Abstract
After many decades of debate, the North American end-Pleistocene megafaunal mass extinction remains a lightning rod of controversy. The extraordinarily divergent opinions expressed in this volume show that no resolution is in sight. My own position is quite heterodox: I believe that the overkill hypothesis, at least in general terms, already has been “proven” as thoroughly as any historical hypothesis can be. All of the key evidence was available years ago, and all of it firmly refutes competing, ecologically oriented hypotheses (Martin, 1967, 1984). The event’s timing, rapidity, selectivity, and geographic pattern all make good sense according to the anthropogenic model, and no sense at all otherwise. To my eyes, this assessment is so clear-cut that further “tests” (e.g., Beck, 1996) are not really necessary.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alroy, J. 1992. Conjunction among taxonomic distributions and the Miocene mammalian biochronology of the Great Plains. Paleobiology 18: 326–343.
Alroy, J. 1994. Appearance event ordination: a new biochronologic method. Paleobiology 20: 191–207.
Alroy, J. 1996. Constant extinction, constrained diversification, and uncoordinated stasis in North American mammals. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 127: 285–311.
Alroy, J. 1998a. Diachrony of mammalian appearance events: implications for biochronology. Geology 26: 23–26.
Alroy, J. 1998b. Cope’s rule and the dynamics of body mass evolution in North American mammals. Science 280: 731–734.
Alroy, J. 1998c. Equilibrial diversity dynamics in North American mammals, M. L. McKinney and J. Drake (eds.), Biodiversity Dynamics: Turnover of Populations, Taxa and Communities. pp. 232–287. Columbia University Press, New York.
Alroy, J. In press. Methods for removing sampling biases from diversity curves. Paleobiology.
Archibald, J. D. 1996. Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say. Columbia University Press, New York.
Baillie, J., and Groombridge, B. (eds.). 1996. The 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Conservation International, Washington, D.C.
Barnosky, A. D. 1989. The late Pleistocene event as a paradigm for widespread mammal extinction, in: S. K. Donovan (ed.), Mass Extinctions, pp. 235–254. Columbia University Press, New York.
Beck, M. W. 1996. On discerning the cause of late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. Paleobiology 22: 91–103.
Berggren, W. A., and Prothero, D. R. 1992. Eocene-Oligocene climatic and biotic evolution: an overview, in:
D. R. Prothero and W. A. Berggren (eds.), Eocene-Oligocene Climatic and Biotic Evolution,pp. 1–28. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Bralower, T. J., Thomas, D. J., Zachos, J. C., Hirschmann, M. M., Rohl, U. Sigurdsson, H., Thomas, E., and Whitney, D. L. 1997. High-resolution records of the late Paleocene thermal maximum and circum-Caribbean volcanism: is there a causal link? Geology 25: 963–966.
Brown, J. H. 1971. Mammals on mountaintops: nonequilibrium insular biogeography. Am. Nat. 105: 467–478.
Brown, J. H., and Nicoletto, P. F 1991. Spatial scaling of species composition: body masses of North American land mammals. Am. Nat. 138: 1478–1512.
Cande, S. C., and Kent, D. V. 1995. Revised calibration of the geomagnetic polarity timescale for the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic. J. Geophys. Res. 100: 6093–6095.
Cerling, T. E., Harris, J. M., MacFadden, B. J., Leakey, M. G., Quade, J., Eisenmann, V., and Ehleringer, J. R. 1997. Global vegetation change through the Miocene/Pliocene boundary. Nature 389: 153–158.
Coope, G. R. 1995. Insect faunas in Ice Age environments: why so little extinction?, in: J. H. Lawton and R. M. May (eds.), Extinction Rates, pp. 55–74. Oxford University Press, London.
Damuth, J. 1990. Problems in estimating body masses of archaic ungulates using dental measurements, in: J. Damuth and B. J. MacFadden (eds.), Body Size in Mammalian Paleobiology: Estimation and Biological Implications, pp. 229–253. Cambridge University Press, London.
Damuth, J., and MacFadden, B. J. (eds.). 1990. Body Size in Mammalian Paleobiology: Estimation and Biological Implications. Cambridge University Press, London.
Dansgaard, W., Johnsen, S., Clausen, H. B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Gundestrup, N. S., Hammer, C. U., Hvidberg, C. S., Steffensen, J. P., Sveinbjörnsdottir, A. E., Jouzel, J., and Bond, G. 1993. Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record. Nature 364: 218–220.
Diamond, J. M. 1984. Historic extinction: a Rosetta stone for understanding prehistoric extinction equilibria, in: R. S. Martin and R. G. Klein (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, pp. 824–866. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Dwyer, G. S., Cronin, T. M., Baker, P. A., Raymo, M. E., Buzas, J. S., and Correge, T. 1995. North Atlantic deep-water temperature change during late Pliocene and late Quaternary climatic cycles. Science 270:1347–1351.
Eisenberg, J. F. 1981. The Mammalian Radiations: An Analysis of Trends in Evolution, Adaptation, and Behavior. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Flower, B. P., and Kennett, J. P. 1994. The middle Miocene climatic transition: East Antarctic ice sheet development, deep ocean circulation and global carbon cycling. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 108: 537–555.
Foote, M. 1990. Nearest-neighbor analysis of trilobite morphospace. Syst. Zool 39: 371–382.
Foote, M. 1994. Temporal variation in extinction risk and temporal scaling of extinction metrics. Paleobiology 20: 424–444.
Gingerich, P. D. 1984. Pleistocene extinctions in the context of origination-extinction equilibria, in: P. S. Martin and R. G. Klein (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, pp. 211–222. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Graham, R. W. 1976. Late Wisconsin mammalian faunas and environmental gradients of the eastern United States. Paleobiology 2: 343–350.
Graham, R. W. 1986. Response of mammalian communities to environmental changes during the late Quaternary, in: J. Diamond and T. J. Case (eds.), Community Ecology, pp. 300–313. Harper und Row, New York.
Graham, R. W., and Lundelius, E. L., Jr. 1984. Coevolutionary disequilibrium and Pleistocene extinctions, in: P. S. Martin and R. G. Klein (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, pp. 223–249. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Graham, R. W., Lundelius, E. L., Jr., Graham, M. A., Schroeder, E. K., Toomey, R. S., 111, Anderson, E., Barnosky, A. D., Burns, J. A., Churcher, C. S., Grayson, D. K., Guthrie, R. D., Harington, C. R., Jefferson, G. T., Martin, L. D., McDonald, H. G., Morlan, R. E., Sunken, H. A., Jr., Webb, S. D., Werdelin, L., and Wilson, M. C. 1996. Spatial response of mammals to Late Quaternary environmental fluctuations. Science 272: 1601–1606.
Guilday, J. E. 1962. The Pleistocene local fauna of the Natural Chimneys, Augusta County, Virginia. Ann. Carnegie Mus. 36:87–122.
Gunnell, G. F 1989. Evolutionary history of Microsyopoidea (Mammalia, ?Primates) and the relationship between Plesiadapiformes and Primates. Univ. Mich. Pap. Paleontol. 27: 1–157.
Gunnell, G. F., and Gingerich, P. D. 1996. New hapalodectid Hapalorestes lovei (Mammalia, Mesonychia) from the early middle Eocene of northwestern Wyoming. Contrib. Mus. Paleontol. Univ. Mich. 29: 413–418.
Guthrie, R. D. 1984. Mosaics, allelochemics and nutrients, an ecological theory of late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions, in: P. S. Martin and R. G. Klein (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, pp. 259–298. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Hall, E. R. 1981. The Mammals of North America. Wiley, New York.
Hibbard, C. W. 1952. Vertebrate fossils from Late Cenozoic deposits of central Kansas. Univ. Kans. Paleontol. Contrib. Vertebr 2: 1–14.
Hibbard, C. W. 1955. The Jinglebob interglacial (Sangamon?) fauna from Kansas and its climatic significance. Contrib. Mus. Paleontol. Univ. Mich. 12:179–228.
Hodell, D. A., Benson, R. H., Kent, D. V., Boersma, A., and Rakic-El Bied, K. 1994. Magnetostratigraphic, bios-tratigraphic, and stable isotope stratigraphy of an Upper Miocene drill core from the Sale Briqueterie (north-western Morocco): a high-resolution chronology for the Messinian stage. Paleoceanography 9: 835–855.
Holman, J. A. 1995. Pleistocene Amphibians and Reptiles in North America. Oxford University Press, London.
Jackson, J. B. C. 1994. Constancy and change of life in the sea. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. B 344: 55–60.
Kennett, J. P., and Stott, L. D. 1991. Abrupt deep-sea warming, palaeoceanographic changes and benthic extinc-tions at the end of the Palaeocene. Nature 353: 225–229.
Koch, P. L., Zachos, J. C., and Gingerich, P. D. 1992. Correlation between isotope records in marine and continental carbon reservoirs near the Palaeocene/Eocene boundary. Nature 358: 319–322.
Kurten, B., and Anderson, E. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, New York.
Legendre, S. 1986. Analysis of mammalian communities from the late Eocene and Oligocene of southern France. Palaeovertebrata, Montpellier 16:191–212.
Legendre, S., and Roth, C. 1988. Correlation of camassial tooth size and body weight in Recent carnivores (Mammalia). Hist. Biol. 1: 85–98.
Lundelius, E. L., Churcher, C. S., Downs, T., Harington, C. R., Lindsay, E. H. Schultz, G. E., Semken, H. A., Webb, S. D., and Zakrezewski, R. J. 1987. The North American Quaternary sequence, in: M. O. Woodburne (ed.), Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Geochronology and Biostratigraphy,pp. 211–235. University of California Press, Berkeley.
MacFadden, B. J., and Cerling, T. E. 1996. Mammalian herbivore communities, ancient feeding ecology, and car- bon isotopes: a 10 million-year sequence for the Neogene of Florida. J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 16:103–115.
MacPhee, R. D. E., and Marx, P. A. 1997. The 40,000-year plague: humans, hyperdiseases, and first-contact extinctions, in: S. M. Goodman and B. D. Patterson (eds.), Natural Change and Human Impact in Madagascar, pp. 169–217. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
Martin, R. S. 1967. Prehistoric overkill, in: P. S. Martin and H. E. Wright (eds.), Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search fora Cause, pp. 75–120. Yale University Press, New Haven.
Martin, P. S. 1984. Prehistoric overkill: the global model, in: P. S. Martin and R. G. Klein (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, pp. 354–403. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
Meltzer, D. J., and Mead, J. I. 1985. Dating late Pleistocene extinctions: theoretical issues, analytical bias, and substantive results, in: J. I. Mead and D. J. Meltzer (eds.), Environments and Extinctions: Man in Late Glacial North America, pp. 145–172. Center for the Study of Early Man, University of Maine, Orono.
Miller, K. G., Fairbanks, R. G., and Mountain, G. S. 1987. Tertiary oxygen isotope synthesis, sea level history, and continental margin erosion. Paleoceanography 2: 1–19.
Muller, D. W., and Hsu, K. J. 1987. Event stratigraphy and paleoceanography in the Fortuna Basin (southeast Spain): a scenario for the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Paleoceanography 2: 679–696.
Myers, R. A., Barrowman, N. J., Hutchings, J. A., and Rosenberg, A. A. 1995. Population dynamics of exploited fish stocks at low population levels. Science 269:1106–1108.
Overpeck, J. T., Webb, R. S., and Webb, T., III. 1992. Mapping eastern North American vegetation change of the past 18 ka: no-analogs and the future. Geology 20:1071–1074.
Owen-Smith, N. 1987. Pleistocene extinctions: the pivotal role of megaherbivores. Paleobiology 13:351–362. Prothero, D. R., and Heaton, T. H. 1996. Faunal stability during the Early Oligocene climatic crash. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 127: 257–284.
Raup, D. M. 1975. Taxonomic diversity estimation using rarefaction. Paleobiology 1: 333–342.
Raup, D. M. 1976. Species diversity in the Phanerozoic: an interpretation. Paleobiology 2: 289–297.
Repenning, C. A. 1987. Biochronology of the microtine rodents of the United States, in: M. O. Woodburne (ed.), Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Geochronology and Biostratigraphy, pp. 236–268. University of Cal-ifornia Press, Berkeley.
Rhodes, R. S., II. 1984. Paleoecology and regional paleoclimatic implications of the Farmdalian Craigmile and Woodfordian Waubonsie mammalian local faunas, southwestern Iowa. Ill. St. Mus. Rep. Invest. 40:1–51.
Routledge, R. D. 1977. On Whittaker’s components of diversity. Ecology 58:1120–1127.
Semken, H. A., Jr. 1996. Stratigraphy and paleontology of the McPherson Equus beds (Sandahl local fauna), McPherson Co., Kansas. Contrib. Mus. Paleontol. Univ. Mich. 20:121–178.
Semken, H. A., Jr. 1974. Micromammal distribution and migration during the Holocene. Am. Mus. Quat. Assoc. Abstr. 3: 25.
Semken, H. A., Jr. 1984. Paleoecology of a late Wisconsinan/Holocene micromammal sequence in Peccary Cave, northwestern Arkansas, in: H. H. Genoways and M. R. Dawson (eds.), Contributions in Quaternary Vertebrate Paleontology: A Volume in Memorial to John E. Guilday, pp. 405–431. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 8, Pittsburgh.
Sepkoski, J. J., Jr. 1978. A kinetic model of Phanerozoic taxonomic diversity. I. Analysis of marine orders. Paleobiology 4: 223–251.
Sepkoski, J. J., Jr., Bambach, R. K., Raup, D. M., and Valentine, J. W. 1981. Phanerozoic marine diversity and the fossil record. Nature 293: 435–437.
Shackleton, N. J. 1995. New data on the evolution of Pliocene climatic variability, in: E. S. Vrba, G. H. Denton, T. C. Partridge, and L. H. Burckle (eds.), Paleoclimate and Evolution, with Emphasis on Human Origins, pp. 242–248. Yale University Press, New Haven.
Stager, J. C., and Mayewski, R A. 1997. Abrupt early to mid-Holocene climatic transition registered at the equator and the poles. Science 276: 1834–1836.
Steadman, D. W. 1989. Extinctions of birds in eastern Polynesia: a review of the records and comparisons with other Pacific Island Groups. J. Archaeol. Sci. 16: 177–205.
Stephens, J. J. 1960. Stratigraphy and paleontology of a Late Pleistocene basin, Harper County, Oklahoma. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 71: 1675–1702.
Stucky, R. K. 1990. Evolution of land mammal diversity in North America during the Cenozoic, in: H. H. Genoways (ed.), Current Mammalogy, pp. 375–432. Plenum Press, New York.
Taylor, K. C., Mayewski, P. A., Alley, R. B., Brook, E. J., Gow, A. J., Grootes, R. M., Meese, D. A., Saltzman, E. S., Severinghaus, J. P., Twickler, M. S., White, J. W. C., Whitlow, S., and Zielinski, G. A. 1997. The Holocene-Younger Dryas transition recorded at Summit, Greenland. Science 278: 825–827.
Valentine, J. W., and Jablonski, D. 1991. Biotic effects of sea level change: the Pleistocene test. J. Geophys. Res. 96: 6873–6878.
Valentine, J. W., and Jablonski, D. 1993. Fossil communities: compositional variation at many time scales, in: R. E. Ricklefs and D. Schluter (eds.), Species Diversity in Ecological Communities: Historical and Geographical Perspectives pp. 341–349. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Van Valkenburgh, B., and Janis, C. M. 1993. Historical diversity patterns in North American large herbivores and carnivores, in: R. E. Ricklefs and D. Schluter (eds.), Species Diversity in Ecological Communities: Historical and Geographical Perspectives, pp. 330–340. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Webb, S. D. 1984. Ten million years of mammal extinction in North America, in: R S. Martin and R. G. Klein (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, pp. 189–210. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Wilf, P. 1997. When are leaves good thermometers? A new case for leaf margin analysis. Paleobiology 23: 373–390.
Wilf, R, Wing, S. L., Greenwood, D. R., and Greenwood, C. L. 1998. Using fossil leaves as paleoprecipitation indicators: an Eocene example. Geology 26: 203–206.
Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. 1993. Mammal Species of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
Wing, S. L., Alroy, J., and Hickey, L. J. 1995. Plant and mammal diversity in the Paleocene to early Eocene of the Bighorn Basin. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 115: 117–155.
Wolfe, J. A. 1978. A paleobotanical interpretation of Tertiary climates in the Northern Hemisphere. Am. Sci. 66: 694–703.
Wolfe, J. A. 1992. Climatic, floristic, and vegetational changes near the Eocene/Oligocene boundary in North America, in: D. R. Prothero and W. A. Berggren (eds.), Eocene-Oligocene Climatic and Biotic Evolution, pp. 421–436. Princeton University Press, Princeton N.J.
Wolfe, J. A., Schorr“, H. E., Forest, C. E., and Molnar, P. 1997. Paleobotanical evidence for high altitudes in Nevada during the Miocene. Science 276: 1672–1675.
Wood, H. E., 2nd, Chaney, R. W., Clark, J., Colbert, E. H., Jepsen, G. L., Reeside, J. B., Jr., and Stock, C. 1941. Nomenclature and correlation of the North American continental Tertiary. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 52: 1–48.
Woodburne, M. O. 1987. Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Geochronology and Biostratigraphy. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Woodburne, M. 0., and Swisher, C. C., III. 1995. Land mammal high resolution geochronology, intercontinental overland dispersals, sea-level, climate, and vicariance, in: W. A. Berggren, D. V. Kent, and J. Hardenbol (eds.), Geochronology, lime Scales and Global Stratigraphie Correlations: A Unified Temporal Framework for an Historical Geology, pp. 335–365. SEPM ( Society for Sedimentary Geology ), Special Publication 54.
Zachos, J. C., Stott, L. D., and Lohmann, K. C. 1994. Evolution of early Cenozoic marine temperatures. Paleoceanography 9: 353–387.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alroy, J. (1999). Putting North America’s End-Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction in Context. In: MacPhee, R.D.E. (eds) Extinctions in Near Time. Advances in Vertebrate Paleobiology, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5202-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5202-1_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-3315-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-5202-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive