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Did Humans Cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mammalian Extinctions in South America in a Context of Shrinking Open Areas?

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American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology ((VERT))

The last important–and possibly the most spectacular–turnover in South American mammal history occurred around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, when 100% of megamam mal species and about 80% of large mammal species became extinct. In this paper, we consider as “megamammals” those with body mass over 1,000 kg, and “large mammals” those over 44 kg (Tables 7.1 and 7.2). With the exception of a few smaller mammals, no other animals or plants disappeared. Consequently, this extinction event was distinct from mass extinctions (see comments in Cione et al., 2003).

South American communities had included at least some megamammals since the latest Paleogene, but gigantism in mammals markedly emerged during the Ensenadan age (early Pleistocene; Fig. 7.1) when many large mammal genera first appeared (Ameghino, 1889; Pascual et al., 1965; Cione and Tonni, 2005). Most genera, with different species, survived during the late Pleistocene when the remarkable figure of 37 megamammal species can be documented (Table 7.1). Many appear to have persisted in the early Holocene. However, none is living today.

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  1. División Paleontología de Vertebrados Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque 1900 La Plata, Argentina

    Alberto L. Cione, Eduardo P. Tonni & Leopoldo Soibelzon

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  1. Alberto L. Cione
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  1. Anthropology Department, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA

    Gary Haynes

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Cione, A.L., Tonni, E.P., Soibelzon, L. (2009). Did Humans Cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mammalian Extinctions in South America in a Context of Shrinking Open Areas?. In: Haynes, G. (eds) American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_7

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