Skip to main content
Book cover

American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene pp 21–37Cite as

Sudden Deaths: The Chronology of Terminal Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction

  • Chapter

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

If we ever hope to ascertain the cause(s) of the extinction of North American megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene, a necessary first step is to establish the chronology of this occurrence. Was it an abrupt event, in which about 30 or more genera disappeared simultaneously within no more than several hundred years, or instead a long, drawn-out, gradual process, with each species dying out independently and asynchronously, over the course of millennia?

Those who advocate a vague climatic/environmental cause favor the latter gradual scenario; they recognize that if the extinctions were shown instead to be abrupt and synchronous, it would compel them to “attribute to the extinction ‘event’ …speed and taxonomic breadth …Once that is done, explanations of the extinctions must be structured to account for these assumed properties, whether those explanations focus on people, cli-mate…or disease” (Grayson and Meltzer, 2002:347).

Keywords

  • Extinction process
  • North and South America
  • human impacts on megafauna

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_2
  • Chapter length: 17 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-1-4020-8793-6
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book
USD   139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adovasio JM, Pedler D, Donahue J, Stuckenrath R (1999) No vestige of a beginning nor prospect for an end: Two decades of debate on Meadowcroft Rockshelter. In: Bonnichsen R, Turnmire KL (eds) Ice Age peoples of North America: Environments, origins, and adaptations of the First Americans. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, pp 416–431

    Google Scholar 

  • Agenbroad LD (1984) New World mammoth distribution. In: Martin PS, Klein RG (eds) Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 90–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Agenbroad LD (2005) North American proboscideans: Mammoths: The state of knowledge, 2003. Quat Intl 126–128:73–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Agenbroad LD, Johnson J, Morris D, Stafford TW Jr (2005) Mammoths and humans as late Pleistocene contemporaries on Santa Rosa Island. In: Garcelon DK, Schwemm CA (eds) Proceedings of the Sixth California Islands Symposium, Ventura, CA, December 1–3, 2003. Institute for Wildlife Studies, Arcata, CA, pp 3–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Alberdi MT, Miotti L, Prado JL (2001) Hippidion saldiasi Roth, 1899 (Equidae, Perissodactyla), at the Piedra Museo site (Santa Cruz, Argentina): Its implication for the regional economy and environmental reconstruction. J Archaeol Sci 28:411–419

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold TG (2002) Radiocarbon dates from the ice-free corridor. Radiocarbon 44(2):437–454

    Google Scholar 

  • Arslanov Kh, Cook A, Steinar Gulliksen GT, Harkness DD, Kankainen T, Scott EM, Vartanyan S, Zaitseva GI (1998) Consensus dating of mammoth remains from Wrangel Island. Radiocarbon 40(1–2):289–294

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbetti M (n.d.) SRT-783 tree-ring and Cariaco varve data; figure accessed online 6/28/2005 at http://www.ansto.gov.au/ainse/prorep2001/R_00_003.pdf

  • Beck MW (1996) On discerning the cause of late Pleistocene mega-faunal extinctions. Paleobiology 22:91–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Bement LC, Carter BJ (2003) Clovis bison hunting at the Jake Bluff site, NW Oklahoma. Curr Res Pleistocene 20:20–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Borrero LA (2003) Taphonomy of the Tres Arroyos 1 Rockshelter, Tierra del Fuego, Chile. Quat Intl 109/110:87–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Borrero LA, Zarate M, Miott L, Massone M (1998) The Pleistocene-Holocene transition and human occupations in the Southern Cone of South America. Quat Intl 49/50:191–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley B, Stanford D (2004) The North Atlantic ice-edge corridor: A possible Paleolithic route to the New World. World Archaeol 36:459–478

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun A, Pfeiffer T (2002) Cyanobacterial blooms as the cause of a Pleistocene large mammal assemblage. Paleobiology 28(1):139–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck CE, Bard E (2007) A calendar chronology for Pleistocene mammoth and horse extinction in North America based on Bayesian radiocarbon calibration. Quat Sci Rev 26(17–18):2031–2035

    Google Scholar 

  • Burney DA, Robinson GS, Burney LP (2003) Sporormiella and the late Holocene extinctions in Madagascar. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100(19):10800–10805

    Google Scholar 

  • CARD (Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database, compiled by R. Morlan). (2001) Online website http://www.canadianar-chaeology.ca/accessed6/04.

  • Cin-QMars J, Morlan RE (1999) Bluefish Caves and Old Crow Basin: A new rapport. In: Bonnichsen R, Turnmire KL (eds) Ice Age people of North America: Environments, origins, and adaptations. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, pp 200–212

    Google Scholar 

  • Cione AL, Figini AJ, Tonni EP (2001). Did the megafauna range to 4300 BP in South America? Radiocarbon 43(1):69–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Cione AL, Tonni EP, Soibelzon L (2003) The broken zig-zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extinction in South America. Revista Museo Argentino de Ciencia Natural 5(1)

    Google Scholar 

  • Clague JJ, Mathewes RW, Ager TW (2004) Environments of northwestern North America before the Last Glacial Maximum. In: Madsen DB (ed) Entering America: Northeast Asia and Beringia before the Last Glacial Maximum. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp 63–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins MB (2002) The Gault site, Texas, and Clovis research. Athena Rev 3(2):24–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins MB (2003) Gault site dates and findings. Newsletter of the Friends of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, May

    Google Scholar 

  • Crass BA, Holmes CE (2004) Swan Point: A case for land bridge migration in the peopling of North America. Paper presented at 69th annual meeting of Society for American Archaeology, Mar. 31-Apr. 4, Montreal, Quebec

    Google Scholar 

  • Crossen KJ, Yesner DR, Veltre DW, Graham RW (2005) 5,700-Year-old mammoth remains from the Pribilof Islands, Alaska: Last outpost of North American megafauna. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of Geological Society of America, Oct. 16–19, Salt Lake City, UT

    Google Scholar 

  • Dansie AJ, Jerrems WJ (2004) Lahontan chronology and early human occupation in the western Great Basin: A new look at old collections. In: Lepper BT, Bonnichsen R (eds) New perspectives on the First Americans. Center for the Study of the First Americans, College Station, TX, pp 55–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis OK (1987) Spores of the dung fungus Sporormiella: Increased abundance in historic sediments and before Pleistocene megafau-nal extinction. Quat Res 28:290–294

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis OK, Shafer DS (2006) Sporormiella fungal spores, a paly-nological means of detecting herbivore density. Palaeogeogr, Palaeocl, Palaeoecol 237(1):40–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Dent RJ (1999) Shawnee Minisink: New dates on the Paleoindian component. Poster presented at 64th Annual Meeting of Society for American Archaeology, Mar. 24–28, Chicago, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillehay TD (ed) (1989) Monte Verde: A late Pleistocene settlement in Chile, Volume 1, Palaeoenvironment and site context. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillehay TD (ed) (1997) Monte Verde, a late Pleistocene settlement in Chile, Volume 2. The archaeological context and interpretation. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillehay TD (ed) (2002) Errata, Monte Verde, a late Pleistocene settlement in Chile, Volume 2. The archaeological context and interpretation. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon EJ (1999) Bones, boats, and bison: Archaeology and the first colonization of Western North America. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque

    Google Scholar 

  • Dreimanis A (1968) Extinction of mastodons in eastern North America: Testing a new climatic-environmental hypothesis. Ohio J Sci 8(6):257–272

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyer DL, Harington CR, Fernandez RL, Hansen MC (1986) A Pleistocene stag-moose (Cervalces scotti) from Licking County, Ohio. Ohio J Sci, Abstracts of 95th Annual Meeting, April 25–27, Toledo

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyke AS, Andrews JT, Clark PU, England JH, Miller GH, Shaw J, Veillette JJ (2002a) The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum. Quat Sci Rev 21(1–3):9–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyke AS, Moore A, Robertson L (2002b) Revised North American deglaciation maps. Paper presented at Annual Meeting Geological Society of America, Oct. 27–30, Denver, CO

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias SA, Short SK, Nelson CH, Birks HH (1996) Life and times of the Bering land bridge. Nature 382:60–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Fedje DW, Josenhans H (2000) Drowned forests and archaeology on the continental shelf of British Columbia, Canada. Geology 28:99–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferring CR (2001) The archaeology and paleoecology of the Aubrey Clovis Site (41DN479), Denton County, Texas. Report from Center for Environmental Archaeology, University of North Texas, to US Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedel SJ (1999a) Older than we thought: Implications of corrected dates for Paleoindians. Am Ant 64(1):95–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedel SJ (1999b) Artifact provenience at Monte Verde: Confusion and contradictions. Sci Am Discover Archaeol Special Report 1(6):1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedel SJ (2000) The peopling of the New World: Present evidence, new theories, and future directions. J Archaeol Res 8(1):39–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedel SJ (2002) Initial human colonization of the Americas: An overview of the issues and the evidence. Radiocarbon 44(2):407–436

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedel SJ (2006) Points in time: Establishing a precise hemispheric chronology for Paleoindian migrations. In: Morrow JE, Gnecco C (eds) Paleoindian archaeology, a hemispheric perspective. University Press of Florida, Florida, pp 21–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedel SJ (2007) Quacks in the Ice: Waterfowl, Paleoindians, and the discovery of America. In: Walker RB, Driskell BN (eds) Foragers of the terminal Pleistocene in North America. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln/London, pp 1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Firestone RB, West A (2005) Evidence for the extinction of mammoths by an extraterrestrial impact event. Paper presented at Second International World of Elephants Congress, Sept. 22–25, Hot Springs, SD

    Google Scholar 

  • Firestone RB, West A, Kennett JP, Becker L, Bunch TE, Revay ZS, Schultz PH, Belgya T, Kennett DJ, Erlandson JM, Dickenson OJ, GoodYear AC, Harris RS, Howard GA, Kloosterman JB, Lechler P, Mayewski PA, Montgomery J, Poreda R, Darrah T, Que Hee SS, Smith AR, Stich A, Topping W, Wittke JH, Wolbach WS (2007a) Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 Years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:16016–1602

    Google Scholar 

  • Firestone RB, West A, Revay Z, Belgya T, Smith A, Que Hee SS (2007b) Evidence for a massive extraterrestrial airburst over North America 12.9 ka Ago. Eos, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 88(23), Joint Assembly, Supplement, Abstract PP41A-01

    Google Scholar 

  • Flegenheimer N, Zarate M (1997) Considerations on radiocarbon and calibrated dates from Cerro La China and Cerro El Sombrero, Argentina. Curr Res Pleistocene 14:27–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Frison GC (2000). A 14C date on a late Pleistocene Camelops at the Casper-Hell Gap site, Wyoming. Curr Res Pleistocene 17:28–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Funk RE, Fisher DW, Reilly EM Jr (1970) Caribou and Paleo-Indian in New York state: A presumed association. Am J Sci 268:181–186

    Google Scholar 

  • García A (2003) On the coexistence of man and extinct Pleistocene megafauna at Gruta del Indio (Argentina) 9000 C-14 Years ago. Radiocarbon 45:33–39

    Google Scholar 

  • García A, Martínez Carretero E, Dacar MA (2008) Presence of Hippidion at two sites of western Argentina: Diet composition and contribution to the study of the extinction of Pleistocene mega-fauna. Quat Intl 180(1):22–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham R (1998) Mammals' eye view of environmental change in the United States at the end of the Pleistocene. Paper presented at 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Mar. 25–29, Seattle, WA

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham R, Stafford T, Lundelius E, Semken H, Southon J (2002) C-14 chronostratigraphy and litho-stratigraphy of late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions in the New World. Paper presented at 67th annual meeting of Society for American Archaeology, Mar. 20–24, Denver, CO

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham R, Stafford T, Semken H (1997) Pleistocene extinctions: Chronology, non-analog communities, and environmental change. Paper presented at symposium “Humans and other Catastrophes,” American Museum of Natural History, Apr. 17–18, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramly RM (2004) The Richey Clovis cache. Amateur Archaeologist 10(1)

    Google Scholar 

  • Grayson DK (1993) The desert's past. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Grayson DK (2006) The late Quaternary biogeographic histories of some Great Basin mammals (western USA). Quat Sci Rev 25(21–22):2964–2991

    Google Scholar 

  • Grayson DK (2007) Deciphering North American Pleistocene extinctions. J Anthropol Res 63(2):185–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Grayson DK, Meltzer DJ (2002) Clovis hunting and large mammal extinction: A critical review of the evidence. J World Prehist 15:1–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Grayson DK, Meltzer DJ (2003) A requiem for North American overkill. J Archaeol Sci 30:585–593

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimm EC, Watts WA, Jacobson GL Jr, Hansen BCS, Almquist HR, Dieffenbacher-Krall AC (2006) Evidence for warm wet Heinrich events in Florida. Quat Sci Rev 25(17–18):2197–2211

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie RD (2001) Origin and causes of the mammoth steppe: A story of cloud cover, woolly mammal tooth pits, buckles, and inside-out Beringia. Quat Sci Rev 20:549–574

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie RD (2003) Rapid body size decline in Alaskan Pleistocene horses before extinction. Nature 426:169–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie RD (2004) Radiocarbon evidence of mid-Holocene mammoths stranded on an Alaskan Bering Sea island. Nature 429:746–749

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie RD (2006) New carbon dates link climatic change with human colonization and Pleistocene extinctions. Nature 441:207–209

    Google Scholar 

  • Hajdas I, Bonani G, Moreno PI, Ariztegui D (2003) Precise radiocarbon dating of Late-Glacial cooling in mid-latitude South America. Quat Res 59:70–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Hajduk A, Albornoz A, Lezcano MJ (2006) Levels with extinct fauna in the forest rockshelter El Trebol (northwest Patagonia, Argentina). Curr Res Pleistocene 23:55–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes CV Jr (1964) Fluted projectile points: Their age and dispersion. Science 145:1408–1413

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes CV Jr (1966) Elephant-hunting in North America. Sci Am 214(6):104–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes CV Jr (1991) Geoarchaeological and paleohydrological evidence for a Clovis-age drought in North America and its bearing on extinction. Quat Res 35:438–450

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes CV Jr (1993) Clovis-Folsom geochronology and climatic change. In: Soffer O, Praslov ND (eds) From Kostenki to Clovis: Upper Paleolithic-Paleoindian adaptations. Plenum Press, N Y, pp 219–236

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes CV Jr (1998) Geochronology of the stratigraphic manifestation of paleoclimatic events at Paleoindian sites. Paper presented at 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Mar. 25–29, Seattle, WA

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes CV Jr (2007) Nature and origin of the black mat, stratum F2. In: Haynes CV Jr, Huckell B (eds) Murray Springs. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Appendix B, pp 240–249

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes CV Jr (n.d.) Clovis, pre-Clovis, climate change, and extinction. Manuscript

    Google Scholar 

  • Haynes G (2002) The catastrophic extinction of North American mammoths and mastodonts. World Archaeol 33(3):391–416

    Google Scholar 

  • Heaton TH, Grady F (2003) The Late Wisconsin vertebrate history of Prince of Wales Island, Southeast Alaska. In: Schubert BW, Mead JI, Graham RW (eds) Ice Age cave faunas of North America. Indiana University Press, pp 17–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Higham TFG (2004) AMS dating of archaeological bone from Mexico: Problems and future directions. Paper presented at 2nd International Symposium, Early Man in America, Sept. 6-10, Mexico City, Mexico

    Google Scholar 

  • Higham TFG, Jacobi RM, Bronk Ramsey C (2006) AMS radiocarbon dating of Paleolithic bone using ultrafiltration. Paper presented at 19th International 14C Conference, Apr. 3–7, Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Hills LV, Harington CR (2003) New radiocarbon dates for Columbian mammoth and Mexican horse from southern Alberta and the Lateglacial regional fauna. Quat Sci Rev 22(14):1521–1523

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofreiter M, Poinar HN, Spaulding WG, Bauer K, Martin PS, Possnert G, Pääbo S (2000) A molecular analysis of ground sloth diet through the last glaciation. Molecul Ecol 9:1975–1984

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofreiter M, Betancourt JL, Pelliza Sbriller A, Markgraf V, McDonald HG (2003) Phylogeny, diet, and habitat of an extinct ground sloth from Cuchillo Cura, Neuquen Province, southwest Argentina. Quat Res 59:364–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Huckleberry G, Beck C, Jones GT, Holmes A, Cannon M, Livingston SD, Broughton JM (2001) Terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene environmental change at the Sunshine Locality, north-central Nevada, USA. Quat Res 55:303–312

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughen KA, Southon JR, Lehman SJ, Overpeck JT (2000) Synchronous radiocarbon and climate shifts during the last degla-ciation. Science 290:1951–1954

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson D, Mendez C, Seguel R, Maldonado A, Vargas G (2007) Initial occupation of the Pacific Coast of Chile during late Pleistocene times. Curr Anthropol 48(5):725–731

    Google Scholar 

  • Joyce DJ (2006) Chronology and new research on the Schaefer mammoth (?Mammuthus primigenius) site, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, USA. Quat Intl 142–143:44–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly RL (2003) Maybe we do know when people first came to North America. Quat Intl 109–110:133–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Kneller M, Peteet D (1999) Late-Glacial to early Holocene climate changes from a Central Appalachian pollen and macrofossil record. Quat Res 51:133–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Kooyman B, Hills LV, McNeil P, Tolman S (2006) Late Pleistocene horse hunting at the Wally's Beach site (DhPg-8), Canada. Am Ant 71(1):101–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Kromer B, Friedrich M, Hughen KA, Kaiser F, Remmele S, Schaub M, Talamo S (2004) Late Glacial 14C ages from a floating, 1382-ring pine chronology. Radiocarbon 46(3):1203–1209

    Google Scholar 

  • Litt T, Schmincke HU, Kromer B (2003) Environmental response to climate and volcanic events in central Europe during the Weichselian Lateglacial. Quat Sci Rev 22:7–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Long A, Martin PS (1974) Death of American ground sloths. Science 186:638–640

    Google Scholar 

  • Long A, Martin PS, Lagiglia HA (1998) Ground sloth extinction and human occupation at Gruta del Indio, Argentina. Radiocarbon 40:693–700

    Google Scholar 

  • MacFadden BJ (2005) Diet and habitat of toxodont megaherbivores (Mammalia, Notoungulata) from the late Quaternary of South and Central America. Quat Res 64(2):113–1244

    Google Scholar 

  • MacPhee RDE (2003) The Wrangel date gap and other evidence of widespread megafaunal collapse in northern Asia during the early Holocene, Paper presented at 3rd International Mammoth Conference, May 23–29, Dawson City, Yukon

    Google Scholar 

  • MacPhee RDE, Marx PA (1997) The 40,000-Year plague: Humans, hyperdisease, and first-contact extinctions. In: Goodman S, Patterson B (eds) Natural change and human impact in Madagascar. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp 169–217

    Google Scholar 

  • MacPhee Ross DE, Tikhonov AN, Mol D, de Marliave C, van der Plicht H, Greenwood AD, Flemming C, Agenbroad L (2002) Radiocarbon chronologies and extinction dynamics of the Late Quaternary mammalian megafauna of the Taimyr Peninsula, Russian Federation. J Archaeol Sci 29:1017–1042

    Google Scholar 

  • MacPhee RDE, Iturralde-Vinent MA, Jimänez Vázquez O (2007) Prehistoric sloth extinctions in Cuba: Implications of a new “last” appearance date. Caribbean J Sci 41:94–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Madsen DB (2000) A high-elevation Allerød-Younger Dryas mega-fauna from the west-central Rocky Mountains. In: Madsen DB, Metcalf MD (eds) Intermountain archaeology. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 22, pp 100–115

    Google Scholar 

  • Madsen DB (ed) (2004) Entering America: Northeast Asia and Beringia before the Last Glacial Maximum. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus LF, Berger R (1984) The significance of radiocarbon dates for Rancho La Brea. In: Martin PS, Klein RG (eds) Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 159–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin PS (1967) Prehistoric overkill. In: Martin PS, Wright HE Jr (eds) Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 75–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin PS (2005) Twilight of the Mammoths. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin PS, Stuart AJ (1995) Mammoth extinction: Two continents and Wrangel Island. Radiocarbon 37(1):7–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez GA (2001) ‘Fish-tail’ projectile points and megamammals: New evidence from Paso Otero 5 (Argentina). Antiquity 75:532–538

    Google Scholar 

  • Massone M (2003) Fell I hunters' hearths in the Magallanes region by the end of the Pleistocene. In: Miotti L, Salemme M, Flegenheimer N (eds) Where the south winds blow. Center for the Study of the First Americans, College Station, TX, pp 153–160

    Google Scholar 

  • McAvoy JM, McAvoy LD (1997) Archaeological investigations of site 44SX202, Cactus Hill, Sussex County, Virginia. Research Report Series No. 8, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Richmond

    Google Scholar 

  • McAvoy JM, Baker JC, Feathers JK, Hodges RL, McWeeney LJ, Whyte TR (n.d.) Summary of research at the Cactus Hill archaeological site, 44SX202, Sussex County, Virginia: Report to the National Geographic Society in compliance with stipulations of grant #6345–98

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald HG (2002) Platygonus compressus from Franklin County, Idaho, and a review of the genus in Idaho. In: Akersten WA, Thompson ME, Meldrum DJ, Rapp RA, McDonald HG (eds) And Whereas… Papers on the vertebrate paleontology of Idaho honoring John A. White. Volume 2, Idaho Museum of Natural History Occasional Paper 37, pp 141–149

    Google Scholar 

  • McNeil P, Hills LV, Kooyman B, Tolman SM (2005) Mammoth tracks indicate a declining late Pleistocene population in southwestern Alberta, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews 24(10– 11):1253–1259

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead JI, Agenbroad LD (1992) Isotope dating of Pleistocene dung deposits from the Colorado Plateau, Arizona and Utah. Radiocarbon 34:1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead JI, Martin PS, Euler RC, Long A, Jull AJT, Toolin LJ, Donahue DJ, Linick TW (1986) Extinction of Harrington's mountain goat. Proc Natl Acad Sci 83(4):836–839

    Google Scholar 

  • Miotti LL, Salemme MC (2003) When Patagonia was colonized: People mobility at high latitudes during Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Quaternary International 109–110:95–111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan V, Delmotte M, van Ommen T, Jouzel J, Chappellaz J, Woon S, Masson-Delmotte V, Raynaud D (2002) Relative timing of deglacial climate events in Antarctica and Greenland. Science 297(5588): 1862–1864.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrow J, Fiedel S (2006) New radiocarbon dates for the Clovis component of the Anzick site, Park County, Montana. In: Morrow JE, Gnecco G. (eds) Paleoindian archaeology, a hemispheric perspective. University Press of Florida, pp 123–138

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosimann JE, Martin PS (1975) Simulating overkill by Paleoindians. Am Scientist 63:304–313

    Google Scholar 

  • Neves WA, Pilo LB (2003) Solving Lund's dilemma: New AMS dates confirm that humans and megafauna coexisted at Lagoa Santa. Curr Res Pleistocene 20:57–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Overstreet DF, Stafford TW (1997) Additions to a revised chronology for cultural and non-cultural mammoth and mastodon fossils in the southwestern Lake Michigan Basin. Curr Res Pleistocene 14:70–71

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson B, Pascual R (1968). The fossil mammal fauna of South America. Quart Rev Biol 43(4):409–451

    Google Scholar 

  • Politis GG, Messineo PG, Kaufmann CA (2004) El poblamiento temprano de las llanuras pampeanas de Argentina y Uruguay (The early peopling of the Pampean plains of Argentina and Uruguay). Complutum 15:207–224.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quade J, Forester RM, Pratt WL, Carter C (1998) Black mats, spring-fed streams, and Late Glacial age recharge in the southern Great Basin. Quat Res 49:129–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramsey CB, Higham T, Bowles A, Hedges R (2004) Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford. Radiocarbon, 46(1): 155–163(9).

    Google Scholar 

  • Redmond BG, Tankersley K (2005) Evidence of early Paleoindian bone modification and use at the Sheriden Cave site (33Wy252), Wyandot County, Ohio. Am Ant 70(3):503–526

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts DL, Solow AR (2003) Flightless birds: When did the dodo become extinct? Nature 426:245

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson G, Burney LP, Burney DA (2005) Landscape paleoecol-ogy and megafaunal extinction in southeastern New York. Ecol Mono 75(23):295–315

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossello EA, Jahn BM, Liu T-K, Petrocelli JL (2001) The 4300-yr 14C age of glyptodonts at Luján River (Mercedes, Buenos Aires, Argentina) and comments on ‘Did the megafauna range to 4300 BP in South America’ by Cione et al. Radiocarbon 43(1):77–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossetti D de F, Mann de Toledo P, Moraes-Santos HM, de Araujo Santos AE Jr (2004) Reconstructing habitats in central Amazonia using megafauna, sedimentology, radiocarbon, and isotope analyses. Quat Res 61(3):289–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez B, Prado JL, Alberdi MT (2003) Paleodiet, ecology, and extinction of Pleistocene gomphotheres (Proboscidea) from the Pampean region (Argentina). Coloquios de Paleontologia 1:617–625

    Google Scholar 

  • Schubert BW, Graham RW, McDonald HG, Grimm EC, Stafford TW Jr (2004) Latest Pleistocene paleoecology of Jefferson's ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii) and elk-moose (Cervalces scotti) in northern Illinois. Quat Res 61(2):231–240

    Google Scholar 

  • Signor PW, Lipps JH (1982) Sampling bias, gradual extinction patterns and catastrophes in the fossil record. In: Silver HT, Schultz PH (eds) Geological implications of impacts of large asteroids and comets on the earth. Geological Society of America Special Paper 190, pp 291–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Solow AR, Roberts DL, Robbirt KM (2006) On the Pleistocene extinctions of Alaskan mammoths and horses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103(19):7351–7353

    Google Scholar 

  • Stafford TW Jr (1994) Accelerator C-14 dating of human fossil skeletons: Assessing accuracy and results on New World specimens. In: Bonnichsen R, Steele DG (eds) Method and theory for investigating the peopling of the Americas. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Corvallis, OR, pp 45–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanford D, Bradley B (2002) Ocean trails and prairie paths? Thoughts about Clovis origins. In: Jablonski NG (ed) The first Americans: The Pleistocene colonization of the New World. Cal Acad Sci Mem 27:255–271

    Google Scholar 

  • Steadman DW, Martin PS, MacPhee RDE, Jull AJT, McDonald HG, Woods CA, Iturralde-Vinent M, Hodgins GWL (2005) Asynchronous extinction of late Quaternary sloths on continents and islands. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:11763–11768

    Google Scholar 

  • Steele J, Politis G, Pettitt P (2001) AMS radiocarbon dating of the earliest Paleoindian occupation of the southern cone of South America. Paper presented at 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Apr. 18–22, New Orleans, LA

    Google Scholar 

  • Straus L, Meltzer DJ, Goebel T (2005) Ice age Atlantis? Exploring the Solutrean-Clovis connection. World Archaeol 37(4):507–532

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart AJ, Kosintsev PA, Higham TFG, Lister AM (2004) Pleistocene to Holocene extinction dynamics in giant deer and woolly mammoth. Nature 431:684–689

    Google Scholar 

  • Suarez R (2003) First records of Pleistocene fauna for an archaeological context in Uruguay: Evidence from Pay Paso locality, site 1. Curr Res Pleistocene 20:113–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Sugden DE, Bentley MJ, Fogwill CJ, Hulton NRJ, McCulloch RD, Purves RS (2005) Late-Glacial glacier events in southernmost South America: A blend of ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ hemispheric climate signals? Geografiska Annaler 82A(2):273–288

    Google Scholar 

  • Surovell TA, Waguespack NM (2004) How many elephant kills are 14? Clovis mammoth and mastodon kills in context. Paper Presented at the 69th Annual Meetings of the Society for American Archaeology, Mar. 31–Apr. 4, Montreal, Quebec

    Google Scholar 

  • Vartanyan SL, Arslanov KhA, Tertychnaya TV, Chernov SB (1995) Radiocarbon dating evidence for mammoths on Wrangel Island, Arctic Ocean, until 2000 bc. Radiocarbon 37(1):1–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Waters MR, Stafford TW Jr (2007) Redefining the age of Clovis: Implications for the peopling of the Americas. Science 315: 1122–1126

    Google Scholar 

  • Yu Z, Wright HE Jr (2001) Response of interior North America to abrupt climate oscillations in the North Atlantic region during the last deglaciation. Earth-Sci Rev 52:333–369

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimov SA (2005) Pleistocene Park: Return of the mammoth's ecosystem. Science 308(5723):796–798

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Louis Berger Group, 203 East Cary St, Suite 100, Richmond, VA, 23219, USA

    Stuart Fiedel

Authors
  1. Stuart Fiedel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Anthropology Department, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA

    Gary Haynes

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fiedel, S. (2009). Sudden Deaths: The Chronology of Terminal Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction. 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_2

Download citation