help them avoid humans.
“Early modern humans were effective hunters of even the largest animal species and clearly had the ability to reduce the populations of large animals,” Svenning said.
“These large animals were and are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation because they have long gestation periods, produce very few offspring at a time, and take many years to reach [reproductive] maturity.
Understanding this mass extinction event is more important than ever in the face of our current biodiversity crisis.
By learning more about the history of human impact on animal populations, conservation efforts can be improved.
The study is published in the journal Cambridge Prisms: Extinctions.
