View source for Late Pleistocene extinctions

{{Short description|Extinctions of large mammals in the Late Pleistocene}}
{{For|extinctions that occurred during the Holocene|Holocene extinction}}
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[[File:Ice_age_fauna_of_northern_Spain_-_Mauricio_Antón.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Late [[Pleistocene]] in northern [[Spain]], by [[Mauricio Antón]]. Left to right: [[Equus ferus|wild horse]], [[woolly mammoth]], [[reindeer]], [[Panthera spelaea|cave lion]], [[woolly rhinoceros]]]]
[[File:La Brea Tar Pits.jpg|upright=1.25|thumb|Mural of the [[La Brea Tar Pits]] by [[Charles R. Knight]], including sabertooth cats (''[[Smilodon fatalis]]'', left) [[ground sloths]] (''[[Paramylodon harlani]]'', right) and [[Columbian mammoths]] (''Mammuthus columbi'', background)]]
The [[Late Pleistocene]] to the beginning of the [[Holocene]] saw the extinction of the majority of the world's [[megafauna]], typically defined as animal species having body masses over {{Convert|44|kg|lb|abbr=on}},<ref name="Pires-20242">{{Cite journal |last=Pires |first=Mathias Mistretta |date=30 May 2024 |title=The Restructuring of Ecological Networks by the Pleistocene Extinction |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-earth-040722-104845 |journal=Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences |language=en |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=133–158 |doi=10.1146/annurev-earth-040722-104845 |bibcode=2024AREPS..52..133P |issn=0084-6597 |s2cid=266133527|doi-access=free }}</ref> which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity across the globe.<ref name="EuropeanPerspective">{{Citation |last=Stuart |first=Anthony John |title=Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions: A European Perspective |date=1999 |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-4757-5202-1_11 |work=Extinctions in Near Time |pages=257–269 |editor-last=MacPhee |editor-first=Ross D. E. |access-date=28 May 2023 |place=Boston, MA |publisher=Springer US |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-4757-5202-1_11 |isbn=978-1-4419-3315-7}}</ref> The extinctions during the Late Pleistocene are differentiated from previous extinctions by their extreme size bias towards large animals (with small animals being largely unaffected), and widespread absence of [[ecological succession]] to replace these extinct megafaunal species,<ref name="LinkedToHumansNotClimateChange">{{Cite journal |last1=Sandom |first1=Christopher |last2=Faurby |first2=Søren |last3=Sandel |first3=Brody |last4=Svenning |first4=Jens-Christian |date=22 July 2014 |title=Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change |journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences]] |language=en |volume=281 |issue=1787 |pages=20133254 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2013.3254 |issn=0962-8452 |pmc=4071532 |pmid=24898370}}</ref> and the [[regime shift]] of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence. The timing and severity of the extinctions varied by region and are generally thought to have been driven by humans, climatic change, or a combination of both.<ref name="LinkedToHumansNotClimateChange" /> Human impact on megafauna populations is thought to have been driven by hunting ("overkill"),<ref name="SynchronousExtinction" /><ref name="Dembitzer-2022">{{cite journal |last1=Dembitzer |first1=Jacob |last2=Barkai |first2=Ran |last3=Ben-Dor |first3=Miki |last4=Meiri |first4=Shai |date=15 January 2022 |title=Levantine overkill: 1.5 million years of hunting down the body size distribution |journal=[[Quaternary Science Reviews]] |volume=276 |issue= |page=107316 |bibcode=2022QSRv..27607316D |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107316 |s2cid=245236379}}</ref> as well as possibly environmental alteration.<ref name="TropicalAustralia">{{Cite journal |last1=Bird |first1=Michael I. |last2=Hutley |first2=Lindsay B. |last3=Lawes |first3=Michael J. |last4=Lloyd |first4=Jon |last5=Luly |first5=Jon G. |last6=Ridd |first6=Peter V. |last7=Roberts |first7=Richard G. |last8=Ulm |first8=Sean |last9=Wurster |first9=Christopher M. |date=July 2013 |title=Humans, megafauna and environmental change in tropical Australia |journal=Journal of Quaternary Science |language=en |volume=28 |issue=5 |pages=439–452 |doi=10.1002/jqs.2639 |bibcode=2013JQS....28..439B |s2cid=129936890|url=https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00291/40179/39079.pdf }}</ref> The relative importance of human vs climatic factors in the extinctions has been the subject of long-running controversy,<ref name="LinkedToHumansNotClimateChange" /> though most scholars support at least a contributory role of humans in the extinctions.<ref name=":2" />

Major extinctions occurred in [[Australia (continent)|Australia-New Guinea]] ([[Sahul]]) beginning around 50,000 years ago and in the [[Americas]] about 13,000 years ago, coinciding in time with the [[early human migrations]] into these regions.<ref name="StateOfTheDebate">{{cite journal |last1=Koch |first1=Paul L. |last2=Barnosky |first2=Anthony D. |date=1 January 2006 |title=Late Quaternary Extinctions: State of the Debate |journal=[[Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics]] |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=215–250 |doi=10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.34.011802.132415 |s2cid=16590668}}</ref> Extinctions in northern Eurasia were staggered over tens of thousands of years between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago,<ref name="EuropeanPerspective" /> while extinctions in the Americas were virtually simultaneous, spanning only 3,000 years at most.<ref name="SynchronousExtinction">{{Cite journal |last1=Faith |first1=J. Tyler |last2=Surovell |first2=Todd A. |date=8 December 2009 |title=Synchronous extinction of North America's Pleistocene mammals |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |language=en |volume=106 |issue=49 |pages=20641–20645 |bibcode=2009PNAS..10620641F |doi=10.1073/pnas.0908153106 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=2791611 |pmid=19934040 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="ArgentinePampasNewChronology">{{Cite journal |last1=Prado |first1=José L. |last2=Martinez-Maza |first2=Cayetana |last3=Alberdi |first3=María T. |date=May 2015 |title=Megafauna extinction in South America: A new chronology for the Argentine Pampas |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |language=en |volume=425 |pages=41–49 |bibcode=2015PPP...425...41P |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.02.026}}</ref> Overall, during the Late Pleistocene about 65% of all megafaunal species worldwide became extinct,<ref name="ClimateChangeNotToBlame">{{Cite journal |author1=Frédérik Saltré |author2=Marta Rodríguez-Rey |author3=Barry W. Brook |author4=Christopher N. Johnson |date=2016 |title=Climate change not to blame for late Quaternary megafauna extinctions in Australia |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |volume=7 |page=10511 |bibcode=2016NatCo...710511S |doi=10.1038/ncomms10511 |pmc=4740174 |pmid=26821754 |doi-access=free}}</ref> rising to 72% in North America, 83% in South America and 88% in Australia,<ref name="AssessingTheCauses" /> with all mammals over {{Convert|1000|kg|lb|abbr=on}} becoming extinct in Australia and the Americas,<ref name="Pires-20242"/> and around 80% globally.<ref name=":2" /> Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia experienced more moderate extinctions than other regions.<ref name="AssessingTheCauses">{{cite journal |author1=Anthony D. Barnosky |author2=Paul L. Koch |author3=Robert S. Feranec |author4=Scott L. Wing |author5=Alan B. Shabel |year=2004 |title=Assessing the Causes of Late Pleistocene Extinctions on the Continents |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=306 |issue=5693 |pages=70–75 |bibcode=2004Sci...306...70B |citeseerx=10.1.1.574.332 |doi=10.1126/science.1101476 |pmid=15459379 |s2cid=36156087}}</ref>

The Late Pleistocene-early Holocene megafauna extinctions have often been seen as part of a single extinction event with later, widely agreed to be human-caused extinctions in the mid-late Holocene, such as those on [[Madagascar]] and [[New Zealand]], as the '''Late Quaternary extinction event'''.<ref name=":2" />

==Extinctions by biogeographic realm==
=== Summary ===
{|class=wikitable
|+ Extinctions range of the continental large and medium-sized mammals from 40,000 to 4,000 years BP in different biogeographic realms<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Were the Mammoths killed by the warming? (Testing of the climatic versions of the Wurm extinctions) |journal=Vestnik Zoologii|last=Putshkov|first=P. V.|date=1997|issue=Supplement No.4}}</ref>
!rowspan=2|[[Biogeographic realm]]
!colspan=3|Giants<br />(over 1,000&nbsp;kg)
!colspan=3|Very large<br />(400–1,000&nbsp;kg)
!colspan=3|Large<br />(150–400&nbsp;kg)
!colspan=3|Moderately large<br />(50–150&nbsp;kg)
!colspan=3|Medium<br />(10–50&nbsp;kg)
!colspan=3|Total
!rowspan=2|Regions included
|-
!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{tooltip|2=Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{tooltip|2=Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{tooltip|2=Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{tooltip|2=Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{tooltip|2=Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{tooltip|2=Number of mammals that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{tooltip|2=Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
|-
![[Afrotropical realm|Afrotropic]]
|  6 || −1 || 16.6%
|  4 || −1 || 25%
| 25 || −3 || 12%
| 32 || 0 || 0%
| 69 || −2 || 2.9%
|style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 136 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| -7 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 5.1% 
| [[Sub-Saharan Africa|Trans-Saharan Africa]] and [[Arabia]]
|-
![[Indomalayan realm|Indomalaya]]
|  5 || −2 || 40%
|  6 || −1 || 16.7%
| 10 || −1 || 10%
| 20 || −3 || 15%
| 56 || −1 || 1.8%
|style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 97 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| -8 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 8.2% 
| [[Indian subcontinent]], [[Southeast Asia]], and southern [[China]]
|-
![[Palearctic realm|Palearctic]]
|  8 || −8 || 100%
| 10 || −5 || 50%
| 14 || −5 || 35.7%
| 23 || −3 || 15%
| 41 || −1 || 2.4%
|style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 96  ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| -22 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 22.9% 
| [[Eurasia]] and [[North Africa]]
|-
![[Nearctic realm|Nearctic]]
|  5 || −5  || 100%
| 10 || −8  || 80%
| 26 || −22 || 84.6%
| 20 || −13 || 65%
| 25 || −9  || 36%
|style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 86 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| -57 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 66% 
| [[North America]]
|-
![[Neotropical realm|Neotropic]]
|  9 || −9  || 100%
| 12 || −12 || 100%
| 17 || −14 || 82%
| 20 || −11 || 55%
| 35 || −5  || 14.3%
|style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 93 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| -51 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 54% 
| [[South America]], [[Central America]], [[South Florida]], and the [[Caribbean]]
|-
![[Australasian realm|Australasia]]
|  4 || −4  || 100%
|  5 || −5  || 100%
|  6 || −6  || 100%
| 16 || −13 || 81.2%
| 25 || −10 || 40%
|style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 56 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| -38 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 67% 
| [[Australia]], [[New Guinea]], [[New Zealand]], and neighbouring islands.
|- style="background: #F2CEE0;"
!Global
|  33 || −26 || 78.8%
|  46 || −31 || 67.4%
|  86 || −47 || 54.7%
| 113 || −41 || 36.3%
| 215 || −23 || 10.1%
|style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 493 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| -168 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"|34% 
|
|}

=== Introduction ===
[[File:The proportion of extinct large mammal species (more than or equal to 10 kg) in each TDWG country during the last 132 000 years, only counting extinctions earlier than 1000 years BP.jpg|thumb|300px|The proportion of extinct large mammal species (more than or equal to {{convert|10|kg|abbr=on}}) in each country during the last 132,000 years, only counting extinctions earlier than 1000 years BP]]
The Late Pleistocene saw the extinction of many mammals weighing more than {{convert|40|kg}}, including around 80% of mammals over 1 tonne. The proportion of megafauna extinctions is progressively larger the further the human migratory distance from Africa, with the highest extinction rates in Australia, and North and South America.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Svenning |first1=Jens-Christian |last2=Lemoine |first2=Rhys T. |last3=Bergman |first3=Juraj |last4=Buitenwerf |first4=Robert |last5=Le Roux |first5=Elizabeth |last6=Lundgren |first6=Erick |last7=Mungi |first7=Ninad |last8=Pedersen |first8=Rasmus Ø. |date=2024 |title=The late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions: Patterns, causes, ecological consequences and implications for ecosystem management in the Anthropocene |journal=Cambridge Prisms: Extinction |language=en |volume=2 |pages=e5 |doi=10.1017/ext.2024.4 |issn=2755-0958 |pmc=11895740 |quote=The debate on the cause or causes of the late-Quaternary extinctions has been ongoing for over 200 years, but with greater rigor and focus from the 1960s onward (Martin, 1967; Koch and Barnosky, 2006). Though most current work accepts at least a contributory role for modern humans, the topic remains controversial. |doi-access=free|pmid=40078803 }}</ref>

The increased extent of extinction mirrors the migration pattern of modern humans: the further away from Africa, the more recently humans inhabited the area, the less time those environments (including its megafauna) had to become accustomed to humans (and vice versa).

There are two main hypotheses to explain this extinction:
* [[Climate change (general concept)|Climate change]] associated with the advance and retreat of major [[ice caps]] or [[ice sheets]] causing reduction in favorable habitat.
* Human hunting causing attrition of megafauna populations, commonly known as "overkill".<ref name="Updating Martin 20082">{{cite journal |last1=Gillespie|first1=Richard|year=2008 |title=Updating Martin's global extinction model |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=27 |issue=27–28 |pages=2522–2529|bibcode=2008QSRv...27.2522G |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.09.007}}</ref>
There are some inconsistencies between the current available data and the prehistoric overkill hypothesis. For instance, there are ambiguities around the timing of [[Australian megafauna]] extinctions.<ref name="Updating Martin 20082" /> Evidence supporting the prehistoric overkill hypothesis includes the persistence of megafauna on some islands for millennia past the disappearance of their continental cousins. For instance, [[Megalocnus|ground sloths]] survived on the [[Antilles]] long after North and South American ground sloths were extinct, woolly mammoths died out on remote [[Wrangel Island]] 6,000 years after their extinction on the mainland, and [[Steller's sea cow]]s persisted off the isolated and uninhabited [[Commander Islands]] for thousands of years after they had vanished from the continental shores of the north Pacific.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Anderson|first=Paul K.|date=July 1995 |title=Competition, Predation, and the Evolution and Extinction of Steller's Sea Cow, ''Hydrodamalis Gigas'' |journal=Marine Mammal Science|volume=11|issue=3|pages=391–4 |doi=10.1111/j.1748-7692.1995.tb00294.x |bibcode=1995MMamS..11..391A}}</ref> The later disappearance of these island species correlates with the later colonization of these islands by humans.
[[File:Paleontological landscape painting, White Sands National Park, United States.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Environment of what is now [[White Sands National Park]] in New Mexico, with [[Columbian mammoth]]s, a [[Paramylodon|ground sloth]], [[dire wolf|dire wolves]], [[American lion|lions]], [[Camelops|camels]], and [[Smilodon|saber-toothed cats]].]]
Still, there are some arguments that species responded differently to environmental changes, and no one factor by itself explains the large variety of extinctions. The causes may involve the interplay of [[Climate change (general concept)|climate change]], [[interspecific competition|competition between species]], unstable [[population dynamics]], and hunting as well as competition by humans.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1007/13836_2017_7 |chapter=Paleogenomics: Genome-Scale Analysis of Ancient DNA and Population and Evolutionary Genomic Inferences |title=Population Genomics |pages=394 |year=2018 |last1=Lan |first1=Tianying |last2=Lindqvist |first2=Charlotte |editor1-last=Lindqvist |editor1-first=C. |editor2-last=Rajora |editor2-first=O. |isbn=978-3-030-04587-6}}</ref>

The original debates as to whether human arrival times or climate change constituted the primary cause of megafaunal extinctions necessarily were based on paleontological evidence coupled with geological dating techniques. Recently, genetic analyses of surviving megafaunal populations have contributed new evidence, leading to the conclusion: "The inability of climate to predict the observed population decline of megafauna, especially during the past 75,000 years, implies that human impact became the main driver of megafauna dynamics around this date."<ref name="pmid37996436">{{Cite journal |last1=Bergman |first1=Juraj |last2=Pedersen |first2=Rasmus Ø |last3=Lundgren |first3=Erick J. |last4=Lemoine |first4=Rhys T. |last5=Monsarrat |first5=Sophie |last6=Pearce |first6=Elena A. |last7=Schierup |first7=Mikkel H. |last8=Svenning |first8=Jens-Christian |date=24 November 2023 |title=Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=7679 |doi=10.1038/s41467-023-43426-5 |issn=2041-1723 |doi-access=free|pmid=37996436 |pmc=10667484 |bibcode=2023NatCo..14.7679B }}</ref>

=== Africa ===
Although Africa was one of the least affected regions, the region still suffered extinctions, particularly around the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition. These extinctions were likely predominantly climatically driven by changes to grassland habitats.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Faith |first=J. Tyler |date=January 2014 |title=Late Pleistocene and Holocene mammal extinctions on continental Africa |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |language=en |volume=128 |pages=105–121 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2013.10.009 |bibcode=2014ESRv..128..105F}}</ref>

* '''[[Ungulate]]s'''
** ''[[Even-toed ungulate|Even-Toed Ungulates]]''
*** [[Suidae]] (swine)
**** ''[[Metridiochoerus]] '' (ssp.)
**** ''[[Kolpochoerus]]'' (ssp.)
***[[Bovidae]] (bovines, antelope)
**** [[Syncerus antiquus|Giant buffalo]] (''Syncerus antiquus'')
**** ''[[Megalotragus]]''
**** ''[[Rusingoryx]]''
**** [[Antidorcas australis|Southern springbok]] (''Antidorcas australis'')
**** [[Antidorcas bondi|Bond's springbok]] (''Antidorcas bondi'')
**** ''[[Damaliscus hypsodon]]''
**** ''[[Damaliscus niro]]''
**** [[Gazella atlantica|Atlantic gazelle]] (''Gazella atlantica'')
**** ''[[Gazella tingitana]]''
**** [[Caprinae]]
***** ''[[Makapania]]?''
***[[Cervidae]] (deer)
****''[[Megaceroides algericus]]'' (North Africa)
**''[[Odd-toed ungulate|Odd-toed Ungulates]]''
***[[Rhinoceros]] (Rhinocerotidae).
**** [[Stephanorhinus hemitoechus|Narrow-nosed rhinoceros]] (''Stephanorhinus hemitoechus'', North Africa)
**** ''[[Ceratotherium mauritanicum]]''
***Wild [[Equus (genus)|''Equus'']] spp.
**** Caballine horses
*****''Equus algericus'' (North Africa)
****Subgenus ''[[Asinus]]'' (asses)
*****''Equus melkiensis'' (North Africa)
**** Zebras
***** [[Equus capensis|Giant zebra]] (''Equus capensis'') 
***** [[Equus mauritanicus|Saharan zebra]] (''Equus mauritanicus'')<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heinrich |first=Earl |date=31 October 2013 |title=Ancient Nubia |url=http://www.earlheinrich.com/Ancient%20Nubia/_Private/Ch%203%20excerpt.pdf |journal=Cambridge Online Histories}}</ref>
*[[Proboscidea]]
**[[Elephantidae]] (elephants)
***''[[Palaeoloxodon iolensis]]''? (other authors suggest that this taxon went extinct at the end of the Middle Pleistocene)
* [[Rodentia]]
** ''Paraethomys filfilae''?

===South Asia and Southeast Asia===
[[File:MegatapirusDB.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Giant tapir]] (''Tapirus augustus'') restoration]]
[[File:ExtinctElephant-SiwalikHills.JPG|thumb|upright=0.8|Life-sized models of ''[[Stegodon]]'']]
[[File:Palaeoloxodon namadicus-bpk.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|''[[Palaeoloxodon namadicus]]'']]
[[File:Xiahe mandible.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Fossil jaw ([[Xiahe mandible]]) of a [[denisovan]]|alt=]]The timing of extinctions on the Indian subcontinent is uncertain due to a lack of reliable dating.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Turvey |first1=Samuel T. |last2=Sathe |first2=Vijay |last3=Crees |first3=Jennifer J. |last4=Jukar |first4=Advait M. |last5=Chakraborty |first5=Prateek |last6=Lister |first6=Adrian M. |date=January 2021 |title=Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions in India: How much do we know? |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=252 |pages=106740 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106740 |bibcode=2021QSRv..25206740T |s2cid=234265221|url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10116065/12/Turvey_India_megafauna_paper_highlights.pdf }}</ref> Similar issues have been reported for Chinese sites, though there is no evidence for any of the megafaunal taxa having survived into the Holocene in that region.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Turvey |first1=Samuel T. |last2=Tong |first2=Haowen |last3=Stuart |first3=Anthony J. |last4=Lister |first4=Adrian M. |date=September 2013 |title=Holocene survival of Late Pleistocene megafauna in China: a critical review of the evidence |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=76 |pages=156–166 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.06.030 |bibcode=2013QSRv...76..156T}}</ref> Extinctions in Southeast Asia and South China have been proposed to be the result of environmental shift from open to closed forested habitats.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Louys |first1=Julien |last2=Roberts |first2=Patrick |date=15 October 2020 |title=Environmental drivers of megafauna and hominin extinction in Southeast Asia |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2810-y |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=586 |issue=7829 |pages=402–406 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-2810-y |pmid=33029012 |bibcode=2020Natur.586..402L |hdl=10072/402368 |s2cid=222217295 |issn=0028-0836|hdl-access=free }}</ref>  
* '''[[Ungulate]]s'''
** ''[[Even-toed ungulate|Even-Toed Ungulates]]''
*** Several [[Bovidae]] spp.
**** ''[[Bos palaesondaicus]]'' (ancestor to the [[banteng]])
**** [[Bubalus cebuensis|Cebu tamaraw]] (''Bubalus cebuensis'')
**** ''[[Bubalus grovesi]]''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rozzi|first=Roberto|date=1 February 2017|title=A new extinct dwarfed buffalo from Sulawesi and the evolution of the subgenus Anoa: An interdisciplinary perspective |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=157 |pages=188–205 |bibcode=2017QSRv..157..188R |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.12.011|doi-access=free}}</ref>
**** [[Bubalus mephistopheles|Short-horned water buffalo]] (''Bubalus mephistopheles'')
**** ''[[Bubalus palaeokerabau]]''
*** [[Hippopotamidae]]
**** ''[[Hexaprotodon]]'' (Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia)<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Jukar |first1=Advait M.|last2=Patnaik|first2=Rajeev|last3=Chauhan |first3=Parth R. |last4=Li|first4=Hong-Chun|last5=Lin |first5=Jih-Pai|date=10 September 2019|title=The youngest occurrence of Hexaprotodon Falconer and Cautley, 1836 (Hippopotamidae, Mammalia) from South Asia with a discussion on its extinction |journal=Quaternary International |series=AMS 14C Applications II|volume=528 |pages=130–137|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2019.01.005 |issn=1040-6182 |bibcode=2019QuInt.528..130J|s2cid=133765385}}</ref>
** ''[[Odd-toed ungulate|Odd-toed Ungulates]]''
***''[[Equus (genus)|Equus]]'' spp.
**** ''[[Equus namadicus]]'' (Indian subcontinent)
**** [[Yunnan horse]] (''Equus yunanensis'')
*** [[Giant tapir]] (''Tapirus augustus,'' Southeast Asia and Southern China)
*** ''[[Taprus sinensis]]''
* '''[[Pholidota]]'''
** Giant Asian pangolin (''[[Manis palaeojavanica]]'')
* '''[[Carnivora]]'''
** [[Ursidae]] (bears)
*** ''[[Ailuropoda baconi]]'' (ancestor to the [[giant panda]], which it is often considered a subspecies of<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hu |first1=Haiqian |last2=Tong |first2=Haowen |last3=Shao |first3=Qingfeng |last4=Wei |first4=Guangbiao |last5=Yu |first5=Haidong |last6=Shi |first6=Jingsong |last7=Wang |first7=Xunqian |last8=Xiong |first8=Can |last9=Lin |first9=Yu |last10=Li |first10=Ning |last11=Wei |first11=Zhaoying |last12=Wang |first12=Ping |last13=Jiangzuo |first13=Qigao |date=March 2023 |title=New remains of Ailuropoda melanoleuca baconi from Yanjinggou, China: Throwing light on the evolution of giant pandas during the Pleistocene |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10914-022-09637-1 |journal=Journal of Mammalian Evolution |language=en |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=137–154 |doi=10.1007/s10914-022-09637-1 |issn=1064-7554}}</ref> distinctiveness from the living species has been disputed<ref>{{Citation |last=Zhang |first=Hanwen |title=Late Pleistocene of East Asia |date=2025 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science |pages=479–500 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9780323999311002725 |access-date=2025-04-26 |publisher=Elsevier |language=en |doi=10.1016/b978-0-323-99931-1.00272-5 |isbn=978-0-443-29997-1}}</ref>)
** [[Hyaenidae]] (hyenas)
*** [[Cave hyena]] (''Crocuta'' (''Crocuta'') ''ultima'' East Asia and Mainland Southeast Asia)
*'''[[Afrotheria]]'''
** [[Proboscidea]]ns
*** [[Stegodontidae]]
**** ''[[Stegodon]]'' spp''.'' (including ''Stegodon florensis'' on Flores, ''Stegodon orientalis'' in East and Southeast Asia, and ''Stegodon'' sp. in the Indian subcontinent)
***[[Elephantidae]]
**** ''[[Palaeoloxodon]]'' spp.
***** ''[[Palaeoloxodon namadicus]]'' (Indian subcontinent, possibly also Southeast Asia)
* '''Birds'''
** [[Shiriyanetta|Japanese flightless duck]] (''Shiriyanetta hasegawai'')<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Watanabe |first1=Junya |last2=Matsuoka |first2=Hiroshige |date=2 November 2015 |title=Flightless diving duck (Aves, Anatidae) from the Pleistocene of Shiriya, northeast Japan |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=35 |issue=6 |pages=e994745 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2014.994745 |bibcode=2015JVPal..35E4745W |s2cid=83689129}}</ref>
** ''[[Leptoptilos robustus]]''
** [[Ostrich]]es (''Struthio'') (Indian subcontinent)
*'''Reptiles'''
**[[Crocodilia]]
***''[[Alligator munensis]]''?
**[[Testudines]] (turtles and tortoises)
***''[[Manouria oyamai]]'' 
* '''Primates'''
** Several [[simian]] (Simiiformes) spp.
*** ''Pongo'' ([[orangutans]])
**** ''[[Pongo weidenreichi]]'' (South China)
*** Various ''[[Homo]]'' spp. (archaic humans)
**** ''[[Homo erectus soloensis]]'' (Java)
**** ''[[Homo floresiensis]]'' (Flores)
**** ''[[Homo luzonensis]]'' (Luzon, Philippines)
**** [[Denisovans]] (''Homo'' sp.)

===Europe, Northern and East Asia===
[[File:Saiga.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|[[Saiga antelope]] (''Saiga spp.'') inhabited a range from [[Great Britain|England]] and [[France]] to [[Yukon]] in the Late Pleistocene, diversifying into two species. ''S. borealis'' is now extinct and the [[near-threatened]] ''[[Saiga antelope|S. tatarica]]'' is now limited to the [[Eurasian Steppe|steppe]] in [[Kazakhstan]] and [[Mongolia]]]]
[[File:Hippopotamus_amphibius_Whipsnade_Zoo.jpg|thumb|[[Hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus'' ''amphibius'') formerly inhabited Europe as far north as Great Britain at the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, becoming extinct in Europe around 30,000 years ago]]
[[File:Wild_horse_reconstruction.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the five [[phenotype]]s of [[Tarpan|Pleistocene wild horse]]. The coat colours and dimensions are based on genetic evidence and historic descriptions]]
[[File:Elasm062.jpg|thumb|''[[Elasmotherium|Elasmotherium sibiricum]]'' reconstruction]]
[[File:16 PanneauDesLions(CentreGauche)RhinocérosEnFuite.jpg|thumb|Cave paintings of the [[woolly rhinoceros]] (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') in [[Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave]], [[France]]]]
[[File:Lions_painting,_Chauvet_Cave_(museum_replica).jpg|thumb|The 'Gallery of Lions', representations of the [[Panthera leo spelaea|Eurasian cave lion]] in [[Chauvet Cave|Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave]], [[France]]]]
[[File:ZOO_Olomouc07_Panthera_pardus_orientalis.JPG|thumb|The [[leopard]] (''Panthera pardus'') inhabited the entire expanse of [[Afro-Eurasia]] below the [[54th parallel north]], from modern day [[Spain]] and the [[United Kingdom|UK]] in the west, to [[South Africa]] in the south, and [[Siberia]], [[Japan]] and [[Sundaland]] in the east during the Late Pleistocene]]
[[File:Ursus_spelaeus_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|[[Cave bear]] (''Ursus spelaeus'') reconstruction]] 
[[File:Heinrichshöhle 7.jpg|thumb|[[Cave hyena]] (''Crocuta crocuta spelaea'') reconstruction]]
[[File:Mamut_lanudo.jpg|thumb|The [[woolly mammoth]] became extinct around [[10th millennium BC|10,000&nbsp;BCE]] – except for diminutive relict populations on [[Saint Paul Island (Alaska)|St. Paul Island]] and [[Wrangel Island]], which humans did not colonise until 3,600&nbsp;BCE and [[2nd millennium BC|2,000&nbsp;BCE]] respectively]]
[[File:Reproducción_de_Palaeoloxodon_antiquus.jpg|thumb|Model of the European [[straight-tusked elephant]] (''Paleoloxodon antiquus'')]]
The [[Palearctic realm]] spans the entirety of the [[Europe|European continent]] and stretches into [[North Asia|northern Asia]], through the [[Caucasus]] and [[central Asia]] to [[North China|northern China]], [[Siberia]] and [[Beringia]]. Extinctions were more severe in Northern Eurasia than in Africa or South and Southeast Asia. These extinctions were staggered over tens of thousands of years, spanning from around 50,000 years [[Before Present]] (BP) to around 10,000 years BP, with temperate adapted species like the [[straight-tusked elephant]] and the [[narrow-nosed rhinoceros]] generally going extinct earlier than cold adapted species like the [[woolly mammoth]] and [[woolly rhinoceros]]. Climate change has been considered a probable major factor in the extinctions, possibly in combination with human hunting.<ref name="EuropeanPerspective" />

{{See also|List of extinct animals of Europe}}

* '''Ungulates'''
** ''Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Various [[Bovidae]] spp.
**** [[Steppe bison]] (''Bison priscus'')
**** Baikal yak (''Bos baikalensis'')<ref name="Hoffecker2">{{Cite book |last1=Hoffecker |first1=John F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQkpVuA7_6UC&q=baikal+yak&pg=PA56 |title=Human Ecology of Beringia |last2=Elias |first2=Scott A. |date=29 May 2012 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-50388-4}}</ref>
**** [[Bubalus murrensis|European water buffalo]] (''Bubalus murrensis'')
**** ''[[Bubalus wansijocki]]'' (extinct buffalo native to North China)
**** ''[[Bubalus teilhardi]]''
**** [[Tahr|European tahr]] (''Hemitragus cedrensis'')<ref name="Tautavel">{{Cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.geobios.2004.08.004 |title=Découverte de Capra caucasica et d'Hemitragus cedrensis (Mammalia, Bovidae) dans les niveaux du Pléistocène supérieur de la Caune de l'Arago (Tautavel, France): Implication biochronologique dans le contexte du Bassin Méditerranéen |year=2006 |last1=Rivals |first1=Florent |journal=Geobios |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=85–102 |bibcode=2006Geobi..39...85R }}</ref><ref name="Creegut-Bonnoure-2009">{{Cite journal |last=Creégut-Bonnoure |first=Evelyne |title=Biochronologie et grands mammifères au Pléistocène moyen et supérieur en Europe occidentale: l'Apport des genres hemitragus et capra |date=12 March 2009 |journal=Quaternaire |volume=20 |pages=481–508 |language=fr |doi=10.4000/quaternaire.5345 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
**** [[Praeovibos priscus|Giant muskox]] (''Praeovibos priscus'')<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pleistocene mammals of Europe |last=Kurtén |first=Björn |year=2008|publisher=Aldine Transaction|isbn=978-0-202-30953-8|oclc=751413776}}</ref>
**** Northern [[saiga antelope]] (''Saiga borealis'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Baryshnikov|first1=G.|last2=Tikhonov |first2=A. |date=1 October 1994|title=Notes on skulls of Pleistocene Saiga of Northern Eurasia|journal=Historical Biology|volume=8|issue=1–4 |pages=209–234 |doi=10.1080/10292389409380478|bibcode=1994HBio....8..209B }}</ref>
**** Twisted-horned antelope (''[[Spirocerus]] kiakhtensis'')<ref name="HumanEcologyOfBeringia">{{Cite book|last1=Hoffecker|first1=John F. |last2=Elias |first2=Scott A.|date=29 May 2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQkpVuA7_6UC |title=Human Ecology of Beringia |publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-50388-4}}</ref><ref name="MammothFaunaEcologicalStructure">{{Cite journal |last1=Vereshchagin |first1=N. K. |last2=Baryshnikov |first2=G. F. |date=1 January 1991 |title=The ecological structure of the "Mammoth Fauna" in Eurasia |journal=Annales Zoologici Fennici |volume=28 |issue=3/4 |pages=253–259 |jstor=23735450}}</ref>
**** Goat-horned antelope (''[[Parabubalis]] capricornis'')<ref name="HumanEcologyOfBeringia" /><ref name="MammothFaunaEcologicalStructure" />
*** Various [[deer]] (Cervidae) spp.
**** [[Giant deer]]/Irish elk (''Megaloceros giganteus'')
**** [[Candiacervus|Cretan deer]] (''Candiacervus'' spp.)
**** ''[[Haploidoceros]] mediterraneus''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sanz |first1=Montserrat |last2=Daura |first2=Joan |last3=Brugal |first3=Jean-Philip |date=1 January 2014 |title=First occurrence of the extinct deer Haploidoceros in the Iberian Peninsula in the Upper Pleistocene of the Cova del Rinoceront (Castelldefels, Barcelona)|journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=27–40 |doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2013.06.005|bibcode=2014CRPal..13...27S }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rivals |first1=Florent |last2=Sanz |first2=Montserrat |last3=Daura |first3=Joan |date=1 May 2016 |title=First reconstruction of the dietary traits of the Mediterranean deer (Haploidoceros mediterraneus) from the Cova del Rinoceront (NE Iberian Peninsula) |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=449 |pages=101–107 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.02.014 |bibcode=2016PPP...449..101R}}</ref>
**** ''[[Sinomegaceros]]'' spp. (including ''Sinomegaceros yabei'' in Japan, and ''Sinomegaceros ordosianus'' and possibly ''Sinomegaceros pachyosteus'' in China).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Geist |first=Valerius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcWZX-IMEVkC&q=sinomegaceros&pg=PA125 |title=Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behaviour, and Ecology |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8117-0496-0}}</ref>
**** [[Cervus astylodon|Dwarf Ryukyu deer]] (''Cervus astylodon'')
*** All native ''[[Hippopotamus (genus)|Hippopotamus]]'' spp.<ref name="Elias">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSTnzG6yetsC|title=Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science|last1=Elias|first1=Scott|last2=Mock|first2=Cary|date=25 March 2013|publisher=Newnes|isbn=978-0-444-53642-6}}</ref>
**** ''[[Hippopotamus amphibius]]'' (European range, still extant in Africa)
**** [[Hippopotamus melitensis|Maltese dwarf hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus melitensis'')
**** [[Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus minor'')
**** [[Hippopotamus pentlandi|Sicilian dwarf hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus pentlandi'')
*** ''[[Camelus knoblochi]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.paleorostov.narod.ru/Titov_Camelus_knoblochi.pdf|title=Habitat conditions for Camelus knoblochi and factors in its extinction by Vadim V. Titov}}</ref> and other ''[[Camel]]us'' spp.
** ''Odd-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Various [[Equus (genus)|''Equus'']] spp. e.g.
**** Various [[wild horse]] subspecies (e.g. ''Equus c.'' ''gallicus'',<ref name="researchgate.net2">{{cite book |last=Foronova |first=I. |title=Equids in time and space. Papers in honour of Véra Eisenmann. Proceedings of the 9th conference of the International Council of Archaeozoology, Durham, August 2002 |publisher=Oxbow Books |year=2006 |editor=M. Mashkour |pages=20–30 |chapter=Late quaternary equids (genus Equus) of South-western and South-central Siberia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Chase |first=Philip G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XTPbVI5Gf6MC&q=equus+gallicus&pg=PA146 |title=The Cave of Fontéchevade: Recent Excavations and Their Paleoanthropological Implications |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-521-89844-7}}</ref> ''Equus'' ''c.'' ''latipes'',<ref name="MammothFaunaEcologicalStructure" /><ref name="researchgate.net2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Yanko-Hombach |first1=Valentina |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDYXosqZpegC&q=equus+latipes&pg=PA288 |title=The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate and Human Settlement |last2=Gilbert |first2=Allan S. |last3=Panin |first3=Nicolae |last4=Dolukhanov |first4=Pavel M. |date=15 November 2006 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4020-5302-3}}</ref> ''Equus c.'' ''uralensis''<ref name="researchgate.net2" />)
**** ''[[Equus dalianensis]]'' (wild horse species known from North China)
**** [[European wild ass]] (''Equus hydruntinus'') (survived in refugia in Anatolia until late Holocene)
**** ''[[Equus ovodovi]]'' (survived in refugia in North China until late Holocene)
*** All native [[Rhinocerotidae|Rhinoceros]] (Rhinocerotidae) spp.
**** ''[[Elasmotherium]]''
**** [[Woolly rhinoceros]] (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'')
**** ''[[Stephanorhinus]]'' spp. 
***** [[Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis|Merck's rhinoceros]] (''Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis'')
***** [[Narrow-nosed rhinoceros]] (''Stephanorhinus hemiotoechus'')
* '''Carnivora'''
** ''[[Caniformia]]''
*** ''[[Canidae]]''
**** [[Caninae]]
***** [[Wolf|Wolves]]
****** [[Cave wolf]] (''Canis lupus spelaeus'')
****** [[Dire wolf]] (''Aenocyon dirus'')<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lu |first1=Dan |last2=Yang |first2=Yangheshan |last3=Li |first3=Qiang |last4=Ni |first4=Xijun |date=30 July 2021 |title=A late Pleistocene fossil from Northeastern China is the first record of the dire wolf (Carnivora: Canis dirus) in Eurasia |journal=Quaternary International |series=Cave Deposits from Luotuo Hill, Northeast China: A Geochronologically Calibrated Mammalian Biostratigraphic Standard for the Quaternary of Eastern Asia |volume=591 |pages=87–92 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2020.09.054 |issn=1040-6182 |bibcode=2021QuInt.591...87L |s2cid=224877090}}</ref>
***** [[Dhole]]s
****** [[European dhole]] (''Cuon alpinus europaeus'')
***** [[Sardinian dhole]] (''Cynotherium sardous'')
*** [[Arctoidea]]
**** Various [[Ursus (mammal)|''Ursus'']] spp.
***** [[Steppe brown bear]] (''Ursus arctos'' "''priscus''")<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Marciszak |first1=Adrian |last2=Schouwenburg |first2=Charles |last3=Lipecki |first3=Grzegorz |last4=Talamo |first4=Sahra |last5=Shpansky |first5=Andrey |last6=Malikov |first6=Dmitriy |last7=Gornig |first7=Wiktoria |date=1 December 2019 |title=Steppe brown bear Ursus arctos "priscus" from the Late Pleistocene of Europe |journal=Quaternary International |series=Quaternary Stratigraphy and Hominids Around Europe:: SEQS 2017 Meeting |volume=534 |pages=158–170 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2019.02.042 |issn=1040-6182 |bibcode=2019QuInt.534..158M |s2cid=133750923}}</ref>
***** [[Ursus ingressus|Gamssulzen cave bear]] (''Ursus ingressus'')<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Münzel |first1=Susanne C. |last2=Rivals |first2=Florent |last3=Pacher |first3=Martina |last4=Döppes |first4=Doris |last5=Rabeder |first5=Gernot |last6=Conard |first6=Nicholas J. |last7=Bocherens |first7=Hervé |date=7 August 2014 |title=Behavioural ecology of Late Pleistocene bears (Ursus spelaeus, Ursus ingressus): Insight from stable isotopes (C, N, O) and tooth microwear |journal=Quaternary International |series=Fossil remains in karst and their role in reconstructing Quaternary paleoclimate and paleoenvironments |volume=339|pages=148–163 |bibcode=2014QuInt.339..148M |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2013.10.020}}</ref>
***** [[Ursus rossicus|Pleistocene small cave bear]] (''Ursus rossicus'')
***** [[Cave bear]] (''Ursus spelaeus'')
***** [[Ursus maritimus tyrannus|Giant polar bear]] (''Ursus maritimus tyrannus'')
**** [[Musteloidea]]
***** [[Mustelidae]]
****** Several [[Lutrinae|otter]] (Lutrinae) spp.
******* [[Cyrnaonyx|Robust Pleistocene European otter]] (''Cyrnaonyx'')
******* ''[[Algarolutra]]''
******* [[Megalenhydris barbaricina|Sardinian giant otter]] (''Megalenhydris barbaricina'')
******* [[Sardolutra|Sardinian dwarf otter]] (''Sardolutra'')
******* [[Cretan otter]] (''Lutrogale cretensis'')
** ''[[Feliformia]]''
*** Various [[Felidae]] (cats) spp.
**** ''[[Homotherium|Homotherium latidens]]'' (sometimes called the scimitar-toothed cat)
**** [[Cave lynx]] (''Lynx pardinus spelaeus'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ghezzo|first1=Elena|last2=Boscaini|first2=Alberto|last3=Madurell-Malapeira|first3=Joan|last4=Rook|first4=Lorenzo|date=16 December 2014|title=Lynx remains from the Pleistocene of Valdemino cave (Savona, Northwestern Italy), and the oldest occurrence of Lynx spelaeus (Carnivora, Felidae)|journal=Rendiconti Lincei|volume=26|issue=2 |pages=87–95|doi=10.1007/s12210-014-0363-4|hdl=11336/59435|s2cid=85194755|hdl-access=free}}</ref>
**** [[Issoire lynx]] (''Lynx issiodorensis'')
**** ''[[Panthera]]'' spp.
***** [[Panthera leo spelaea|Cave lion]] (''Panthera spelaea'')
***** [[European ice age leopard]] (''Panthera pardus spelaea'')
***[[Hyaenidae]] (hyenas)
**** [[Cave hyena]] (''Crocuta crocuta spelaea'' and ''Crocuta crocuta ultima'')
****''[["Hyaena" prisca]]''
* '''All native [[Elephantidae|Elephant]] (Elephantidae) spp.'''
** ''[[Mammoth]]s''
*** [[Woolly mammoth]] (''Mammuthus primigenius'')
*** [[Mammuthus lamarmorai|Dwarf Sardinian mammoth]] (''Mammuthus lamarmorai'')
** [[Straight-tusked elephant]] (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') (Europe)
** ''[[Palaeoloxodon naumanni]]'' (Japan, possibly also Korea and northern China)
** ''[[Palaeoloxodon huaihoensis]]'' (China)
** [[Dwarf elephant]]
*** ''[[Palaeoloxodon creutzburgi]]'' (Crete)
*** [[Cyprus dwarf elephant]] (''Palaeoloxodon cypriotes'')
*** ''[[Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis]]'' (Sicily)
* '''[[Rodent]]s'''
** ''Allocricetus bursae''
** ''[[Cricetus|Cricetus major]]'' (alternatively ''Cricetus cricetus major'')
** ''[[Dicrostonyx|Dicrostonyx gulielmi]]'' (ancestor to the [[Arctic lemming]])
** [[Hystrix refossa|Giant Eurasian porcupine]] (''Hystrix refossa'')
** ''[[Leithia]]'' spp. (Maltese and Sicilian giant dormouse)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/results.asp|title=Search for images at Natural History Museum Picture Library|website=piclib.nhm.ac.uk|access-date=20 April 2016|archive-date=19 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419002907/http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/results.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref>
** ''[[Marmot|Marmota paleocaucasica]]''
** ''[[Microtus|Microtus grafi]]''
** ''[[Mimomys]]'' spp.
*** ''M. pyrenaicus''
*** ''M. chandolensis''
** ''[[Pliomys|Pliomys lenki]]''
** ''[[Spermophilus|Spermophilus citelloides]]''
** ''[[Spermophilus|Spermophilus severskensis]]''
** ''[[Spermophilus|Spermophilus superciliosus]]''
** ''[[Trogontherium|Trogontherium cuvieri]]'' (large beaver)
** ''[[Lagomorpha]]''
*** ''[[Mountain hare|Lepus tanaiticus]]'' (alternatively ''Lepus timidus tanaiticus'')
*** [[Pika]] (''Ochotona'') spp. e.g. 
**** [[Giant pika]] (''Ochotona whartoni'')
*** ''Tonomochota'' spp.
**** ''T. khasanensis''
**** ''T. sikhotana''
**** ''T. major''
* '''Birds'''
** [[Anser djuktaiensis|Yakutian goose]] (''Anser djuktaiensis'')
** East Asian Ostrich (''[[Struthio anderssoni]]'')
** Various European [[crane (bird)|crane]] spp. (Genus ''[[Grus (genus)|Grus]]'')
*** ''Grus primigenia''
*** ''Grus melitensis''
** [[Cretan owl]] (''Athene cretensis'')
*Primates
** ''[[Homo]]''
*** [[Denisovan]]s (''Homo'' sp.)
*** [[Neanderthals]] (''Homo'' (''sapiens'') ''neanderthalensis''; survived until about 40,000 years ago on the Iberian peninsula)
* '''Reptiles'''
** ''[[Solitudo]] sicula''; survived in [[Sicily]] until about 12,500 years ago.
** ''[[Lacerta siculimelitensis]]''; from [[Malta]].

==={{visible anchor|North America}}===
{{See also|List of North American animals extinct in the Holocene}}
Extinctions in North America were concentrated at the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 13,800–11,400 years Before Present, which were coincident with the onset of the [[Younger Dryas]] cooling period, as well as the emergence of the hunter-gatherer [[Clovis culture]]. The relative importance of human and climactic factors in the North American extinctions has been the subject of significant controversy. Extinctions totalled around 35 genera.<ref name="SynchronousExtinction" /> The radiocarbon record for North America south of the Alaska-Yukon region has been described as "inadequate" to construct a reliable chronology.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stuart |first=Anthony John |date=May 2015 |title=Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions on the continents: a short review: LATE QUATERNARY MEGAFAUNAL EXTINCTIONS |journal=Geological Journal |language=en |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=338–363 |doi=10.1002/gj.2633 |s2cid=128868400}}</ref>
[[File:Bison_latifrons_fossil_buffalo_(Pleistocene;_North_America)_1_(15257877377).jpg|thumb|[[Bison latifrons|Long-horned/Giant bison]] (''Bos latifrons''), fossil bison skeleton (public display, [[Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal|Cincinnati Museum of Natural History & Science]], [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]], [[United States]])]]
[[File:Preptoceras sinclairi.jpg|thumb|Mounted skeleton of a [[shrub-ox]] (''Euceratherium collinum'')]]
[[File:Life_restoration_cervalces_scotti.jpg|thumb|Life restoration of ''[[Cervalces scotti|Stag-moose]]'']]
[[File:Tetrameryx shuleri.png|thumb|''[[Tetrameryx|Tetrameryx shuleri]]'' restoration]]
[[File:Catagonus_wagneri_closeup.jpg|thumb|A [[Chacoan peccary]] (''Catagonus wagneri''), believed to be the closest surviving relative of the extinct ''[[Platygonus]]'']]
[[File:Camelops hesternus Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|[[Camelops|Western camel]] (''Camelops hesternus'') reconstruction]]
[[File:Equus_ferus_lambei.jpg|thumb|Life restoration of the [[Equus lambei|Yukon horse]] (''Equus lambei'')]]
[[File:Mixotoxodon.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of ''[[Mixotoxodon|Mixotoxodon larenis]]'', a [[toxodontid]] [[notoungulate]]]]
[[File:Smilodon_fatalis_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|[[Smilodon|Saber-toothed cat]] (''Smilodon fatalis'') reconstruction]]
[[File:Homotherium life reconstruction.png|thumb|Reconstruction of the sabertooth cat ''[[Homotherium]]'']]
[[File:Panthera_leo_atrox_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|[[American lion]] (''Panthera atrox'') reconstruction]]
[[File:2010-kabini-dhole.jpg|thumb|The [[dhole]] (''Cuon alpinus''), now restricted to the southern portions of [[Asia]], was present from [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]] to [[Mexico]] during the [[Late Pleistocene]]]]
[[File:Arctodus_simus_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|Giant short-faced bear (''[[Arctodus|Arctodus simus]]'') reconstruction]]
[[File:Mammut_americanum_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|[[American mastodon]] (''Mammut americanum'') reconstruction]]
[[File:Mammuthus_columbi_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|[[Columbian mammoth]] (''Mammuthus columbi'') reconstruction]]
[[File:Giant-beaver-fieldmuseum.jpg|thumb|[[Castoroides|Giant beaver]] (''Castoroides ohioensis'') skeleton displayed at the [[Field Museum of Natural History]], [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], [[United States]]]]
[[File:Paralouatta marianae skull.jpg|thumb|Skull of ''[[Paralouatta|Paralouatta marianae]]'', one of the two Cuban members of the extinct [[Xenotrichini|Antilles monkeys]] (Xenotrichini)]]
[[File:WLA hmns Giant ground sloth 2.jpg|thumb|''[[Eremotherium|Eremotherium laurillardi]]'' skeleton displayed at the [[Houston Museum of Natural Science]]]]
[[File:Nothrotheriops.jpg|thumb|Life restoration of ''[[Nothrotheriops|Nothrotheriops texanus]]'']]
[[File:Glyptotheriumm.jpg|thumb|''[[Glyptotherium]]'' reconstruction]]
[[File:Gymnogyps_amplus_skeleton.jpg|thumb|[[Californian turkey]] (''Meleagris californica'') and [[Gymnogyps amplus|megafaunal Californian condor]] (''Gymnogyps amplus'') fossil displays at [[La Brea Tar Pits]]]]
[[File:Teratornis fossil.jpg|thumb|[[Teratornis merriami]] skeleton from the [[La Brea Tar Pits]] in flight pose]]
[[File:Ornimegalonyx_oteroi.jpg|thumb|upright|Reconstruction of the [[Ornimegalonyx oteroi|Cuban giant owl]] (''Ornimegalonyx oteroi''), of [[Pleistocene]] [[Cuba]], with the carcass of a large [[solenodon]]]]
North American extinctions (noted as [[herbivores]]  ('''H''') or [[carnivores]] ('''C''')) included:

* '''Ungulates'''
** ''Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Various [[Bovidae]] spp.
**** Most forms of Pleistocene [[bison]] (only [[American bison|''Bison bison'']] in North America, and [[European bison|''Bison bonasus'']] in Eurasia, survived)
***** [[Bison antiquus|Ancient bison]] (''Bison antiquus'') ('''H''')
***** [[Bison latifrons|Long-horned/Giant bison]] (''Bison latifrons'') ('''H''')
***** [[Steppe bison]] (''Bison priscus'') ('''H''')
***** ''[[Bison occidentalis]]'' ('''H''')
**** Several members of ''[[Caprinae]]'' (the [[muskox]] survived)
***** [[Praeovibos priscus|Giant muskox]] (''Praeovibos priscus'') ('''H''')
***** [[Euceratherium|Shrub-ox]] (''Euceratherium collinum'') ('''H''')
***** [[Bootherium|Harlan's muskox]] (''Bootherium bombifrons'') ('''H''')
***** [[Soergelia|Soergel's ox]] (''Soergelia mayfieldi'') ('''H''')
***** [[Harrington's mountain goat]] (''Oreamnos harringtoni''; smaller and more southern distribution than its [[Mountain Goat|surviving relative]]) ('''H''')
**** [[Saiga|Saiga antelope]] (''Saiga tatarica''; extirpated) ('''H''')
*** Deer
**** [[Cervalces scotti|Stag-moose]] (''Cervalces scotti'') ('''H''')
**** [[American mountain deer]] (''Odocoileus lucasi'') ('''H''')
**** ''[[Torontoceros|Torontoceros hypnogeos]]'' ('''H''')
*** Various [[Antilocapridae]] genera ([[pronghorn]]s survived)
**** [[Capromeryx minor|''Capromeryx'']] ('''H''')
**** ''[[Stockoceros]]'' ('''H''')
**** ''[[Tetrameryx]]'' ('''H''')
**** [[Antilocapra pacifica|Pacific pronghorn]] (''Antilocapra pacifica'') ('''H''')
*** Several [[peccary]] (Tayassuidae) spp.
**** [[Platygonus compressus|Flat-headed peccary]] (''Platygonus'') ('''H''')
**** [[Long-nosed peccary]] (''Mylohyus'') ('''H''')
**** [[Collared peccary]] (''Dicotyles tajacu''; extirpated, range semi-recolonised) ('''H''') (''Muknalia minimus'' is a junior synonym)
*** Various members of [[Camelidae]]
**** [[Camelops|Western camel]] (''Camelops hesternus'') ('''H''')
**** [[Hemiauchenia|Stilt legged llamas]] (''Hemiauchenia'' ssp.) ('''H''')
**** [[Palaeolama|Stout legged llamas]] (''Palaeolama'' ssp.) ('''H''')
** ''Odd-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** All native forms of [[Equidae]]
**** Caballine true horses (''Equus cf. ferus'') from the Late Pleistocene of North America have historically been assigned to many different species, including ''[[Equus fraternus]]'', ''[[Equus scotti]]'' and ''[[Equus lambei]],'' but the taxonomy of these horses is unclear, and many of these species may be synonymous with each other, perhaps only representing a single species.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vershinina |first1=Alisa O. |last2=Heintzman |first2=Peter D. |last3=Froese |first3=Duane G. |last4=Zazula |first4=Grant |last5=Cassatt-Johnstone |first5=Molly |last6=Dalén |first6=Love |last7=Der Sarkissian |first7=Clio |last8=Dunn |first8=Shelby G. |last9=Ermini |first9=Luca |last10=Gamba |first10=Cristina |last11=Groves |first11=Pamela |last12=Kapp |first12=Joshua D. |last13=Mann |first13=Daniel H. |last14=Seguin-Orlando |first14=Andaine |last15=Southon |first15=John |date=December 2021 |title=Ancient horse genomes reveal the timing and extent of dispersals across the Bering Land Bridge |journal=Molecular Ecology |language=en |volume=30 |issue=23 |pages=6144–6161 |doi=10.1111/mec.15977 |pmid=33971056 |bibcode=2021MolEc..30.6144V |hdl=10995/118212 |s2cid=234360028 |issn=0962-1083|hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cirilli |first1=Omar |last2=Machado |first2=Helena |last3=Arroyo-Cabrales |first3=Joaquin |last4=Barrón-Ortiz |first4=Christina I. |last5=Davis |first5=Edward |last6=Jass |first6=Christopher N. |last7=Jukar |first7=Advait M. |last8=Landry |first8=Zoe |last9=Marín-Leyva |first9=Alejandro H. |last10=Pandolfi |first10=Luca |last11=Pushkina |first11=Diana |last12=Rook |first12=Lorenzo |last13=Saarinen |first13=Juha |last14=Scott |first14=Eric |last15=Semprebon |first15=Gina |date=24 August 2022 |title=Evolution of the Family Equidae, Subfamily Equinae, in North, Central and South America, Eurasia and Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene |journal=Biology |language=en |volume=11 |issue=9 |pages=1258 |doi=10.3390/biology11091258 |doi-access=free |issn=2079-7737 |pmc=9495906 |pmid=36138737}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mitchell |first1=Kieren J. |last2=Bover |first2=Pere |last3=Salis |first3=Alexander T. |last4=Mudge |first4=Caitlin |last5=Heiniger |first5=Holly |last6=Thompson |first6=Mary |last7=Hockett |first7=Bryan |last8=Weyrich |first8=Laura S. |last9=Cooper |first9=Alan |last10=Meachen |first10=Julie A. |date=20 February 2023 |title=Evidence for Pleistocene gene flow through the ice-free corridor from extinct horses and camels from Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=647|pages=71–80 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2021.11.017|bibcode=2023QuInt.647...71M |doi-access=free }}</ref>
**** [[Haringtonhippus|Stilt-legged horse]] (''Haringtonhippus francisci'' / ''Equus francisci''; ('''H''')
*** Tapirs (''[[Tapirus]]''; three species)
**** [[California tapir]] (''Tapirus californicus'') ('''H''')
**** [[Tapirus merriami|Merriam's tapir]] (''Tapirus merriami'') ('''H''')
**** [[Tapirus veroensis|Vero tapir]] (''Tapirus veroensis'') ('''H''')
**{{Extinct}}Order [[Notoungulata]]
*** ''[[Mixotoxodon]]''<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260140036 |title=The First Occurrence of a Toxodont (Mammalia, Notoungulata) in the United States |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=229–232 |access-date=23 January 2016 |jstor=23361085 |last1=Lundelius |first1=Ernest L |last2=Bryant |first2=Vaughn M |last3=Mandel |first3=Rolfe |last4=Thies |first4=Kenneth J |last5=Thoms |first5=Alston |year=2013 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2012.711405 |bibcode=2013JVPal..33..229L |hdl=1808/13587 |s2cid=53601518|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Rodriguez-de la Rosa, Ruben A. |author2=Guzman Gutierrez, Jose Ruben |author3=Mendoza, Carlos |date=December 2001 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230820008 |title=A New Occurrence of Toxodonts in the Pleistocene of México |journal=Current Research in the Pleistocene |volume=28 |pages=29–30 |access-date=23 January 2016}}</ref> ('''H''')
* '''Carnivora'''
** ''Feliformia''
*** Several [[Felidae]] spp.
**** Sabertooths ({{Extinct}}[[Machairodontinae]])
***** ''[[Smilodon fatalis]]'' (sabertooth cat) ('''C''')
***** ''[[Homotherium serum]]'' scimitar-toothed cat ('''C''')
**** [[American cheetah]] (''Miracinonyx trumani''; not true cheetah)
**** [[Cougar]] (''Puma concolor''; megafaunal [[Ecomorphology|ecomorph]] extirpated from North America, South American populations recolonised former range) ('''C''')
**** [[Jaguarundi]] (''Herpailurus yagouaroundi''; extirpated, range semi-recolonised) ('''C''')
**** [[Margay]] (''Leopardus weidii''; extirpated) ('''C''')
**** [[Ocelot]] (''Leopardus pardalis''; extirpated, range marginally recolonised) ('''C''')
**** [[Jaguar]]s
***** [[Panthera onca augusta|Pleistocene North American jaguar]] (''Panthera onca augusta''; range semi-recolonised by other subspecies) ('''C''')
***** ''[[North American jaguar|North America Jaguar]]''
***** ''[[Panthera balamoides]]'' (dubious, suggested to be a junior synonym of the short faced bear ''[[Arctotherium]]'')
**** [[Lion]]s
***** [[American lion]] (''Panthera atrox'') ('''C''')
***** [[Panthera spelaea|Cave lion]] (''Panthera spelaea''; present only in Alaska and Yukon) ('''C''')
** ''Caniformia''
*** Canidae
**** [[Dire wolf]] (''Aenocyon dirus'') ('''C''')
**** [[Pleistocene coyote]] (''Canis latrans orcutti'') ('''C''')
**** [[Megafaunal wolf]] e.g. 
***** [[Beringian wolf]] (''Canis lupus'' ssp.) ('''C''')
**** [[Dhole]] (''Cuon alpinus''; extirpated) ('''C''')
**** ''[[Protocyon troglodytes]]''<ref name="YucatanCarnivores" /> ('''C''')
*** Arctoidea
**** Musteloidea
***** [[Mephitidae]]
****** [[Brachyprotoma obtusata|Short-faced skunk]] (''Brachyprotoma obtusata'')<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Youngman |first=Phillip M. |date=1 March 1986|title=The extinct short-faced skunk Brachyprotoma obtusata (Mammalia, Carnivora): first records for Canada and Beringia |journal=Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences|volume=23|issue=3|pages=419–424|doi=10.1139/e86-043 |bibcode=1986CaJES..23..419Y}}</ref> ('''C''')
***** [[Mustelidae]]
****** [[Steppe polecat]] (''Mustela eversmanii''; extirpated)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Anderson |first=E. |year=1973 |title=Ferrets from the pleistocene of central Alaska |journal=J. Mammal. |volume=54 |number=3 |pages=778–779 |doi=10.2307/1378982| jstor=1378982}}</ref> ('''C''')
**** Various [[bear]] (Ursidae) spp.
***** [[Giant short-faced bear|Arctodus simus]]'' ('''C''')''
***** [[Florida cave bear|Florida spectacled bear]] (''Tremarctos floridanus'') ('''C''')
***** [[Arctotherium|South American short-faced bear]] (''Arctotherium wingei'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention">{{Cite book |last=Sanz |first=Nuria |title=Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Americas |date=31 December 2015 |isbn=978-92-3-100140-6 |volume=1 |location=Paris |publisher=UNESCO |oclc=1002234186}}</ref><ref name="YucatanCarnivores">{{Cite journal |last1=Schubert |first1=Blaine W. |last2=Chatters |first2=James C. |last3=Arroyo-Cabrales |first3=Joaquin |last4=Samuels |first4=Joshua X. |last5=Soibelzon |first5=Leopoldo H. |last6=Prevosti |first6=Francisco J. |last7=Widga |first7=Christopher |last8=Nava |first8=Alberto |last9=Rissolo |first9=Dominique |last10=Erreguerena |first10=Pilar Luna |date=31 May 2019 |title=Yucatán carnivorans shed light on the Great American Biotic Interchange |journal=Biology Letters |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=20190148 |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2019.0148 |pmc=6548739 |pmid=31039726}}</ref> ('''C''')
***** [[Ursus maritimus tyrannus|Giant polar bear]] (''Ursus maritimus tyrannus''; a possible inhabitant) ('''C''')
* '''Afrotheria'''
** Paenungulata
*** '''[[Tethytheria]]'''
**** ''All native spp. of [[Proboscidea]]''
***** Mastodons
****** [[American mastodon]] (''Mammut americanum'') ('''H''')
****** [[Mammut pacificus|Pacific mastodon]] (''Mammut pacificus'') ('''H''') (validity uncertain)
***** [[Gomphotheriidae]] spp.
****** ''[[Cuvieronius]]''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sanchez |first1=Guadalupe |last2=Holliday |first2=Vance T. |last3=Gaines |first3=Edmund P. |last4=Arroyo-Cabrales |first4=Joaquín |last5=Martínez-Tagüeña |first5=Natalia |last6=Kowler |first6=Andrew |last7=Lange |first7=Todd |last8=Hodgins |first8=Gregory W. L. |last9=Mentzer |first9=Susan M. |date=29 July 2014 |title=Human (Clovis)–gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=111 |issue=30 |pages=10972–10977 |bibcode=2014PNAS..11110972S |doi=10.1073/pnas.1404546111 |pmc=4121807 |pmid=25024193 |doi-access=free}}</ref> ('''H''')
***** [[Mammoth]] (''Mammuthus'') spp.
****** [[Columbian mammoth]] (''Mammuthus columbi'') ('''H''')
****** [[Pygmy mammoth]] (''Mammuthus exilis'') ('''H''')
****** [[Woolly mammoth]] (''Mammuthus primigenius'') ('''H''')
**** ''[[Sirenia]]''
***** [[Dugongidae]]
****** [[Steller's sea cow]] (''Hydrodamalis gigas''; extirpated from North America, survived in Beringia into 18th century) ('''H''')
* '''Euarchontoglires''' 
** [[Bat]]s
*** [[Stock's vampire bat]] (''Desmodus stocki'') ('''C''')
*** [[Pristine mustached bat]] (''Pteronotus'' (''Phyllodia'') ''pristinus'') ('''C''')
** Rodents
*** [[Castoroides|Giant beaver]] (''Castoroides'') spp. 
**** ''[[Castoroides|Castoroides ohioensis]]'' ('''H''')
**** ''[[Castoroides|Castoroides leiseyorum]]'' ('''H''')
*** Klein's porcupine (''Erethizon kleini'')<ref>{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=46322|title=Fossilworks: Erethizon kleini|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=13 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213120432/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=46322|url-status=live}}</ref> ('''H''')
*** [[Peromyscus nesodytes|Giant island deer mouse]] (''Peromyscus nesodytes'') ('''C''')
*** ''[[Neochoerus]]'' spp. e.g. 
**** [[Neochoerus pinckneyi|Pinckney's capybara]] (''Neochoerus pinckneyi'') ('''H''')
**** ''[[Neochoerus aesopi]]'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Neotoma findleyi]]''
*** ''[[Neotoma|Neotoma pygmaea]]''
*** ''[[Synaptomys australis]]''
*** All [[giant hutia]] ''(Heptaxodontidae) spp.''
**** [[Blunt-toothed giant hutia]] (''Amblyrhiza inundata''; could grow as large as an [[American black bear]]) ('''H''')
**** [[Plate-toothed giant hutia]] (''Elasmodontomys obliquus'') ('''H''')
**** [[Twisted-toothed mouse]] (''Quemisia gravis'') ('''H''')
**** [[Osborn's key mouse]] (''Clidomys osborn's'') ('''H''')
**** ''Xaymaca fulvopulvis'' ('''H''')
** Lagomorphs
*** [[Aztlanolagus|Aztlan rabbit]] (''Aztlanolagus'' sp.) ('''H''')
*** [[Giant pika]] (''Ochotona whartoni'') ('''H''')
* '''Eulipotyphla'''
** ''[[Notiosorex dalquesti]]''
** ''[[Notiosorex harrisi]]''
* '''[[Xenarthra]]'''
** [[Pilosa]]
*** [[Giant anteater]] (''Myrmecophaga tridactyla''; extirpated, range partially recolonised)<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.yqres.2010.02.006|bibcode=2010QuRes..73..464C|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220048614 |title=Effects of Pleistocene environmental changes on the distribution and community structure of the mammalian fauna of Mexico |year=2010 |last1=Ceballos |first1=Gerardo |last2=Arroyo-Cabrales |first2=Joaquín |last3=Ponce |first3=Eduardo |journal=Quaternary Research |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=464–473 |s2cid=73620371}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Neogene Mammals: Bulletin 44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vW_aBwAAQBAJ&q=giant+anteater+late+pleistocene+honduras&pg=PA119 |last1=Lucas |first1=Spencer G. |last2=Morgan |first2=Gary S. |last3=Spielmann |first3=Justin A. |last4=Prothero |first4=Donald R. |date=2008 |publisher=New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science}}</ref> ('''C''')
*** All remaining [[ground sloth]] spp.
**** ''[[Eremotherium]]'' ([[Megatheriidae|megatheriid]] giant ground sloth) ('''H''')
**** ''[[Nothrotheriops]]'' ([[Nothrotheriidae|nothrotheriid]] ground sloth) ('''H''')
**** [[Megalonychidae|Megalonychid]] ground sloth spp.
***** ''[[Megalonyx]]'' ('''H''')
***** ''[[Nohochichak]]''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=McDonald |first1=H. Gregory |last2=Chatters |first2=James C. |last3=Gaudin |first3=Timothy J. |date=4 May 2017 |title=A new genus of megalonychid ground sloth (Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the late Pleistocene of Quintana Roo, Mexico |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=e1307206 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2017.1307206 |bibcode=2017JVPal..37E7206M |s2cid=90414512 |issn=0272-4634}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Ice Age Predators Found Alongside Oldest Human in Americas |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ice-age-fossils-underwater-cave-bears-humans-science/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170825194150/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ice-age-fossils-underwater-cave-bears-humans-science/ |url-status=dead|archive-date=25 August 2017 |date=25 August 2017 |access-date=13 October 2017}}</ref> ('''H''')
***** ''[[Xibalbaonyx]]''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stinnesbeck |first1=Sarah R.|last2=Frey |first2=Eberhard |last3=Olguín |first3=Jerónimo Avíles |last4=Stinnesbeck |first4=Wolfgang |last5=Zell |first5=Patrick |last6=Mallison |first6=Heinrich |last7=González |first7=Arturo González |last8=Núñez |first8=Eugenio Aceves |last9=Morlet |first9=Adriana Velázquez |date=1 June 2017 |title=Xibalbaonyx oviceps, a new megalonychid ground sloth (Folivora, Xenarthra) from the Late Pleistocene of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, and its paleobiogeographic significance |journal=PalZ |volume=91|issue=2|pages=245–271|doi=10.1007/s12542-017-0349-5|bibcode=2017PalZ...91..245S |s2cid=134188352|issn=0031-0220}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Ancient Giant Sloth Fossil Found in Underwater Cave |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ancient-giant-sloth-new-species-mexico-cave-spd/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819030803/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ancient-giant-sloth-new-species-mexico-cave-spd/ |url-status=dead|archive-date=19 August 2017 |date=18 August 2017|access-date=13 October 2017}}</ref>  ('''H''')
***** ''[[Meizonyx]]''
**** [[Mylodontidae|Mylodontid]] ground sloth spp.
***** ''[[Paramylodon]]'' ('''H''')
** [[Cingulata]]
*** All members of ''[[Glyptodontinae]]''
**** ''[[Glyptotherium]]''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oVl_ILVlbgIC&q=Doedicurus+habitat&pg=PA196|title=Dinosaur Memories|last=Debus|first=Allen|date=June 2002|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-0-595-22988-8}}</ref> ('''H''')
*** [[Dasypus bellus|Beautiful armadillo]] (''Dasypus bellus'')<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h4UFvagbbogC|title=The Nine-Banded Armadillo: A Natural History|last1=McDonough|first1=Colleen M.|last2=Loughry|first2=W. J.|date=18 March 2013|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-8921-5}}</ref> ('''H''')
*** ''[[Pachyarmatherium]]''
*** All ''[[Pampatheriidae]]'' spp. 
**** ''[[Holmesina]]'' ('''H''')
**** ''[[Pampatherium]]'' ('''H''')
* '''Birds'''
** ''Water Fowl''
*** Ducks
**** [[Bermuda flightless duck]] (''Anas pachyscelus'') ('''H''')
**** [[Chendytes|Californian flightless sea duck]] (''Chendytes lawi'') ('''C''')
**** [[Stiff-tailed duck|Mexican stiff-tailed duck]] (''Oxyura zapatima'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /> ('''H''')
*** ''[[Neochen barbadiana]]'' ('''H''')
** ''[[Turkey (bird)|Turkey]] (''Meleagris'') spp.''
*** [[Californian turkey]] (''Meleagris californica'') ('''H''')
*** ''Meleagris crassipes''<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /> ('''H''')
** ''Various [[Gruiformes]] spp.''
*** All [[Nesotrochis|cave rail]] (''Nesotrochis'') spp. e.g. 
**** [[Antillean cave rail]] (''Nesotrochis debooyi'') ('''C''')
*** [[Barbados rail]] ([[Incertae sedis]]) ('''C''')
*** [[Cuban flightless crane]] (''Antigone cubensis'') ('''H''')
*** [[Grus pagei|La Brea crane]] (''Grus pagei'') ('''H''')
** ''Various [[flamingo]] (Phoenicopteridae) spp.''
*** [[Minute flamingo]] (''Phoenicopterus minutus'')<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biolib.cz/en/taxon/id476718/|title=BioLib: Biological library|last=Zicha|first=Ondrej|website=www.biolib.cz|access-date=12 April 2016}}</ref> ('''C''')
*** [[Cope's flamingo]] (''Phoenicopterus copei'')<ref>{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=335545|title=Fossilworks: Phoenicopterus copei|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=12 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212174233/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=335545|url-status=live}}</ref> ('''C''')
** [[Dow's puffin]] (''Fratercula dowi'') ('''C''')
** Pleistocene Mexican [[Loon|diver]] spp.
***''Plyolimbus baryosteus'' ('''C''')
*** ''[[Podiceps]]'' spp.
****''Podiceps parvus''<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /> ('''C''')
** '''[[Stork]]s'''
*** [[Ciconia maltha|La Brea/Asphalt stork]] (''Ciconia maltha'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /> ('''C''')
*** Wetmore's stork (''Mycteria wetmorei'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /> ('''C''')
** Pleistocene Mexican [[cormorant]]s spp. (genus ''[[Phalacrocorax]]'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" />
***''Phalacrocorax goletensis'' ('''C''')
*** ''Phalacrocorax chapalensis'' ('''C''')
** All remaining [[Teratornithidae|teratorn]] (Teratornithidae) spp.
*** [[Aiolornis|''Aiolornis incredibilis'']] ('''C''')
*** [[Cathartornis|''Cathartornis gracilis'']] ('''C''')
*** [[Oscaravis|''Oscaravis olsoni'']] ('''C''')
*** [[Teratornis|''Teratornis merriami'']] ('''C''')
*** [[Teratornis|''Teratornis woodburnensis'']] ('''C''')
** Several [[New World vultures]] (Cathartidae) spp.
*** [[Black vulture|Pleistocene black vulture]] (''Coragyps occidentalis'' ssp.) ('''C''')  
*** [[Gymnogyps amplus|Megafaunal Californian condor]] (''Gymnogyps amplus'') ('''C''')
*** [[Breagyps clarki|Clark's condor]] (''Breagyps clarki'') ('''C''')
*** [[Gymnogyps varonai|Cuban condor]] (''Gymnogyps varonai'') ('''C''')
** Several [[Accipitridae]] spp.
*** [[Neophrontops americanus|American neophrone vulture]] (''Neophrontops americanus'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8QRKV7eSqmIC&q=Neophrontops&pg=PA300|title=The Origin and Evolution of Birds|last=Feduccia|first=Alan|date=1999|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-07861-9}}</ref> ('''C''')
*** [[Woodward's eagle]] (''Amplibuteo woodwardi'') ('''C''')
*** [[Buteogallus borrasi|Cuban great hawk]] (''Buteogallus borrasi'') ('''C''')
*** [[Buteogallus daggetti|Daggett's eagle]] (''Buteogallus daggetti'') ('''C''')
*** [[Buteogallus fragilis|Fragile eagle]] (''Buteogallus fragilis'') ('''C''')
*** [[Gigantohierax suarezi|Cuban giant hawk]] (''Gigantohierax suarezi'')<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9ZogGs_fz8C&q=Gigantohierax+suarezi&pg=PA321 |title=Encyclopedia of Islands |last1=Gillespie |first1=Rosemary G. |last2=Clague |first2=D. A. |date=2009 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-25649-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4QIUDAAAQBAJ&q=Gigantohierax+suarezi&pg=PA74 |title=Holocene Extinctions |last=Turvey |first=Sam |date=28 May 2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-953509-5}}</ref> ('''C''')
*** [[Neogyps errans|Errant eagle]] (''Neogyps errans'') ('''C''')
*** [[Spizaetus grinnelli|Grinnell's crested eagle]] (''Spizaetus grinnelli'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /> ('''C''')
*** [[Spizaetus willetti|Willett's hawk-eagle]] (''Spizaetus willetti'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /> ('''C''')
*** [[Titanohierax|Caribbean titan hawk]] (''Titanohierax'') ('''C''')
** Several [[owl]] (Strigiformes) spp.
*** [[Asphaltoglaux|Brea miniature owl]] (''Asphaltoglaux'') ('''C''')
*** [[Glaucidium kurochkini|Kurochkin's pygmy owl]] (''Glaucidium kurochkini'') ('''C''')
*** [[Oraristrix|Brea owl]] (''Oraristix brea'') ('''C''')
*** [[Ornimegalonyx|Cuban giant owl]] (''Ornimegalonyx'') ('''C''')
** [[Bermuda flicker]] (''Colaptes oceanicus'') ('''C''')
** Several [[Caracara (subfamily)|caracara]] (Caracarinae) spp.
*** Bahaman terrestrial caracara (''[[Caracara (genus)|Caracara]]'' sp.) ('''C''')
*** Puerto Rican terrestrial caracara (''[[Caracara (genus)|Caracara]]'' sp.) ('''C''')
*** [[Jamaican caracara]] (''Carcara tellustris'') ('''C''')
*** Cuban caracara (''[[Milvago]]'' sp.) ('''C''')
*** Hispaniolan caracara (''[[Milvago]]'' sp.) ('''C''')
** 	[[Psittacopasserae]]
*** [[Parrot|Psittaciformes]]
**** [[Rhynchopsitta phillipsi|Mexican thick-billed parrot]] (''Rhynchopsitta phillipsi'')<ref name="HumanOriginSitesWorldHeritageConvention" /> ('''H''')
* Several [[giant tortoise]] spp. 
** ''[[Hesperotestudo]]'' ('''H''')
** ''[[Gopherus]]'' spp.
*** ''[[Gopherus donlaloi]]'' ('''H''')
** ''[[Chelonoidis]]'' spp.
*** ''[[Chelonoidis marcanoi]]'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Chelonoidis alburyorum]]'' ('''H''')

The survivors are in some ways as significant as the losses: [[bison]] ('''H'''), [[grey wolf]] ('''C'''), [[lynx]] ('''C'''), [[grizzly bear]] ('''C'''), [[American black bear]] ('''C'''), [[deer]] (e.g. [[caribou]], [[moose]], [[Elk|wapiti (elk)]], ''[[Odocoileus]]'' spp.) ('''H'''), [[pronghorn]] ('''H'''), [[white-lipped peccary]] ('''H'''), [[muskox]] ('''H'''), [[bighorn sheep]] ('''H'''), and [[mountain goat]] ('''H'''); the list of survivors also include species which were extirpated during the Quaternary extinction event, but recolonised at least part of their ranges during the mid-Holocene from South American relict populations, such as the [[cougar]] ('''C'''), [[jaguar]] ('''C'''), [[giant anteater]] ('''C'''), [[collared peccary]] ('''H'''), [[ocelot]] ('''C''') and [[jaguarundi]] ('''C'''). All save the pronghorns and giant anteaters were descended from Asian ancestors that had evolved with human predators.<ref>{{cite book|title=Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences |author=MacPhee, R.D.E. |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers|year=1999|isbn=978-0-306-46092-0}}{{page needed|date=April 2023}}</ref> Pronghorns are the second-fastest land mammal (after the [[cheetah]]), which may have helped them elude hunters. More difficult to explain in the context of overkill is the survival of bison, since these animals first appeared in North America less than 240,000 years ago and so were geographically removed from human predators for a sizeable period of time.<ref name="Belletal.200422">{{cite book |title=Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic Mammals of North America: Biostratigraphy and Geochronology |author=Bell, C.J.|publisher=Columbia Univ. Press|year=2004 |isbn=978-0-231-13040-0|editor=Woodburne, M.O.|location=New York|pages=232–314 |chapter=The Blancan, Irvingtonian, and Rancholabrean mammal ages|display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref name="ScottandCox200822">{{cite book |title=Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of Western and Southern North America|author=Scott, E. |author2=Cox, S.M. |publisher=Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County |year=2008 |editor=Wang, X.|location=Los Angeles|pages=359–382|chapter=Late Pleistocene distribution of ''Bison'' (Mammalia; Artiodactyla) in the Mojave Desert of Southern California and Nevada|editor2=Barnes, L.G.}}</ref><ref name="Sandersetal.200922">{{cite book|title=Papers on Geology, Vertebrate Paleontology, and Biostratigraphy in Honor of Michael O. Woodburne |author=Sanders, A.E.|author2=R.E. Weems|author3=L.B. Albright III|publisher=Museum of Northern Arizona|year=2009 |editor=Albright III, L.B. |location=Flagstaff|pages=369–375 |chapter=Formalization of the mid-Pleistocene "Ten Mile Hill beds" in South Carolina with evidence for placement of the Irvingtonian–Rancholabrean boundary}}</ref> Because [[ancient bison]] evolved into living bison,<ref>{{cite journal |author=Shapiro, B. |display-authors=etal |year=2004 |title=Rise and Fall of the Beringian Steppe Bison |journal=Science|volume=306 |issue=5701|pages=1561–1565 |bibcode=2004Sci...306.1561S |doi=10.1126/science.1101074 |pmid=15567864|s2cid=27134675 |url=http://summit.sfu.ca/item/15088}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Wilson, M.C.|author2=L.V. Hills|author3=B. Shapiro|year=2008 |title=Late Pleistocene northward-dispersing ''Bos antiquus'' from the Bighill Creek Formation, Gallelli Gravel Pit, Alberta, Canada, and the fate of ''Bison occidentalis'' |journal=Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences|volume=45 |issue=7|pages=827–859 |bibcode=2008CaJES..45..827W|doi=10.1139/E08-027|s2cid=129131047}}</ref> there was no continent-wide extinction of bison at the end of the Pleistocene (although the genus was regionally extirpated in many areas). The survival of bison into the Holocene and recent times is therefore inconsistent with the overkill scenario. {{Citation needed|date=March 2024|reason=Statement "inconsistent with the overkill scenario." needs verifiable reliable source.}}By the end of the Pleistocene, when humans first entered North America, these large animals had been geographically separated from intensive human hunting for more than 200,000 years. Given this enormous span of geologic time, bison would almost certainly have been very nearly as naive as native North American large mammals.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024|reason=This argument of "naive bison" needs a citation.}}

The culture that has been connected with the wave of extinctions in North America is the paleo-American culture associated with the [[Clovis culture|Clovis people]] (''q.v.''), who were thought to use [[Atlatl|spear throwers]] to kill large animals. The chief criticism of the "prehistoric overkill hypothesis" has been that the human population at the time was too small and/or not sufficiently widespread geographically to have been capable of such ecologically significant impacts. This criticism does not mean that [[climate change scenario]]s explaining the extinction are automatically to be preferred by default, however, any more than weaknesses in climate change arguments can be taken as supporting overkill. Some form of a combination of both factors could be plausible, and overkill would be a lot easier to achieve large-scale extinction with an already stressed population due to climate change.

===South America===
[[File:Hippidion 23.JPG|thumb|Fossil of ''[[Hippidion]]'', a genus of horse native to South America.]]
[[File:Macrauchenia_patachonica_Life_Reconstruction.png|thumb|Reconstruction of ''[[Macrauchenia]]'', a member of the extinct order [[Litopterna]]]]
[[File:Em - Toxodon platensis - 1.jpg|thumb|Skeleton of ''[[Toxodon]]'', a member of the extinct order [[Notoungulata]]]]
[[File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (Aenocyon dirus).jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the [[Dire wolf]] ''(Aenocyon dirus)'' ]]
[[File:Arctotherium.jpg|thumb|Life restoration of ''[[Arctotherium]] bonariense'']]
[[File:Cuvieronius.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the [[gomphothere]] ''[[Cuvieronius]]'']]
[[File:Megatherium americanum complete.JPG|thumb|Skeleton of the giant [[ground sloth]] ''[[Megatherium]]'']]
[[File:Doedicurus_BW.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the [[glyptodont]] ''[[Doedicurus]] clavicaudatus'', distributed in the [[Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands|temperate savannah]] and [[Gran Chaco|woodland]] of [[South America]]]]
[[File:Panochthus_frenzelianus.jpg|thumb|Fossil reconstruction of ''[[Panochthus|Panochthus frenzelianus]]'' with metal model]]
[[File:Smilodon populator fossil, Tellus Science Museum 1.jpg|thumb|Fossil of ''[[Smilodon|Smilodon populator]]'']]
{{see also|List of South American animals extinct in the Holocene}}
South America suffered among the worst losses of the continents, with around 83% of its megafauna going extinct.<ref name="AssessingTheCauses" /> These extinctions postdate the arrival of modern humans in South America around 15,000 years ago. Both human and climatic factors have been attributed as factors in the extinctions by various authors.<ref name="LatePleistoceneSouthAmericanMegafaunalExtinctionsFishtail2">{{Cite journal |last1=Prates |first1=Luciano |last2=Perez |first2=S. Ivan |date=12 April 2021 |title=Late Pleistocene South American megafaunal extinctions associated with rise of Fishtail points and human population |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=2175 |bibcode=2021NatCo..12.2175P |doi=10.1038/s41467-021-22506-4 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=8041891 |pmid=33846353}}</ref> Although some megafauna has been historically suggested to have survived into the early Holocene based on radiocarbon dates this may be the result of dating errors due to contamination.<ref name="pmid30854426">{{Cite journal |last1=Politis |first1=Gustavo G. |last2=Messineo |first2=Pablo G. |last3=Stafford |first3=Thomas W. |last4=Lindsey |first4=Emily L. |date=March 2019 |title=Campo Laborde: A Late Pleistocene giant ground sloth kill and butchering site in the Pampas |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=eaau4546 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.aau4546 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=6402857 |pmid=30854426|bibcode=2019SciA....5.4546P }}</ref> The extinctions are coincident with the end of the [[Antarctic Cold Reversal]] (a cooling period earlier and less severe than the Northern Hemisphere Younger Dryas) and the emergence of [[Fishtail projectile point]]s, which became widespread across South America. Fishtail projectile points are thought to have been used in big game hunting, though direct evidence of exploitation of extinct megafauna by humans is rare,<ref name="LatePleistoceneSouthAmericanMegafaunalExtinctionsFishtail2" /> though megafauna exploitation has been documented at a number of sites.<ref name="pmid30854426" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bampi |first1=Hugo |last2=Barberi |first2=Maira |last3=Lima-Ribeiro |first3=Matheus S. |date=December 2022 |title=Megafauna kill sites in South America: A critical review |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379122004826 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=298 |pages=107851 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107851|bibcode=2022QSRv..29807851B |s2cid=253876769 }}</ref> Fishtail points rapidly disappeared after the extinction of the megafauna, and were replaced by other styles more suited to hunting smaller prey.<ref name="LatePleistoceneSouthAmericanMegafaunalExtinctionsFishtail2" /> Some authors have proposed the "Broken Zig-Zag" model, where human hunting and climate change causing a reduction in open habitats preferred by megafauna were synergistic factors in megafauna extinction in South America.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cione |first1=Alberto |last2=Tonni |first2=Eduardo |last3=Soilbenzon |first3=Leopoldo |date=2003 |title=The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extinction in South America |url=https://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/bitstream/handle/10915/5371/Documento_completo.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |journal=Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales |volume=5 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.22179/REVMACN.5.26}}</ref>

* '''Ungulates'''
** ''Even-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Several [[Cervidae]] (deer) spp.
**** ''[[Morenelaphus]]''
**** ''[[Antifer]]''
**** ''[[Agalmaceros blicki]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=247645|title=Fossilworks: Agalmaceros|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=12 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212210025/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=247645|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=247647|title=Fossilworks: Agalmaceros blicki|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021}}</ref> (potentially synonym of modern [[white-tailed deer]])
**** ''[[Odocoileus]] salinae''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=247644|title=Fossilworks: Odocoileus salinae|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=8 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608020246/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=247644|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Turvey2">{{Cite book |last=Turvey |first=Samuel T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mbU-F42JU1AC&q=Propaopus&pg=PA349 |title=Holocene Extinctions |date=28 May 2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-157998-1}}</ref>
*** Various [[Camelidae]] spp.
**** ''[[Eulamaops]]''
**** Stilt legged llama ''[[Hemiauchenia]]''
**** Stout legged llama ''[[Palaeolama]]''
** ''Odd-Toed Hoofed Mammals''
*** Several species of tapirs ([[Tapir]]idae)
**** ''Tapirus cristatellus''
*** All Pleistocene wild horse genera ([[Equidae]])
**** ''[[Equus neogeus]]''<ref name="DispersalOfEquus">{{Cite journal |last=MacFadden |first=Bruce J. |date=20 March 2013 |title=Dispersal of Pleistocene Equus (Family Equidae) into South America and Calibration of GABI 3 Based on Evidence from Tarija, Bolivia |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=8 |issue=3 |page=e59277 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...859277M |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0059277 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=3603859 |pmid=23527150 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pereira|first1=Jamil Corrêa|last2=Lopes|first2=Renato Pereira |last3=Kerber |first3=Leonardo |title=New remains of Late Pleistocene mammals from the Chuí Creek, Southern Brazil|journal=Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=228–239|doi=10.4072/rbp.2012.2.10|year=2012|doi-access=free|bibcode=2012RvBrP..15..228P }}</ref><ref name="HumanEcologyOfBeringia" />
**** ''[[Hippidion]]''<ref name="DispersalOfEquus" /><ref name="HumanEcologyOfBeringia" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2vL-CwAAQBAJ&q=hippidion+california&pg=PA109|title=Wild Equids: Ecology, Management, and Conservation|last1=Ransom|first1=Jason I. |last2=Kaczensky |first2=Petra|date=15 May 2016|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-1-4214-1910-7}}</ref>
***** ''Hippidion devillei''
***** ''Hippidion principale''
***** ''Hippidion saldiasi''
** ''All remaining [[Meridiungulata]] genera''
*** Order [[Litopterna]]
**** [[Macraucheniidae]]
***** ''[[Macrauchenia]]''
***** ''[[Macraucheniopsis]]''<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265013705|title=Late Pleistocene vertebrates from Touro Passo Creek (Touro Passo Formation), southern Brazil: A review|journal=Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=248–259|access-date=2 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=43498|title=Fossilworks: Macraucheniopsis|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=13 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213043856/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=43498|url-status=live}}</ref>
***** ''[[Xenorhinotherium]]''
**** [[Proterotheriidae]] 
***** ''[[Neolicaphrium|Neolicaphrium recens]]''<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gaudioso|first1=Pablo Javier|last2=Gasparini |first2=Germán M. |last3=Herbst|first3=Rafael|last4=Barquez|first4=Rubén Mario|date=16 March 2017|title=First record of the Neolicaphrium recens Frenguelli, 1921 (Mammalia, Litopterna) in the Pleistocene of Santiago del Estero Province, Argentina|journal=Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=23–29|issn=1807-0205|doi=10.11606/0031-1049.2017.57.03|doi-access=free|hdl=11336/56638|hdl-access=free}}</ref>
*** Order [[Notoungulata]]
**** [[Toxodontidae]]
***** ''[[Piauhytherium]]'' (Some authors regard this taxon as [[taxonomic synonym|synonym]] of ''[[Trigodonops]]'')
***** ''[[Mixotoxodon]]''
***** ''[[Toxodon]]''
***** ''[[Trigodonops]]''
* '''Primates'''
** [[Platyrrhini]] (New World monkeys)
*** [[Atelidae]]
**** ''[[Protopithecus]]''
**** ''[[Caipora bambuiorum|Caipora]]''
**** ''[[Cartelles]]''
**** ''[[Alouatta mauroi]]''
* '''Carnivora'''
** ''Feliformia''
*** Several ''[[Felidae]]'' spp.
**** [[Saber-toothed cat]] (''Smilodon'') spp.<ref name="Kurtén 1990 158–169">{{Cite journal |last1=Kurtén |first1=Björn |last2=Werdelin |first2=Lars |date=1990 |title=Relationships between North and South American Smilodon |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=158–169 |bibcode=1990JVPal..10..158K |doi=10.1080/02724634.1990.10011804 |jstor=4523312}}</ref>
***** ''Smilodon fatalis'' (northwestern South America)
***** ''Smilodon populator'' (eastern and southern South America)
**** Patagonian jaguar (''[[Panthera onca mesembrina]]'') (some authors have suggested that these remains actually belong to the [[American lion]] instead<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chimento |first1=Nicolás R. |last2=Agnolin |first2=Federico L. |date=November 2017 |title=The fossil American lion ( Panthera atrox ) in South America: Palaeobiogeographical implications |journal=Comptes Rendus Palevol |language=en |volume=16 |issue=8 |pages=850–864 |doi=10.1016/j.crpv.2017.06.009 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2017CRPal..16..850C|hdl=11336/65990 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>)
** ''Caniformia''
*** Canidae
**** Dire wolf (''[[Dire wolf|Aenocyon dirus]]'')
**** Nehring's wolf (''[[Canis nehringi]]'')
**** ''[[Protocyon]]''<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Prevosti|first1=F. J.|last2=Tonni|first2=E. P.|last3=Bidegain|first3=J. C. |date=1 December 2009|title=Stratigraphic range of the large canids (Carnivora, Canidae) in South America, and its relevance to quaternary biostratigraphy |journal=Quaternary International|series=The Ensenadan Stage/Age in southern South America|volume=210 |issue=1|pages=76–81 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2009.06.034|issn=1040-6182|bibcode=2009QuInt.210...76P|hdl=11336/103725|hdl-access=free}}</ref>
**** Pleistocene bush dog (''[[Speothos pacivorus]]'')
*** Ursidae (bears)
**** South American short-faced bear (''[[Arctotherium]]'' spp.)
***** ''[[Arctotherium bonairense]]''
***** ''[[Arctotherium tarijense]]''
***** ''[[Arctotherium wingei]]''
* '''Rodents'''
** ''[[Neochoerus]]''
* '''Bats'''
** Giant vampire bat (''[[Desmodus draculae]]'')
*'''Proboscidea''' (elephants and relatives)
** [[Gomphotheridae]]
*** ''[[Cuvieronius]]''
*** ''[[Notiomastodon]]''
* '''Xenarthrans'''
** All remaining [[ground sloth]] genera
*** [[Megatheriidae]] spp.
**** ''[[Eremotherium]]''
**** ''[[Megatherium]]''
*** [[Nothrotheriidae]] spp.
**** ''[[Nothropus]]''
**** ''[[Nothrotherium]]''
*** [[Megalonychidae]] spp.
**** ''[[Ahytherium]]''
**** ''[[Australonyx]]''
**** ''[[Diabolotherium]]''
**** ''[[Megistonyx]]''
*** [[Mylodontidae]] spp. (including [[Scelidotheriinae]])
**** ''[[Catonyx]]''
**** ''[[Glossotherium]]''
**** ''[[Lestodon]]''
**** ''[[Mylodon]]''
**** ''[[Scelidotherium]]''
**** ''[[Scelidodon]]''
**** ''[[Mylodonopsis]]''
**** ''[[Ocnotherium]]'' 
**** ''[[Valgipes]]'' 
** All remaining [[Glyptodontinae]] spp.
*** ''[[Doedicurus]]''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iq6qZXUkWo0C&q=Arctotherium+bonariense&pg=PA126|title=American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene|last=Haynes|first=Gary|date=23 December 2008|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4020-8793-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eiftDAAAQBAJ&q=Doedicurus+habitat&pg=PA54|title=The Princeton Field Guide to Prehistoric Mammals|last=Prothero|first=Donald R.|date=15 November 2016|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-8445-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2MDAzCeQQoC&q=Doedicurus+habitat&pg=PA17|title=Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 3: Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil|last1=Eisenberg|first1=John F.|last2=Redford|first2=Kent H.|date=15 May 2000|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-19542-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kUAKgNfiAvoC&q=Doedicurus+habitat&pg=PA167|title=Megafauna: Giant Beasts of Pleistocene South America|last1=Fariña|first1=Richard A.|last2=Vizcaíno|first2=Sergio F.|last3=Iuliis|first3=Gerry De|date=22 May 2013|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-00719-3}}</ref>
*** ''[[Glyptodon]]''<ref name="Oliveira-2010">{{cite journal |last1=Oliveira |first1=Édison V. |last2=Porpino |first2=Kleberson O. |last3=Barreto |first3=Alcina F. |year=2010 |title=On the presence of ''Glyptotherium'' in the Late Pleistocene of Northeastern Brazil, and the status of "''Glyptodon''" and "''Chlamydotherium''". Paleobiogeographic implications |journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen |volume=258 |issue=3 |pages=353–363 |doi=10.1127/0077-7749/2010/0116|bibcode=2010NJGPA.258..353O }}</ref>
*** ''[[Hoplophorus]]''
*** ''[[Lomaphorus]]''
*** ''[[Neosclerocalyptus]]''
*** ''[[Neuryurus]]''<ref name="Oliveira-2010" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=43582|title=Fossilworks: Neuryurus|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=18 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220618023515/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=43582|url-status=live}}</ref>
*** ''[[Panochthus]]''
*** ''[[Parapanochthus]]''? (has been described as "doubtful"<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zamorano |first1=Martín |last2=Brandoni |first2=Diego |date=December 2013 |title=Phylogenetic analysis of the Panochthini (Xenarthra, Glyptodontidae), with remarks on their temporal distribution |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03115518.2013.770224 |journal=Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology |language=en |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=442–451 |doi=10.1080/03115518.2013.770224 |bibcode=2013Alch...37..442Z |hdl=11336/18839 |issn=0311-5518|hdl-access=free }}</ref>)
*** ''[[Plaxhaplous]]''
*** ''[[Sclerocalyptus]]''
** Several [[Dasypodidae]] spp.
*** Beautiful armadillo (''[[Dasypus bellus]]'')
*** ''[[Eutatus]]''
*** ''[[Pachyarmatherium]]''
*** ''[[Propaopus]]''<ref name="Elias" /><ref name="Turvey2" />
** All [[Pampatheriidae]] spp.
*** ''[[Holmesina]]'' (et {{'}}''Chlamytherium occidentale''{{'}})<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=heAoqlZldWoC&q=chlamytherium+occidentale&pg=PA135|title=Morphological Change in Quaternary Mammals of North America |last1=Martin |first1=Robert A.|last2=Martin|first2=Robert Allen|last3=Barnosky|first3=Anthony D.|date=6 October 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-02081-7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4QIUDAAAQBAJ&q=chlamytherium+occidentale&pg=PA341 |title=Holocene Extinctions|last=Turvey|first=Sam|date=28 May 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-953509-5}}</ref>
*** ''[[Pampatherium]]''<ref name="pmid26083486">{{Cite journal|last1=Góis|first1=Flávio|last2=Ruiz|first2=Laureano Raúl González |last3=Scillato-Yané|first3=Gustavo Juan|last4=Soibelzon|first4=Esteban|date=17 June 2015|title=A Peculiar New Pampatheriidae (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Cingulata) from the Pleistocene of Argentina and Comments on Pampatheriidae Diversity|journal=PLOS ONE |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=e0128296 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0128296 |pmc=4470999 |pmid=26083486 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1028296G}}</ref>
*** ''[[Tonnicinctus]]''<ref name="pmid26083486" />
* '''Birds'''
** Various [[Caracarinae]] spp.
*** Venezuelan caracara (''[[Caracara major]]'')<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260104736 |jstor=23353814 |title=Body Mass Estimations and Paleobiological Inferences on a New Species of Large Caracara (Aves, Falconidae) from the Late Pleistocene of Uruguay |last1=Jones |first1=Washington |last2=Rinderknecht |first2=Andrés |last3=Migotto |first3=Rafael |last4=Blanco |first4=R. Ernesto |journal=Journal of Paleontology |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=151–158 |year=2013 |doi=10.1666/12-026R.1 |bibcode=2013JPal...87..151J |s2cid=83648963}}</ref>
*** Seymour's caracara (''[[Caracara seymouri]]'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Suárez|first1=William|last2=Olson|first2=Storrs L. |date=1 September 2014|title=A new fossil species of small crested caracara (Aves: Falconidae: Caracara) from the Pacific lowlands of western South America |journal=Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington|volume=127|issue=2|pages=299–310|doi=10.2988/0006-324X-127.2.299 |s2cid=130085421 |issn=0006-324X}}</ref>
*** Peruvian caracara (''[[Milvago brodkorbi]]'')<ref>{{cite web|url=https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=289782|title=Fossilworks: Milvago brodkorbi|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=17 December 2021|archive-date=12 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212220515/http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=289782|url-status=live}}</ref>
** Various ''[[Cathartidae]] spp.''
*** ''[[Pampagyps imperator]]''
*** ''[[Geronogyps reliquus]]''
*** ''[[Wingegyps]] cartellei''
*** ''[[Pleistovultur]] nevesi''
** Various [[Tadorninae]] spp.
*** ''[[Neochen pugil]]''
** ''[[Psilopterus]]'' (small terror bird remains dated to the Late Pleistocene,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Washington |last2=Rinderknecht |first2=Andrés |last3=Alvarenga |first3=Herculano |last4=Montenegro |first4=Felipe |last5=Ubilla |first5=Martín |date=30 December 2017 |title=The last terror birds (Aves, Phorusrhacidae): new evidence from the late Pleistocene of Uruguay |journal=PalZ |volume=92 |issue=2 |pages=365–372 |doi=10.1007/s12542-017-0388-y |s2cid=134344096 |issn=0031-0220}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Alvarenga |first1=Herculano |last2=Jones |first2=Washington |last3=Rinderknecht |first3=Andrés |date=1 May 2010 |title=The youngest record of phorusrhacid birds (Aves, Phorusrhacidae) from the late Pleistocene of Uruguay |journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen |volume=256 |issue=2 |pages=229–234 |doi=10.1127/0077-7749/2010/0052|bibcode=2010NJGPA.256..229A }}</ref> but these are disputed)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Agnolin |first=Federico |date=2013|title=La posición sistemática de Hermosiornis (Aves, Phororhacoidea) y sus implicancias filogenéticas |journal=Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales |series=Nueva Series |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=39–60 |doi=10.22179/revmacn.15.167 |issn=1853-0400 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
* '''Reptiles'''
** '''[[Crocodilia|Crocs & Gators]]'''
*** ''[[Caiman venezuelensis]]''
** '''[[Testudines]]'''
*** ''[[Chelonoidis lutzae]]'' (Argentina)
*** ''[[Peltocephalus maturin]]''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ferreira |first1=G. S. |last2=Nascimento |first2=E. R. |last3=Cadena |first3=E. A. |last4=Cozzuol |first4=M. A. |last5=Farina |first5=B. M. |last6=Pacheco |first6=M. L. A. F. |last7=Rizzutto |first7=M. A. |last8=Langer |first8=M. C. |date=March 2024 |title=The latest freshwater giants: a new Peltocephalus (Pleurodira: Podocnemididae) turtle from the Late Pleistocene of the Brazilian Amazon |journal=Biology Letters |language=en |volume=20 |issue=3 |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2024.0010 |issn=1744-957X |pmc=10932709 |pmid=38471564}}</ref>

===Sahul (Australia-New Guinea) and the Pacific===
{{See also|List of Australia-New Guinea species extinct in the Holocene|List of New Zealand species extinct in the Holocene|List of Oceanian animals extinct in the Holocene}}Extinction of Australian megafauna appears to have taken place earlier than in the Americas or the extinction of the Eurasian mammoth steppe fauna, with an estimated peak of extinction of around 42,000 years ago.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Hocknull |first1=Scott A. |last2=Lewis |first2=Richard |last3=Arnold |first3=Lee J. |last4=Pietsch |first4=Tim |last5=Joannes-Boyau |first5=Renaud |last6=Price |first6=Gilbert J. |last7=Moss |first7=Patrick |last8=Wood |first8=Rachel |last9=Dosseto |first9=Anthony |last10=Louys |first10=Julien |last11=Olley |first11=Jon |last12=Lawrence |first12=Rochelle A. |date=18 May 2020 |title=Extinction of eastern Sahul megafauna coincides with sustained environmental deterioration |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=2250 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-15785-w |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=7231803 |pmid=32418985|bibcode=2020NatCo..11.2250H }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=David |first1=Bruno |last2=Arnold |first2=Lee J. |last3=Delannoy |first3=Jean-Jacques |last4=Fresløv |first4=Joanna |last5=Urwin |first5=Chris |last6=Petchey |first6=Fiona |last7=McDowell |first7=Matthew C. |last8=Mullett |first8=Russell |last9=Mialanes |first9=Jerome |last10=Wood |first10=Rachel |last11=Crouch |first11=Joe |last12=Berthet |first12=Johan |last13=Wong |first13=Vanessa N.L. |last14=Green |first14=Helen |last15=Hellstrom |first15=John |date=February 2021 |title=Late survival of megafauna refuted for Cloggs Cave, SE Australia: Implications for the Australian Late Pleistocene megafauna extinction debate |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379120307435 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=253 |pages=106781 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106781|bibcode=2021QSRv..25306781D }}</ref> Debate on megafaunal extinction in Australia has historically centred on whether the extinctions were caused by humans (which most sources estimate arrived in Australia at least 50,000 years ago, spreading to Tasmania later around 42-41,000 years ago<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Adeleye |first1=Matthew A. |last2=Hopf |first2=Felicitas |last3=Haberle |first3=Simon G. |last4=Stannard |first4=Georgia L. |last5=Mcwethy |first5=David B. |last6=Harris |first6=Stephen |last7=Bowman |first7=David M. J. S. |date=15 November 2024 |title=Landscape burning facilitated Aboriginal migration into Lutruwita/Tasmania 41,600 years ago |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=10 |issue=46 |pages=eadp6579 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adp6579 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=11567000 |pmid=39546600|bibcode=2024SciA...10P6579A }}</ref>), or whether many megafauna species had already gone extinct prior to human arrival due to climatic change.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wroe |first1=Stephen |last2=Field |first2=Judith H. |last3=Archer |first3=Michael |last4=Grayson |first4=Donald K. |last5=Price |first5=Gilbert J. |last6=Louys |first6=Julien |last7=Faith |first7=J. Tyler |last8=Webb |first8=Gregory E. |last9=Davidson |first9=Iain |last10=Mooney |first10=Scott D. |date=28 May 2013 |title=Climate change frames debate over the extinction of megafauna in Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea) |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=110 |issue=22 |pages=8777–8781 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1302698110 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=3670326 |pmid=23650401|bibcode=2013PNAS..110.8777W }}</ref> Resolution of this debate has been hampered by the rare and poorly dated nature of Australian megafauna remains. Studies from the late 2010s onward suggested that many megafauna species survived later than previously assumed by some authors, and were contemporaneous with humans in Australia, though some studies still argue that climate change was the primary cause of their extinction.<ref name=":3" /> There is little evidence of human interaction with extinct Australian megafauna, with one notable exception being the burning of ''[[Genyornis]]'' (a type of giant [[Dromornithidae|dromornithid]] bird related to ducks) eggshells.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Demarchi |first1=Beatrice |last2=Stiller |first2=Josefin |last3=Grealy |first3=Alicia |last4=Mackie |first4=Meaghan |last5=Deng |first5=Yuan |last6=Gilbert |first6=Tom |last7=Clarke |first7=Julia |last8=Legendre |first8=Lucas J. |last9=Boano |first9=Rosa |last10=Sicheritz-Pontén |first10=Thomas |last11=Magee |first11=John |last12=Zhang |first12=Guojie |last13=Bunce |first13=Michael |last14=Collins |first14=Matthew James |last15=Miller |first15=Gifford |date=25 October 2022 |title=Ancient proteins resolve controversy over the identity of Genyornis eggshell |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=119 |issue=43 |pages=e2109326119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2109326119 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=9995833 |pmid=35609205|bibcode=2022PNAS..11909326D }}</ref> Megafauna species may have survived considerably later in New Guinea, until the [[Last glacial maximum|Last Glacial Maximum]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Prideaux |first1=Gavin J. |last2=Kerr |first2=Isaac A. R. |last3=van Zoelen |first3=Jacob D. |last4=Grün |first4=Rainer |last5=van der Kaars |first5=Sander |last6=Oertle |first6=Annette |last7=Douka |first7=Katerina |last8=Grono |first8=Elle |last9=Barron |first9=Aleese |last10=Mountain |first10=Mary-Jane |last11=Westaway |first11=Michael C. |last12=Denham |first12=Tim |date=October 2022 |title=Re-evaluating the evidence for late-surviving megafauna at Nombe rockshelter in the New Guinea highlands |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/arco.5274 |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |language=en |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=223–248 |doi=10.1002/arco.5274 |issn=0728-4896|hdl=1885/311502 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>[[File:Diprotodon sculpture.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of a hippopotamus-sized ''[[Diprotodon]]'']]
[[File:Zygomaturus BW.jpg|thumb|right|Reconstruction of ''[[Zygomaturus]]'']]
[[File:Zaglossus hacketti A6 digital.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the giant [[echidna]] ''[[Murrayglossus]]'']]
[[File:Genyornis newtoni.jpg|thumb|upright|Reconstruction of ''[[Genyornis|Genyornis newtoni]]'']]
* '''[[Marsupial]]s'''
** All remaining members of [[Diprotodontidae]]
*** ''[[Diprotodon]]''  (largest known marsupial)
*** ''[[Hulitherium]] tomasetti'' 
*** ''[[Maokopia]] ronaldi'' 
*** ''[[Zygomaturus]]'' 
** ''[[Palorchestes]]'' ("marsupial [[tapir]]")
** Various members of ''[[Wombat|Vombatidae]]''
*** ''[[Lasiorhinus angustidens]]'' (giant wombat)
*** ''[[Phascolonus]]'' (giant wombat)
*** ''[[Ramasayia]] magna'' (giant wombat)
*** ''[[Vombatus hacketti]]'' (Hackett's wombat)
*** ''[[Warendja]] wakefieldi'' (dwarf wombat)
*** ''[[Sedophascolomys]]'' (giant wombat)
** ''[[Giant koala|Phascolarctos stirtoni]]'' (giant koala)
** [[Marsupial lion]] (''Thylacoleo carnifex)''
** ''[[Borungaboodie]]'' (giant potoroo)
** Various members of ''[[Macropodidae]]'' (kangaroos, wallabies, etc.)
*** ''[[Procoptodon]]'' (short-faced kangaroos) e.g. 
**** ''[[Procoptodon goliah]]''
*** ''[[Sthenurus]]'' (giant kangaroo)
*** ''[[Simosthenurus]]'' (giant kangaroo)
*** Various ''[[Macropus]]'' (giant [[kangaroo]]) spp. e.g.
**** ''[[Macropus ferragus]]''  
**** ''[[Macropus titan]]''
**** ''[[Macropus pearsoni]]''
*** ''[[Protemnodon]]'' spp. (giant wallaby)
*** [[Troposodon]] ([[wallaby]])<ref name="Lourandos2">{{Cite book |last=Lourandos |first=Harry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tTy-I8no1MwC&q=Phascolomys+medius&pg=PA99 |title=Continent of Hunter-Gatherers: New Perspectives in Australian Prehistory |date=28 February 1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-35946-7}}</ref><ref name="MacPhee2">{{cite book |last=MacPhee |first=R.D.E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZLuF1YXYTcC&pg=PA251 |title=Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-306-46092-0 |page=251}}</ref><ref name="austhrutime-megafauna">{{cite web|url=http://austhrutime.com/marsupial_megafauna.htm|title=Megafauna|website=austhrutime.com|access-date=20 April 2017}}</ref><ref name="www.anaspides.net">{{cite web|url=http://www.anaspides.net/earth_life_sciences/megafauna_extinction.html|title=Anaspides.net|website=www.anaspides.net|access-date=20 April 2017|archive-date=20 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720160049/http://www.anaspides.net/earth_life_sciences/megafauna_extinction.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Webb-2013">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C0blLvmdp04C&q=Warendja+wakefieldi&pg=PA279|title=Corridors to Extinction and the Australian Megafauna|last=Webb|first=Steve|date=27 February 2013|publisher=Newnes|isbn=978-0-12-407840-6}}</ref><ref name="Long">{{Cite book |last1=Long |first1=John A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LwMkO0M1mPQC&q=Troposodon+minor&pg=PA163 |title=Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution |last2=Archer |first2=Michael |publisher=UNSW Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-86840-435-6}}</ref>
*** ''[[Bohra (mammal)|Bohra]]'' (giant [[tree kangaroo]])
*** ''[[Propleopus|Propleopus oscillans]]'' (omnivorous, giant [[musky rat-kangaroo]])
*** ''[[Nombe]]''
*** ''[[Congruus]]''
** Various forms of ''[[Sarcophilus]]'' ([[Tasmanian devil]])
*** ''[[Sarcophilus laniarius]]'' (25% larger than modern species, unclear if it is actually a distinct species from living Tasmanian devil<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=White |first1=Lauren C. |last2=Saltré |first2=Frédérik |last3=Bradshaw |first3=Corey J. A. |last4=Austin |first4=Jeremy J. |date=January 2018 |title=High-quality fossil dates support a synchronous, Late Holocene extinction of devils and thylacines in mainland Australia |journal=Biology Letters |language=en |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=20170642 |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2017.0642 |issn=1744-9561 |pmc=5803592 |pmid=29343562}}</ref>)
*** ''[[Sarcophilus moornaensis]]''
* '''[[Monotreme]]s''': egg-laying mammals.
** [[Echidna]]
*** ''[[Murrayglossus hacketti]]'' (giant echidna)
*** ''[[Megalibgwilia|Megalibgwilia ramsayi]]'' 
* '''Birds'''
** Pygmy Cassowary (''[[Casuarius lydekkeri]]'')
** ''[[Genyornis]]'' (a {{convert|2|m|ft|adj=mid|-tall|spell=in|sp=us}} [[Dromornithidae|dromornithid]]
** [[Giant malleefowl]] (''Progura gallinacea'')
** ''[[Cryptogyps|Cryptogyps lacertosus]]''
** ''[[Dynatoaetus|Dynatoaetus gaffae]]''
** Several [[Phoenicopteridae]] spp.
*** ''[[Xenorhynchopsis]]'' spp. (Australian flamingo)<ref name="Bayly-1993">{{Cite book |last=Bayly|first=I. A. E.|year=1993 |publisher=Springer Netherlands|isbn=978-94-010-4921-4|editor-last=Hurlbert|editor-first=Stuart H.|series=Developments in Hydrobiology |volume=87|pages=225–231 |doi=10.1007/978-94-011-2076-0_18 |title=Saline Lakes V|chapter=The fauna of athalassic saline waters in Australia and the Altiplano of South America: Comparisons and historical perspectives}}</ref>
*** ''Xenorhynchopsis minor''
*** ''Xenorhynchopsis tibialis''
* '''Reptiles'''
** Crocs & Gators[[File:Quinkana timara skull.jpg|thumb|''[[Quinkana]]'' was one of the last surviving land crocodiles]]
*** ''[[Ikanogavialis]]'' (the last fully marine crocodilian)
*** ''[[Paludirex]]'' (Australian freshwater [[mekosuchine]] crocodiian)
*** ''[[Quinkana]]'' (Australian terrestrial mekosuchine crocodilian, [[apex predator]])
*** ''[[Volia]]'' (a two-to-three meter long mekosuchine crocodylian, apex predator of Pleistocene Fiji)
***''[[Mekosuchus]]''
****''[[Mekosuchus inexpectatus]]'' (New Caledonian land crocodile)
****''Mekosuchus kalpokasi'' (Vanuatu land crocodile)
** ''[[Varanus]] sp.'' (Pleistocene and Holocene New Caledonia)
** [[Megalania]] (''Varanus pricus'') (a giant predatory monitor lizard comparable or larger than the Komodo dragon)
** Snakes
*** ''[[Wonambi]]'' (a five-to-six-metre-long Australian constrictor [[snake]])
** Several spp. of [[Meiolaniidae]] (giant armoured turtles)
*** ''[[Meiolania]]''
*** ''[[Ninjemys]]''

==Causes==

=== History of research ===
The megafaunal extinctions were already recognized as a distinct phenomenon by some scientists in the 19th century:<ref>S.F. Vizcaíno, R.A. Fariña, J.C. Fernicola Young Darwin and the ecology and extinction of Pleistocene South American fossil mammals Rev. Asoc. Geol. Argent., 64 (1) (2009), pp. 160-169</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Flannery |first=Timothy F. |date=8 January 1999 |title=Debating Extinction |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.283.5399.182 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=283 |issue=5399 |pages=182–183 |doi=10.1126/science.283.5399.182 |issn=0036-8075}}</ref>

{{blockquote|It is impossible to reflect without the deepest astonishment, on the changed state of [South America]. Formerly it must have swarmed with great monsters, like the southern parts of Africa, but now we find only the tapir, guanaco, armadillo, capybara; mere pigmies compared to antecedents races... Since their loss, no very great physical changes can have taken place in the nature of the Country. What then has exterminated so many living creatures?|author=[[Charles Darwin]]|source=''The Voyage of the Beagle'' (1834)}}
{{blockquote|It is clear, therefore, that we are now in an altogether exceptional period of the earth's history. We live in a zoologically impoverished world, from which all the hugest, and fiercest, and strangest forms have recently disappeared; and it is, no doubt, a much better world for us now they have gone. Yet it is surely a marvellous fact, and one that has hardly been sufficiently dwelt upon, this sudden dying out of so many large mammalia, not in one place only but over half the land surface of the globe. We cannot but believe that there must have been some physical cause for this great change; and it must have been a cause capable of acting almost simultaneously over large portions of the earth's surface, and one which, as far as the Tertiary period at least is concerned, was of an exceptional character.|author=[[Alfred Russel Wallace]]|source= ''The geographical distribution of animals; with a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surface'' (1876)}}

Several decades later in his 1911 book ''The World of Life'' (published 2 years before his death), Wallace revisited the issue of the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions, concluding that the extinctons were at least in part the result of human agency in combination with other factors.<ref>Wallace, Alfred Russel (1911). [[iarchive:worldoflifemanif00walluoft/page/244/mode/2up|The World of Life]]. Moffat, Yard. p. 244-249</ref> Discussion of the topic became more widespread during the 20th century, particularly following the proposal of the "overkill hypothesis" by [[Paul Schultz Martin]] during the 1960s. By the end of the 20th century, two "camps" of researchers had emerged on the topic, one supporting climate change, the other supporting human hunting as the primary cause of the extinctions.<ref name=":1" />

=== Hunting ===
The hunting hypothesis suggests that humans hunted [[megaherbivore]]s to extinction, which in turn caused the extinction of carnivores and scavengers which had preyed upon those animals.<ref name="Martin1963">{{cite book |author=Martin, P. S. |year=1963 |title=The last 10,000 years: A fossil pollen record of the American Southwest |location=Tucson, AZ |publisher=Univ. Ariz. Press |isbn=978-0-8165-1759-6}}</ref><ref name="Martin1967">{{cite book |author=Martin, P. S. |year=1967 |chapter=Prehistoric overkill |title=Pleistocene extinctions: The search for a cause |editor=Martin, P. S. |editor2=Wright, H. E. |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-300-00755-8}}</ref><ref name="Martin1989">{{cite book |author=Martin, P. S. |year=1989 |chapter=Prehistoric overkill: A global model |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |editor=Martin, P.S. |editor2=Klein, R.G. |pages=354–404 |location=Tucson, AZ |publisher=Univ. Arizona Press |isbn=978-0-8165-1100-6}}</ref> This hypothesis holds Pleistocene humans responsible for the megafaunal extinction. One variant, known as ''blitzkrieg'', portrays this process as relatively quick. Some of the direct evidence for this includes: fossils of some megafauna found in conjunction with human remains, embedded arrows and tool cut marks found in megafaunal bones, and European [[cave paintings]] that depict such hunting. [[biogeography|Biogeographical]] evidence is also suggestive: the areas of the world where humans evolved currently have more of their Pleistocene megafaunal diversity (the [[elephant]]s and [[Rhinoceros|rhinos]] of [[Asia]] and [[Africa]]) compared to other areas such as [[Australia]], the [[Americas]], [[Madagascar]] and [[New Zealand]] without the earliest humans. The overkill hypothesis, a variant of the hunting hypothesis, was proposed in 1966 by Paul S. Martin,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Weston |first1=Phoebe |date=25 November 2022 |title=Humans v nature: our long and destructive journey to the age of extinction |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/25/cop15-humans-v-nature-our-long-and-destructive-journey-to-the-age-of-extinction-aoe |access-date=28 November 2022}}</ref> Professor of Geosciences Emeritus at the [[Desert Laboratory]] of the [[University of Arizona]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Martin |first=Paul S. |date=1966 |title=Africa and Pleistocene overkill |url=http://max2.ese.u-psud.fr/epc/conservation/PDFs/HIPE/Martin1966.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Nature |volume=212 |issue=5060 |pages=339–342 |bibcode=1966Natur.212..339M |doi=10.1038/212339a0 |s2cid=27013299 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129160700/http://max2.ese.u-psud.fr/epc/conservation/PDFs/HIPE/Martin1966.pdf |archive-date=29 November 2020 |access-date=31 July 2019}}</ref>
[[File:Homo-Stammbaum, Version Stringer-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.55|[[Despeciation]] within the genus ''[[Homo]]''.]]
Circumstantially, the close correlation in time between the appearance of humans in an area and extinction there provides weight for this scenario.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barnosky |first1=Anthony D. |last2=Lindsey |first2=Emily L. |date=15 April 2010 |title=Timing of Quaternary megafaunal extinction in South America in relation to human arrival and climate change |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618209004236 |journal=[[Quaternary International]] |series=Faunal Dynamics and Extinction in the Quaternary: Studies in Honor of Ernest L. Lundelius, Jr. |volume=217 |issue=1 |pages=10–29 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2009.11.017 |bibcode=2010QuInt.217...10B |issn=1040-6182 |access-date=2 January 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref><ref name="ClimateChangeNotToBlame" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name="pmid37996436" /> Radiocarbon dating has supported the plausibility of this correlation being reflective of causation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Surovell |first1=Todd A. |last2=Pelton |first2=Spencer R. |last3=Anderson-Sprecher |first3=Richard |last4=Myers |first4=Adam D. |date=26 January 2016 |title=Test of Martin's overkill hypothesis using radiocarbon dates on extinct megafauna |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |language=en |volume=113 |issue=4 |pages=886–891 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1504020112 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=4743775 |pmid=26504205 |bibcode=2016PNAS..113..886S }}</ref> The megafaunal extinctions covered a vast period of time and highly variable climatic situations. The earliest extinctions in Australia were complete approximately 50,000 BP, well before the Last Glacial Maximum and before rises in temperature. The most recent extinction in New Zealand was complete no earlier than 500 BP and during a period of cooling. In between these extremes megafaunal extinctions have occurred progressively in such places as North America, South America and Madagascar with no climatic commonality. The only common factor that can be ascertained is the arrival of humans.<ref name="Martin">{{cite book
 | last = Martin
 | first = P. S.
 | title = Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America
 | publisher = [[University of California Press]]
 | year = 2005
 | url = https://archive.org/details/twilightofmammot00paul
 | url-access = registration
 | isbn = 978-0-520-23141-2}}</ref><ref name="Burney">{{cite journal
 |last        = Burney
 |first       = D. A.
 |author2     = Flannery, T. F.
 |title       = Fifty millennia of catastrophic extinctions after human contact
 |journal     = Trends in Ecology & Evolution
 |volume      = 20
 |issue       = 7
 |pages       = 395–401
 |date        = July 2005
 |doi         = 10.1016/j.tree.2005.04.022
 |pmid        = 16701402
 |url         = http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/Fieldschools/Kauai/Publications/Publication%204.pdf
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100610061434/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/Fieldschools/Kauai/Publications/Publication%204.pdf
 |archive-date = 10 June 2010
}}</ref> This phenomenon appears even within regions. The mammal extinction wave in Australia about 50,000 years ago coincides not with known climatic changes, but with the arrival of humans. In addition, large mammal species like the giant kangaroo ''[[Protemnodon]]'' appear to have succumbed sooner on the Australian mainland than on Tasmania, which was colonised by humans a few thousand years later.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Diamond J |author-link=Jared Diamond |title=Palaeontology: The last giant kangaroo |journal=Nature |volume=454 |pages=835–6 |year=2008 |doi=10.1038/454835a |pmid=18704074 |issue=7206 |bibcode=2008Natur.454..835D |s2cid=36583693 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Turneya CS, Flannery TF, Roberts RG, Reid C, Fifield LK, Higham TF, Jacobs Z, Kemp N, Colhoun EA, Kalin RM, Ogle N |title=Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction |journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. |volume=105 |issue=34 |pages=12150–3 |date=26 August 2008 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0801360105 |pmid=18719103 |pmc=2527880 |bibcode=2008PNAS..10512150T |doi-access=free}}</ref> A study published in 2015 supported the hypothesis further by running several thousand scenarios that correlated the time windows in which each species is known to have become extinct with the arrival of humans on different continents or islands. This was compared against climate reconstructions for the last 90,000 years. The researchers found correlations of human spread and species extinction indicating that the [[Human impact on the environment|human impact]] was the main cause of the extinction, while climate change exacerbated the frequency of extinctions. The study, however, found an apparently low extinction rate in the fossil record of mainland Asia.<ref name="uoe">{{cite web |date=13 August 2015 |title=Humans responsible for demise of gigantic ancient mammals |url=https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_465673_en.html |access-date=14 August 2015 |publisher=[[University of Exeter]]}}</ref><ref name="eco">{{cite journal |author1=Lewis J. Bartlett |author2=David R. Williams |author3=Graham W. Prescott |author4=Andrew Balmford |author5=Rhys E. Green |author6=Anders Eriksson |author7=Paul J. Valdes |author8=Joy S. Singarayer |author8-link=Joy Singarayer |author9=Andrea Manica |year=2016 |title=Robustness despite uncertainty: regional climate data reveal the dominant role of humans in explaining global extinctions of Late Quaternary megafauna |url=https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/publications/robustness-despite-uncertainty(94b9d1da-e339-47d9-803e-fa5a64cff28c).html |journal=[[Ecography]] |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=152–161 |bibcode=2016Ecogr..39..152B |doi=10.1111/ecog.01566 |doi-access=free|hdl=1983/94b9d1da-e339-47d9-803e-fa5a64cff28c |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

[[File:Spreading homo sapiens la.svg|thumb|upright=1.5| A map of [[early human migrations]]]]
A 2020 study published in ''[[Science Advances]]'' found that human population size and/or specific human activities, not climate change, caused rapidly rising global mammal extinction rates during the past 126,000 years. Around 96% of all mammalian extinctions over this time period are attributable to human impacts. According to Tobias Andermann, lead author of the study, "these extinctions did not happen continuously and at constant pace. Instead, bursts of extinctions are detected across different continents at times when humans first reached them. More recently, the magnitude of human driven extinctions has picked up the pace again, this time on a global scale."<ref>{{cite news |title=Humans, not climate, have driven rapidly rising mammal extinction rate |work=phys.org |url=https://phys.org/news/2020-09-humans-climate-driven-rapidly-mammal.html |access-date=9 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="rapidrise">{{cite journal |last1=Andermann |first1=Tobias |last2=Faurby |first2=Søren |last3=Turvey |first3=Samuel T. |last4=Antonelli |first4=Alexandre |last5=Silvestro |first5=Daniele |date=September 2020 |title=The past and future human impact on mammalian diversity |journal=Science Advances |volume=6 |issue=36 |at=eabb2313 |bibcode=2020SciA....6.2313A |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abb2313 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=7473673 |pmid=32917612}} [[File:CC-BY_icon.svg|50x50px]] Text and images are available under a [[creativecommons:by/4.0/|Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License]].</ref> On a related note, the population declines of still extant megafauna during the Pleistocene have also been shown to correlate with human expansion rather than climate change.<ref name="pmid37996436" />

The extinction's extreme bias towards larger animals further supports a relationship with human activity rather than climate change.<ref name="HumanRangeExpansionNotClimateChange">{{Cite journal |last1=Lemoine |first1=Rhys Taylor |last2=Buitenwerf |first2=Robert |last3=Svenning |first3=Jens-Christian |date=1 December 2023 |title=Megafauna extinctions in the late-Quaternary are linked to human range expansion, not climate change |journal=Anthropocene |volume=44 |pages=100403 |doi=10.1016/j.ancene.2023.100403 |issn=2213-3054 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2023Anthr..4400403L }}</ref> There is evidence that the average size of mammalian fauna declined over the course of the Quaternary,<ref name="BodySizeDowngrading">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Felisa A. |display-authors=etal |date=20 April 2018 |title=Body size downgrading of mammals over the late Quaternary |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=360 |issue=6386 |pages=310–313 |bibcode=2018Sci...360..310S |doi=10.1126/science.aao5987 |pmid=29674591 |doi-access=free}}</ref> a phenomenon that was likely linked to disproportionate hunting of large animals by humans.<ref name="Dembitzer-2022" />

Extinction through human hunting has been supported by archaeological finds of [[mammoths]] with projectile points embedded in their skeletons, by observations of modern naive animals allowing hunters to approach easily<ref name="Eaters">{{cite book
 | last = Flannery | first = Tim | author-link = Tim Flannery
 | title = The future eaters: an ecological history of the Australasian lands and people
 | publisher = [[Grove/Atlantic, Inc.]]
 | date = 16 October 2002
| location = New York
 | url = http://google.com/books?id=eIW5aktgo0IC&printsec=frontcover
 | isbn = 978-0-8021-3943-6 | oclc = 32745413}}</ref><ref name="Diamond1984">{{cite book | author = Diamond, J. | year = 1984 |chapter=Historic extinctions: a Rosetta stone for understanding prehistoric extinctions |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |editor= Martin, P.S. |editor2=Klein, R.G. | pages = 824–62 | location = Tucson, AZ | publisher = Univ. Arizona Press | isbn = 978-0-8165-1100-6}}</ref><ref name="Diamond1997">{{cite book | author = Diamond, J. | year = 1997 | title = Guns, germs, and steel; the fates of human societies | location = New York | publisher = Norton | isbn = 978-0-393-31755-8}}</ref> and by computer models by Mosimann and Martin,<ref name="Mosimann&Martin1975">{{cite journal |author1=Mossiman, J. E. |author2=Martin, P. S. | year = 1975 | title = Simulating Overkill by Paleoindians | journal = American Scientist | volume = 63 |issue=3 | pages = 304–13 | bibcode = 1975AmSci..63..304M}}</ref> and Whittington and Dyke,<ref name="Whittington&Dyke984">{{cite book |author1=Whittington, S. L. |author2=Dyke, B. | year = 1984 |chapter=Simulating overkill: experiment with the Mossiman and Martin model |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |editor= Martin, P.S. |editor2=Klein, R.G. | pages = 451–66 | location = Tucson, AZ | publisher = Univ. Arizona Press | isbn = 978-0-8165-1100-6}}</ref> and most recently by Alroy.<ref name="Alroy2001">{{cite journal | author = Alroy, J. | year = 2001 | title = A multispecies overkill simulation of the end-Pleistocene megafaunal mass extinction | journal = Science | volume = 292 | pages = 1893–6 | url = http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~alroy/pdfs/2001-Science-292-1893.pdf | doi = 10.1126/science.1059342 | pmid = 11397940 | issue = 5523 | bibcode = 2001Sci...292.1893A | s2cid = 35769639 | access-date = 9 August 2008 | archive-date = 11 May 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080511213654/http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~alroy/pdfs/2001-Science-292-1893.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref>[[File:Extinctions Africa Austrailia NAmerica Madagascar.gif|thumb|upright=1.2|The timing of extinctions follows the "March of Man"]]

In 2024 a paper was published in ''Science Advances'' that added additional support to the overkill hypothesis in North America when the skull of an 18 month old child, dated to 12,800 years ago, was analyzed for chemical signatures attributable to both maternal milk and solid food. Specific isotopes of carbon and nitrogen most closely matched those that would have been found in the mammoth genus and secondarily elk or bison.<ref name="zimmer-2024">{{cite news |last1=Zimmer |first1=Carl |title=Mammoth: It's What Was for Dinner |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/science/mammoth-extinction-human-hunting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hk4.CcOq.sx_mLGODSXuc&smid=url-share |agency=New York Times |date=4 December 2024}}</ref><ref name="Chatters-2024">{{cite journal | display-authors=etal |last1=James C |first1=Chatters |title=Mammoth featured heavily in Western Clovis diet |journal=Science Advances |date=4 December 2024 |volume=10 |issue=49 |pages=eadr3814 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adr3814|pmid=39630905 |pmc=11616702 |bibcode=2024SciA...10R3814C }}</ref>

A number of objections have been raised regarding the hunting hypothesis. Notable among them is the sparsity of evidence of human hunting of megafauna.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Grayson |first1=Donald K. |last2=Meltzer |first2=David J. |date=1 April 2015 |title=Revisiting Paleoindian exploitation of extinct North American mammals |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440315000473 |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |series=Scoping the Future of Archaeological Science: Papers in Honour of Richard Klein |volume=56 |pages=177–193 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2015.02.009 |bibcode=2015JArSc..56..177G |issn=0305-4403 |access-date=2 January 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Grayson |first1=Donald K. |last2=Meltzer |first2=David J. |last3=Breslawski |first3=Ryan P. |date=1 April 2021 |title=Overkill and the North American archaeological record—not guilty by association? A comment on Wolfe and Broughton (2020) |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440320302326 |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |volume=128 |pages=105312 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2020.105312 |bibcode=2021JArSc.128j5312G |s2cid=233572352 |issn=0305-4403 |access-date=2 January 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meltzer |first=David J. |date=21 October 2015 |title=Pleistocene Overkill and North American Mammalian Extinctions |journal=[[Annual Review of Anthropology]] |language=en |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=33–53 |doi=10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-013854 |issn=0084-6570 |doi-access=free}}</ref> There is no archeological evidence that in North America megafauna other than mammoths, mastodons, [[gomphothere]]s and bison were hunted, despite the fact that, for example, camels and horses are very frequently reported in fossil history.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grayson |first1=D.K. |last2=Meltzer |first2=D.J. |year=2003 |title=A requiem for North American overkill |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=30 |issue=5| pages=585–593 |doi=10.1016/s0305-4403(02)00205-4 |bibcode=2003JArSc..30..585G |citeseerx=10.1.1.399.1153}}</ref> Overkill proponents, however, say this is due to the fast extinction process in North America and the low probability of animals with signs of butchery to be preserved.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Fiedel, S. |author2=Haynes, G. |date=2004 |title=A premature burial: comments on Grayson and Meltzer's ''Requiem for overkill'' |journal=[[Journal of Archaeological Science]] |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=121–131 |bibcode=2004JArSc..31..121F |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2003.06.004}}</ref> The majority of North American taxa have too sparse a fossil record to accurately assess the frequency of human hunting of them.<ref name="AssessingTheCauses" /> A study by Surovell and Grund concluded "archaeological sites dating to the time of the coexistence of humans and extinct fauna are rare. Those that preserve bone are considerably more rare, and of those, only a very few show unambiguous evidence of human hunting of any type of prey whatsoever."<ref>{{cite journal |title=The associational critique of Quaternary overkill |journal=American Antiquity |year=2012 |first=Todd A |last=Surovell |author2=Brigid S Grund |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=673–688 |doi=10.7183/0002-7316.77.4.672| s2cid=163726293}}</ref> [[Eugene S. Hunn]] suggests that the birthrate in hunter-gatherer societies is generally too low, that too much effort is involved in the bringing down of a large animal by a hunting party, and that in order for hunter-gatherers to have brought about the extinction of megafauna simply by hunting them to death, an extraordinary amount of meat would have had to have been wasted.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Nadasdy, Paul |title=Transcending the Debate over the Ecologically Noble Indian: Indigenous Peoples and Environmentalism |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=52 |issue=2 |year=2006 |doi=10.1215/00141801-52-2-291 |pages=291–331 |s2cid=52037849}}</ref> Proponents of hunting as a cause of the extinctions argue that statistical modelling validates that relatively low-level hunting can have significant effect on megafauna populations due to their slow life cycles,<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Fordham |first1=Damien A. |last2=Brown |first2=Stuart C. |last3=Canteri |first3=Elisabetta |last4=Austin |first4=Jeremy J. |last5=Lomolino |first5=Mark V. |last6=Haythorne |first6=Sean |last7=Armstrong |first7=Edward |last8=Bocherens |first8=Hervé |last9=Manica |first9=Andrea |last10=Rey-Iglesia |first10=Alba |last11=Rahbek |first11=Carsten |last12=Nogués-Bravo |first12=David |last13=Lorenzen |first13=Eline D. |date=11 June 2024 |title=52,000 years of woolly rhinoceros population dynamics reveal extinction mechanisms |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=121 |issue=24 |pages=e2316419121 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2316419121 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=11181021 |pmid=38830089 |bibcode=2024PNAS..12116419F }}</ref> and that hunting can cause top-down forcing [[trophic cascade]] events that destabilize ecosystems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ripple |first1=William J. |last2=Van Valkenburgh |first2=Blaire |date=1 August 2010 |title=Linking Top-down Forces to the Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions |url=http://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/60/7/516/234159/Linking-Topdown-Forces-to-the-Pleistocene |journal=BioScience |language=en |volume=60 |issue=7 |pages=516–526 |doi=10.1525/bio.2010.60.7.7 |issn=1525-3244}}</ref>

=== Second-order predation ===
[[File:CombinedHypothesisPleistoceneExtinction.gif|upright|thumb|Combination Hypotheses: Climate Change, Overkill + Climate Change, Second-Order Predation + Climate Change]]
[[File:SingleHypothesisPleistoceneExtinctions.gif|upright|thumb|left|Overkill Hypothesis and Second-Order Predation]]The Second-Order Predation Hypothesis says that as humans entered the New World they continued their policy of killing predators, which had been successful in the Old World but because they were more efficient and because the fauna, both herbivores and carnivores, were more naive, they killed off enough carnivores to upset the [[Ecological equilibrium|ecological balance]] of the continent, causing [[overpopulation (biology)|overpopulation]], environmental exhaustion, and environmental collapse. The hypothesis accounts for changes in animal, plant, and human populations.

The scenario is as follows:
* After the arrival of ''H. sapiens'' in the New World, existing predators must share the prey populations with this new predator. Because of this competition, populations of original, or first-order, predators cannot find enough food; they are in direct competition with humans.
* Second-order predation begins as humans begin to kill predators.
* Prey populations are no longer well controlled by predation. Killing of nonhuman predators by ''H. sapiens'' reduces their numbers to a point where these predators no longer regulate the size of the prey populations.
* Lack of regulation by first-order predators triggers boom-and-bust cycles in prey populations. Prey populations expand and consequently overgraze and over-browse the land. Soon the environment is no longer able to support them. As a result, many herbivores starve. Species that rely on the slowest recruiting food become extinct, followed by species that cannot extract the maximum benefit from every bit of their food.
* Boom-bust cycles in herbivore populations change the nature of the vegetative environment, with consequent climatic impacts on relative humidity and continentality. Through [[overgrazing]] and overbrowsing, mixed parkland becomes grassland, and climatic [[continentality]] increases.
The second-order predation hypothesis has been supported by a computer model, the Pleistocene extinction model (PEM), which, using the same assumptions and values for all variables (herbivore population, herbivore recruitment rates, food needed per human, herbivore hunting rates, etc.) other than those for hunting of predators. It compares the overkill hypothesis (predator hunting = 0) with second-order predation (predator hunting varied between 0.01 and 0.05 for different runs). The findings are that second-order predation is more consistent with extinction than is overkill<ref name="WhitneySmith2004">{{cite book |author=Whitney-Smith, E. |title=Settlement of the American Continents: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human Biogeography |publisher=University of Arizona Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8165-2323-8 |editor=Barton, C.M. |location=Tucson, AZ |chapter=Late Pleistocene extinctions through second-order predation |editor2=Clark, G.A. |editor3=Yesner, D.R.}}</ref><ref name="WhitneySmith2009">{{cite book |author=Whitney-Smith, E. |title=The Second-Order Predation Hypothesis of Pleistocene Extinctions: A System Dynamics Model |publisher=[[VDM Verlag]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-3-639-11579-6 |location=Saarbruken, Germany}}</ref> (results graph at left). The Pleistocene extinction model is the only test of multiple hypotheses and is the only model to specifically test combination hypotheses by artificially introducing sufficient climate change to cause extinction. When overkill and climate change are combined they balance each other out. Climate change reduces the number of plants, overkill removes animals, therefore fewer plants are eaten. Second-order predation combined with climate change exacerbates the effect of climate change.<ref name="WhitneySmith2006">{{cite book |author=Whitney-Smith, E. |title=Clovis and Extinctions – Overkill, Second Order Predation, Environmental Degradation in a Non-equilibrium Ecosystem "Clovis Age Continent" |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |year=2006}}</ref> (results graph at right). The second-order predation hypothesis is further supported by the observation above that there was a massive increase in bison populations.<ref>Scott, E. (2010). "Extinctions, scenarios, and assumptions: Changes in latest Pleistocene large herbivore abundance and distribution in western North America". Quat. Int.</ref>
[[File:Peopling of America through Beringia.png|thumb|Approximate location of the [[Peopling of the Americas|ice-free corridor]] and specific [[Paleo-Indians|Paleoindian]] sites, according to the [[Clovis theory]]]]
However, this hypothesis has been criticised on the grounds that the multispecies model produces a mass extinction through indirect competition between herbivore species: small species with high reproductive rates subsidize predation on large species with low reproductive rates.<ref name="Alroy2001" /> All prey species are lumped in the Pleistocene extinction model. Also, the control of population sizes by predators is not fully supported by observations of modern ecosystems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Fløjgaard |first1=Camilla |last2=Pedersen |first2=Pil Birkefeldt Møller |last3=Sandom |first3=Christopher J. |last4=Svenning |first4=Jens-Christian |last5=Ejrnæs |first5=Rasmus |date=January 2022 |title=Exploring a natural baseline for large-herbivore biomass in ecological restoration |journal=Journal of Applied Ecology |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=18–24 |doi=10.1111/1365-2664.14047 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022JApEc..59...18F |issn=0021-8901 |s2cid=243489626}}</ref> The hypothesis further assumes decreases in vegetation due to climate change, but deglaciation doubled the habitable area of North America. Any vegetational changes that did occur failed to cause almost any extinctions of small vertebrates, and they are more narrowly distributed on average, which detractors cite as evidence against the hypothesis.

=== Competition for water ===
In southeastern Australia, the scarcity of water during the interval in which humans arrived in Australia suggests that human competition with megafauna for precious water sources may have played a role in the extinction of the latter.<ref name="ClimateHumanInteraction">{{Cite journal |last1=Saltré |first1=Frédérik |last2=Chadoeuf |first2=Joël |last3=Peters |first3=Katharina J. |last4=McDowell |first4=Matthew C. |last5=Friedrich |first5=Tobias |last6=Timmermann |first6=Axel |last7=Ulm |first7=Sean |last8=Bradshaw |first8=Corey J. A. |date=22 November 2019 |title=Climate-human interaction associated with southeast Australian megafauna extinction patterns |journal=Nature Communications |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=5311 |bibcode=2019NatCo..10.5311S |doi=10.1038/s41467-019-13277-0 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=6876570 |pmid=31757942 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Landscape alteration ===
One consequence of the colonisation by humans of lands previously uninhabited by them may have been the introduction of new fire regimes because of extensive fire use by humans.<ref name="StateOfTheDebate" /> There is evidence that anthropogenic fire use had major impacts on the local environments in both Australia<ref name="TropicalAustralia" /> and North America.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=O'Keefe |first1=F. Robin |last2=Dunn |first2=Regan E. |last3=Weitzel |first3=Elic M. |last4=Waters |first4=Michael R. |last5=Martinez |first5=Lisa N. |last6=Binder |first6=Wendy J. |last7=Southon |first7=John R. |last8=Cohen |first8=Joshua E. |last9=Meachen |first9=Julie A. |last10=DeSantis |first10=Larisa R. G. |last11=Kirby |first11=Matthew E. |last12=Ghezzo |first12=Elena |last13=Coltrain |first13=Joan B. |last14=Fuller |first14=Benjamin T. |last15=Farrell |first15=Aisling B. |last16=Takeuchi |first16=Gary T. |last17=MacDonald |first17=Glen |last18=Davis |first18=Edward B. |last19=Lindsey |first19=Emily L. |date=18 August 2023 |title=Pre–Younger Dryas megafaunal extirpation at Rancho La Brea linked to fire-driven state shift |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo3594 |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |language=en |volume=381 |issue=6659 |pages=eabo3594 |doi=10.1126/science.abo3594 |pmid=37590347 |s2cid=260956289 |issn=0036-8075 |access-date=2 January 2024}}</ref>

=== Climate change ===
[[File:European_Last_Interglacial_landscapes_(cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.45|A European [[Last Interglacial]] landscape, featuring the [[straight-tusked elephant]] (background right), the [[narrow-nosed rhinoceros]] (far left), [[steppe bison]] (background centre left), [[wild horse]] (background centre) and [[aurochs]] (background centre right).]]
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, when scientists first realized that there had been glacial and [[interglacial]] ages, and that they were somehow associated with the prevalence or disappearance of certain animals, they surmised that the termination of the Pleistocene [[ice age]] might be an explanation for the extinctions.

The most obvious change associated with the termination of an ice age is the increase in temperature. Between 15,000 [[Before Present|BP]] and 10,000 BP, a 6&nbsp;°C increase in global mean annual temperatures occurred. This was generally thought to be the cause of the extinctions. According to this hypothesis, a temperature increase sufficient to melt the [[Wisconsin glaciation|Wisconsin ice sheet]] could have placed enough thermal stress on cold-adapted mammals to cause them to die. Their heavy fur, which helps conserve body heat in the glacial cold, might have prevented the dumping of excess heat, causing the mammals to die of heat exhaustion. Large mammals, with their reduced [[Surface area to volume ratio|surface area-to-volume ratio]], would have fared worse than small mammals. A study covering the past 56,000 years indicates that rapid warming events with temperature changes of up to {{convert|16|C-change|0}} had an important impact on the extinction of megafauna. Ancient DNA and radiocarbon data indicates that local genetic populations were replaced by others within the same species or by others within the same genus. Survival of populations was dependent on the existence of [[Refugium (population biology)|refugia]] and long distance dispersals, which may have been disrupted by human hunters.<ref name="cooper2015">{{cite journal |last1=Rabanus-Wallace |first1=M. Timothy |last2=Wooller |first2=Matthew J. |last3=Zazula |first3=Grant D. |last4=Shute |first4=Elen |last5=Jahren |first5=A. Hope |last6=Kosintsev |first6=Pavel |last7=Burns |first7=James A. |last8=Breen |first8=James |last9=Llamas |first9=Bastien |last10=Cooper |first10=Alan |year=2017 |title=Megafaunal isotopes reveal role of increased moisture on rangeland during late Pleistocene extinctions |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |volume=1 |issue=5 |page=0125 |doi=10.1038/s41559-017-0125 |pmid=28812683 |bibcode=2017NatEE...1..125R |s2cid=4473573}}</ref>

Other scientists have proposed that increasingly extreme weather—hotter summers and colder winters—referred to as "[[continentality]]", or related changes in rainfall caused the extinctions. It has been shown that vegetation changed from mixed [[woodland]]-[[aspen parkland|parkland]] to separate [[prairie]] and woodland.<ref name="Birks1973">{{cite conference |author=Birks, H.H. |year=1973 |editor2=West, R.G. |title=Modern macrofossil assemblages in lake sediments in Minnesota |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell Scientific |isbn=0-632-09120-7 |book-title=Quaternary plant ecology: the 14th symposium of the British Ecological Society, University of Cambridge, 28–30 March 1972 |editor=Birks, H.J.B.}}</ref><ref name="Birks & Birks1980">{{cite book |author=Birks, H.J.B. |title=Quaternary paleoecology |author2=Birks, H.H. |publisher=Univ. Park Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-1-930665-56-9 |location=Baltimore}}</ref><ref name="Davis1976">{{cite book |author=Davis, M. B. |title=Geoscience and man: Ecology of the Pleistocene |publisher=School of Geoscience, Louisiana State Univ. |year=1976 |volume=13 |location=Baton Rouge |chapter=Pleistocene biogeography of temperate deciduous forests}}</ref> This may have affected the kinds of food available. Shorter growing seasons may have caused the extinction of large herbivores and the dwarfing of many others. In this case, as observed, bison and other large [[ruminant]]s would have fared better than horses, elephants and other [[monogastric]]s, because ruminants are able to extract more nutrition from limited quantities of high-[[Dietary fiber|fiber]] food and better able to deal with anti-herbivory toxins.<ref name="Guthrie1988">{{cite book |author=Guthrie, R. D. |title=Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe |publisher=University Of Chicago Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-226-31122-7}}</ref><ref name="Guthrie1989">{{cite book |author=Guthrie, R. D. |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |publisher=Univ. Arizona Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8165-1100-6 |editor=Martin, P.S. |location=Tucson, AZ |pages=259–99 |chapter=Mosaics, allochemics, and nutrients: an ecological theory of Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions |editor2=Klein, R.G.}}</ref><ref name="Hoppe1978">{{Cite conference |author=Hoppe, P.P. |year=1978 |title=Rumen fermentation in African ruminants |location=Atlanta |book-title=Proceedings of the 13th Annual Congress of Game Biologists}}</ref> So, in general, when vegetation becomes more specialized, herbivores with less diet flexibility may be less able to find the mix of vegetation they need to sustain life and reproduce, within a given area. Increased continentality resulted in reduced and less predictable rainfall limiting the availability of plants necessary for energy and nutrition.<ref name="Bryson1970">{{cite book |author=Bryson, R.A. |title=Pleistocene and recent environments of the central Great Plains |author2=Baerreis, D.A. |author3=Wendland, W.M. |publisher=Univ. Press Kan |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-7006-0063-2 |editor=Dort Jr., W. |location=Lawrence |chapter=The character of late-glacial and post-glacial climatic changes |id=Univ. Kan. Spec. Pub. 3 |editor2=Jones, Jr. J.K. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/pleistocenerecen0000symp |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Graham and Lundelius1988">{{cite book |author=Graham, R.W. |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |author2=Lundelius, E.L. |publisher=Univ. Arizona Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8165-1100-6 |editor=Martin, P.S. |location=Tucson, AZ |pages=354–404 |chapter=Coevolutionary disequilibrium and Pleistocene extinctions |editor2=Klein, R.G.}}</ref><ref name="King and Saunders1988">{{cite book |author=King, J.E. |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |author2=Saunders, J.J. |publisher=Univ. Arizona Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8165-1100-6 |editor=Martin, P.S. |location=Tucson, AZ |pages=354–404 |chapter=Environmental insularity and the extinction of the American mastodont |editor2=Klein R.G.}}</ref> It has been suggested that this change in rainfall restricted the amount of time favorable for reproduction.<ref name="Axelrod1967">{{cite journal |author=Axelrod, D. I. |year=1967 |title=Quaternary extinctions of large mammals |journal=University of California Publications in Geological Sciences |volume=74 |pages=1–42 |id=ASIN B0006BX8LG}}</ref><ref name="Slaughter1967">{{cite book |author=Slaughter, B. H. |title=Pleistocene extinctions: The search for a cause |publisher=Yale Univ. Press |year=1967 |isbn=978-0-300-00755-8 |editor=Martin, P.S. |location=New Haven |chapter=Animal ranges as a clue to late-Pleistocene extinction |editor2=Wright H.E.}}</ref> This could disproportionately harm large animals, since they have longer, more inflexible mating periods, and so may have produced young at unfavorable seasons (i.e., when sufficient food, water, or shelter was unavailable because of shifts in the growing season). In contrast, small mammals, with their shorter [[Biological life cycle|life cycles]], shorter [[reproductive cycle]]s, and shorter [[gestation]] periods, could have adjusted to the increased unpredictability of the climate, both as individuals and as species which allowed them to synchronize their reproductive efforts with conditions favorable for offspring survival. If so, smaller mammals would have lost fewer offspring and would have been better able to repeat the reproductive effort when circumstances once more favored offspring survival.<ref name="Kilti1988">{{cite book |author=Kilti, R. A. |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |publisher=Univ. Arizona Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-8165-1100-6 |editor=Martin, P.S. |location=Tucson, AZ |pages=354–404 |chapter=Seasonality, gestation time, and large mammal extinctions |editor2=Klein R.G.}}</ref> A study looking at the environmental conditions across Europe, Siberia and the Americas from 25,000 to 10,000 YBP found that prolonged warming events leading to deglaciation and maximum rainfall occurred just prior to the transformation of the rangelands that supported megaherbivores into widespread wetlands that supported herbivore-resistant plants. The study proposes that moisture-driven environmental change led to the megafaunal extinctions and that Africa's trans-equatorial position allowed rangeland to continue to exist between the deserts and the central forests, therefore fewer megafauna species became extinct there.<ref name="cooper2015" />

Evidence in Southeast Asia, in contrast to Europe, Australia, and the Americas, suggests that climate change and an increasing sea level were significant factors in the extinction of several herbivorous species. Alterations in vegetation growth and new access routes for early humans and mammals to previously isolated, localized ecosystems were detrimental to select groups of fauna.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Louys |first=Julien |author2=Curnoe, D. |author3=Tong, H. |date=2007 |title=Characteristics of Pleistocene megafauna extinctions in Southeast Asia |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |volume=243 |issue=1–2 |pages=152–173 |bibcode=2007PPP...243..152L |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.07.011 |url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/16043/files/PAL_E3832.pdf}}</ref>

Some evidence from Europe also suggests climatic changes were responsible for extinctions there, as the individuals extinctions tended to occur during times of environmental change and did not correlate particularly well with human migrations.<ref name="EuropeanPerspective" />

In Australia, some studies have suggested that extinctions of megafauna began before the peopling of the continent, favouring climate change as the driver.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wroe |first1=Stephen |last2=Field |first2=Judith H. |last3=Archer |first3=Michael |last4=Grayson |first4=Donald K. |last5=Price |first5=Gilbert J. |last6=Louys |first6=Julien |last7=Faith |first7=J. Tyler |last8=Webb |first8=Gregory E. |last9=Davidson |first9=Iain |last10=Mooney |first10=Scott D. |date=28 May 2013 |title=Climate change frames debate over the extinction of megafauna in Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea) |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |language=en |volume=110 |issue=22 |pages=8777–8781 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1302698110 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=3670326 |pmid=23650401 |bibcode=2013PNAS..110.8777W }}</ref>

In Beringia, megafauna may have gone extinct because of particularly intense paludification and because the land connection between Eurasia and North America flooded before the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreated far enough to reopen the corridor between Beringia and the remainder of North America.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mann |first1=Daniel H. |last2=Groves |first2=Pamela |last3=Reanier |first3=Richard E. |last4=Gaglioti |first4=Benjamin V. |last5=Kunz |first5=Michael L. |last6=Shapiro |first6=Beth |date=17 November 2015 |title=Life and extinction of megafauna in the ice-age Arctic |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |language=en |volume=112 |issue=46 |pages=14301–14306 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1516573112 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=4655518 |pmid=26578776 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2015PNAS..11214301M }}</ref> Woolly mammoths became extirpated from Beringia because of climatic factors, although human activity also played a synergistic role in their decline.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=G. M. |last2=Beilman |first2=D. W. |last3=Kuzmin |first3=Y. V. |last4=Orlova |first4=L. A. |last5=Kremenetski |first5=K. V. |last6=Shapiro |first6=B. |last7=Wayne |first7=R. K. |last8=Van Valkenburgh |first8=B. |date=12 June 2012 |title=Pattern of extinction of the woolly mammoth in Beringia |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=893– |doi=10.1038/ncomms1881 |issn=2041-1723 |doi-access=free|pmid=22692536 |pmc=3621396 |bibcode=2012NatCo...3..893M }}</ref> In North America, a Radiocarbon-dated Event-Count (REC) modelling study found that megafaunal declines in North America correlated with climatic changes instead of human population expansion.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stewart |first1=Mathew |last2=Carleton |first2=W. Christopher |last3=Groucutt |first3=Huw S. |date=16 February 2021 |title=Climate change, not human population growth, correlates with Late Quaternary megafauna declines in North America |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=965 |doi=10.1038/s41467-021-21201-8 |issn=2041-1723 |doi-access=free|pmid=33594059 |pmc=7886903 |bibcode=2021NatCo..12..965S |hdl=21.11116/0000-0007-FE54-D |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

In the North American Great Lakes region, the population declines of mastodons and mammoths have been found to correlate with climatic fluctuations during the Younger Dryas rather than human activity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Broughton |first1=Jack M. |last2=Weitzel |first2=Elic M. |date=21 December 2018 |title=Population reconstructions for humans and megafauna suggest mixed causes for North American Pleistocene extinctions |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=5441 |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-07897-1 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=6303330 |pmid=30575758 |bibcode=2018NatCo...9.5441B }}</ref>

In the Argentine Pampas, the flooding of vast swathes of the once much larger Pampas grasslands may have played a role in the extinctions of its megafaunal assemblages.<ref name="ArgentinePampasNewChronology" />

Critics object that since there were [[:Image:Five Myr Climate Change.png|multiple]] glacial [[:Image:Atmospheric CO2 with glaciers cycles.gif|advances and withdrawals]] in the evolutionary history of many of the megafauna, it is rather implausible that only after the last glacial maximum would there be such extinctions. Proponents of climate change as the extinction event's cause like [[David J. Meltzer]] suggest that the last deglaciation may have been markedly different from previous ones.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meltzer |first=David J. |date=17 November 2020 |title=Overkill, glacial history, and the extinction of North America's Ice Age megafauna |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |language=en |volume=117 |issue=46 |pages=28555–28563 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2015032117 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=7682371 |pmid=33168739 |bibcode=2020PNAS..11728555M }}</ref> Also, one study suggests that the Pleistocene megafaunal composition may have differed markedly from that of earlier interglacials, making the Pleistocene populations particularly vulnerable to changes in their environment.<ref name="Scott2010">{{cite journal |author=Scott, E. |year=2010 |title=Extinctions, scenarios, and assumptions: Changes in latest Pleistocene large herbivore abundance and distribution in western North America |journal=[[Quaternary International]] |volume=217 |issue=1–2 |pages=225–239 |bibcode=2010QuInt.217..225S |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2009.11.003}}</ref>

Studies propose that the annual mean temperature of the current interglacial that we have seen for the last 10,000 years is no higher than that of previous interglacials, yet most of the same large mammals survived similar temperature increases.<ref name="Andersen1973">{{cite conference |author=Andersen, S. T. |year=1973 |title=The differential pollen productivity of trees and its significance for the interpretation of a pollen diagram from a forested region |book-title=Quaternary plant ecology: the 14th symposium of the British Ecological society, University of Cambridge, 28–30 March 1972 |editor=Birks, H.J.B. |editor2=West, R.G. |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell Scientific |isbn=0-632-09120-7}}</ref><ref name="Ashworth1980">{{cite journal |author=Ashworth, C.A. |year=1980 |title=Environmental implications of a beetle assemblage from the Gervais formation (Early Wisconsinian?), Minnesota |journal=Quat. Res. |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=200–12 |doi=10.1016/0033-5894(80)90029-0 |bibcode=1980QuRes..13..200A |s2cid=130045540}}</ref><ref name="Bradely1985">{{cite book |author=Bradley, R. S. |year=1985 |title=Quaternary Paleoclimatology: Methods of Paleoclimatic Reconstruction |location=Winchester, MA |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=978-0-04-551068-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/quaternarypaleoc0000unse}}</ref> In addition, numerous species such as mammoths on [[Wrangel Island]] and [[Saint Paul Island (Alaska)|St. Paul Island]] survived in human-free [[Refugium (population biology)|refugia]] despite changes in climate.<ref name="Vartanyan1995">{{cite journal |vauthors=Vartanyan SL, Arslanov KA, Tertychnaya TV, Chernov SB |year=1995 |title=Radiocarbon dating evidence for mammoths on Wrangel Island, Arctic Ocean, until 2000 BC |journal=Radiocarbon |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=1–6 |bibcode=1995Radcb..37....1V |doi=10.1017/S0033822200014703 |doi-access=free |url=https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/viewFile/1640/1644}}</ref> This would not be expected if climate change were responsible (unless their maritime climates offered some protection against climate change not afforded to coastal populations on the mainland). Under normal ecological assumptions island populations should be more vulnerable to extinction due to climate change because of small populations and an inability to migrate to more favorable climes.{{citation needed|reason=who is saying this?|date=February 2021}}

Critics have also identified a number of problems with the continentality hypotheses. Megaherbivores have prospered at other times of continental climate. For example, megaherbivores thrived in Pleistocene [[Siberia]], which had and has a more continental climate than Pleistocene or modern (post-Pleistocene, interglacial) North America.<ref name="Flereov1967">{{cite book |author=Flereov, C.C. |year=1967 |chapter=On the origin of the mammalian fauna of Canada |title=The Bering Land Bridge |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/beringlandbridge0000hopk |chapter-url-access=registration |editor=Hopkins, D.M. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/beringlandbridge0000hopk/page/271 271–80] |location=Palo Alto |publisher=Stanford Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-8047-0272-0}}</ref><ref name="Frenzel1968">{{cite journal |author=Frenzel, B. |year=1968 |title=The Pleistocene vegetation of northern Eurasia |journal=Science |volume=161 |pages=637–49 |doi=10.1126/science.161.3842.637 |pmid=17801456 |issue=3842 |bibcode=1968Sci...161..637F}}</ref><ref name="McDonald1989">{{cite book |author=McDonald, J. |year=1989 |chapter=The reordered North American selection regime and late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |editor=Martin, P.S. |editor2=Klein, R.G. |pages=354–404 |location=Tucson, AZ |publisher=Univ. Arizona Press |isbn=978-0-8165-1100-6}}</ref> The animals that became extinct actually should have prospered during the shift from mixed woodland-parkland to prairie, because their primary food source, grass, was increasing rather than decreasing.<ref name="Birks and West1973">{{cite conference |author=Birks, H.J.B. |author2=West, R.G. |title=A Symposium of the British Ecological Society |year=1973 |book-title=Quaternary plant ecology: the 14th symposium of the British Ecological society, University of Cambridge, 28–30 March 1972 |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell Scientific |isbn=0-632-09120-7}}</ref><ref name="McDonald1989" /><ref name="McDonald 1981">{{cite book |author=McDonald, J. |year=1981 |title=North American Bison: Their classification and evolution |location=Berkeley |publisher=Univ. Calif. Press |isbn=978-0-520-04002-1}}</ref> Although the vegetation did become more spatially specialized, the amount of prairie and grass available increased, which would have been good for horses and for mammoths, and yet they became extinct. This criticism ignores the increased abundance and broad geographic extent of Pleistocene bison at the end of the Pleistocene, which would have increased competition for these resources in a manner not seen in any earlier interglacials.<ref name="Scott2010" /> Although horses became extinct in the New World, they were successfully reintroduced by the Spanish in the 16th century—into a modern post-Pleistocene, interglacial climate. Today there are [[feral]] horses still living in those same environments. They find a sufficient mix of food to avoid toxins, they extract enough nutrition from forage to reproduce effectively and the timing of their gestation is not an issue. This criticism ignores the fact that present-day horses are not competing for resources with ground sloths, mammoths, mastodons, camels, llamas, and bison. Similarly, mammoths survived the Pleistocene Holocene transition on isolated, uninhabited islands in the [[Mediterranean Sea]] until 4,000 to 7,000 years ago,<ref name="Burney1993">{{cite journal |author=Burney, D. A. |year=1993 |title=Recent animal extinctions: recipes for disaster |journal=American Scientist |volume=81 |issue=6 |pages=530–41 |bibcode=1993AmSci..81..530B}}</ref> as well as on Wrangel Island in the Siberian Arctic.<ref name="Vartanyan1993">{{cite journal |author=Vartanyan, S.L. |author2=Garutt, V.E. |author3=Sher, A.V. |year=1993 |title=Holocene dwarf mammoths from Wangel Island in the Siberian Arctic |journal=Nature |volume=362 |issue=6418 |pages=337–40 |doi=10.1038/362337a0 |pmid=29633990 |bibcode=1993Natur.362..337V |s2cid=4249191}}</ref> Additionally, large mammals should have been able to migrate, permanently or seasonally, if they found the temperature too extreme, the breeding season too short, or the rainfall too sparse or unpredictable.<ref name="Pennycuick1979">{{cite book |author=Pennycuick, C.J. |year=1979 |chapter=Energy costs of locomotion and the concept of "Foraging radius" |title=Serengetti: Dynamics of an Ecosystem |editor1=Sinclair A.R.E. |editor2=Norton-Griffiths M. |pages=164–85 |location=Chicago |publisher=Univ. Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-76029-2}}</ref> Seasons vary geographically. By migrating away from the [[equator]], herbivores could have found areas with growing seasons more favorable for finding food and breeding successfully. Modern-day [[African elephant]]s migrate during periods of [[drought]] to places where there is apt to be water.<ref name="Wing & Buss1970">{{cite journal |author=Wing, L.D. |author2=Buss, I.O. |year=1970 |title=Elephants and Forests |journal=Wildl. Mong. |issue=19}}</ref> Large animals also store more fat in their bodies than do medium-sized animals and this should have allowed them to compensate for extreme seasonal fluctuations in food availability.<ref name="Owen-Smith1992">{{cite book |author=Owen-Smith, R.N. |title=Megaherbivores: The influence of very large body size on ecology. Cambridge studies in ecology |publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-521-42637-4 |location=Cambridge}}</ref>

Some evidence weighs against climate change as a valid hypothesis as applied to Australia. It has been shown that the prevailing climate at the time of extinction (40,000–50,000 BP) was similar to that of today, and that the extinct animals were strongly adapted to an arid climate. The evidence indicates that all of the extinctions took place in the same short time period, which was the time when humans entered the landscape. The main mechanism for extinction was probably fire (started by humans) in a then much less fire-adapted landscape. Isotopic evidence shows sudden changes in the diet of surviving species, which could correspond to the stress they experienced before extinction.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Thylacoleo "The Beast of the Nullarbor" |series=Catalyst |credits=Presenter: Willis, Paul; Producer: Bryce, Clay; Producer: Searle, Mike |network=Australian Broadcasting Commission |airdate=17 August 2006 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/thylacoleo-the-beast-of-the-nullarbor/11009232 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930071756/https://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/thylacoleo-the-beast-of-the-nullarbor/11009232 |archive-date=30 September 2020 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Prideaux GJ, Long JA, Ayliffe LK, etal |date=January 2007 |title=An arid-adapted middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from south-central Australia |journal=Nature |volume=445 |issue=7126 |pages=422–425 |bibcode=2007Natur.445..422P |doi=10.1038/nature05471 |pmid=17251978 |s2cid=4429899}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Roberts RG, Flannery TF, Ayliffe LK, etal |date=June 2001 |title=New ages for the last Australian megafauna: continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago |journal=Science |volume=292 |issue=5523 |pages=1888–92 |bibcode=2001Sci...292.1888R |doi=10.1126/science.1060264 |pmid=11397939 |s2cid=45643228}}</ref>

Some evidence obtained from analysis of the tusks of [[American mastodon|mastodons]] from the [[Great Lakes region (North America)|American Great Lakes region]] appears inconsistent with the climate change hypothesis. Over a span of several thousand years prior to their extinction in the area, the mastodons show a trend of declining age at maturation. This is the opposite of what one would expect if they were experiencing stresses from deteriorating environmental conditions, but is consistent with a reduction in intraspecific competition that would result from a population being reduced by human hunting.<ref name="Fisher">{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=Daniel C. |title=American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4020-8792-9 |editor-last=Haynes |editor-first=Gary |series=Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology |pages=55–75 |chapter=Paleobiology and Extinction of Proboscideans in the Great Lakes Region of North America |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_4 |s2cid=21544285}}</ref>

It may be observed that neither the overkill nor the climate change hypotheses can fully explain events: [[Browser (herbivore)|browsers]], mixed feeders and non-ruminant grazer species suffered most, while relatively more [[ruminant]] grazers survived.<ref name="Ruminants: Anatomy, Behavior and Diseases">{{cite book |last1=Whitney-Smith |first1=Elin |chapter=The Evolution of an Ecosystem: Pleistocene Extinctions |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237242493 |editor-last1=Minai |editor-first1=Ali A. |editor-last2=Bar-Yam |editor-first2=Yaneer |title=Unifying themes in complex systems IV proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Complex Systems |date=2008 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-540-73849-7}}</ref> However, a broader variation of the overkill hypothesis may predict this, because changes in vegetation wrought by either Second Order Predation (see below)<ref name="WhitneySmith2006" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Whitney-Smith |first1=Elin |chapter=Creating the tiniest bison: A system dynamics model of ecological evolution |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286116200 |editor-last1=Mendes |editor-first1=Ricardo Evandro |title=Ruminants: Anatomy, Behavior, and Diseases |date=2012 |publisher=Nova Biomedical |isbn=978-1-62081-064-4}}</ref> or [[Human impact on the environment|anthropogenic]] fire preferentially selects against browse species.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}}

=== Disease ===
The hyperdisease hypothesis, as advanced by Ross D. E. MacFee and Preston A. Marx, attributes the extinction of large mammals during the late Pleistocene to indirect effects of the newly arrived [[Indigenous peoples|aboriginal humans]].<ref name="MacPhee&Marx1997">{{cite book |last1=MacFee |first1=Ross D. E. |last2=Marx |first2=Preston A. |date=1997 |chapter=Humans, hyperdisease and first-contact extinctions |title=Natural Change and Human Impact in Madagascar |editor1-last=Goodman |editor1-first=S. |editor2-last=Patterson |editor2-first=B. D. |location=Washington DC |publisher=Smithsonian Press |pages=169–217 |isbn=978-1-56098-683-6}}</ref><ref name="MacPhee&Marx1998">{{cite web |last1=MacFee |first1=Ross D. E. |last2=Marx |first2=Preston A. |date=1998 |title=Lightning Strikes Twice: Blitzkrieg, Hyperdisease, and Global Explanations of the Late Quaternary Catastrophic Extinctions |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |url=http://www.amnh.biz/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/bytes/MacPheePres.html|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903232653/http://www.amnh.biz/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/bytes/MacPheePres.html |archive-date=3 September 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |last1=MacFee |first1=Ross D. E. |last2=Marx |first2=Preston A. |title=The 40,000-year Plague: Humans, Hyperdisease, and First-contact Extinctions |work=Natural Change and Human Impact in Madagascar |pages=169–217 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |date=1997 |location=Washington DC}}</ref> In more recent times, disease has driven many vulnerable species to extinction; the introduction of [[avian malaria]] and [[avipoxvirus]], for example, has greatly decreased the populations of the [[endemic birds of Hawaii]], with some going extinct.<ref name="LaPointe 2012">{{Cite journal |last1=Lapointe |first1=D. A. |last2=Atkinson |first2=C. T. |last3=Samuel |first3=M. D. |year=2012 |title=Ecology and conservation biology of avian malaria |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1230770 |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |volume=1249 |issue=1 |pages=211–26 |bibcode=2012NYASA1249..211L |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06431.x |pmid=22320256 |s2cid=1885904|doi-access=free }}</ref> The hyperdisease hypothesis proposes that humans or animals traveling with them (e.g., chickens or domestic dogs) introduced one or more highly [[virulent]] diseases into vulnerable populations of native mammals, eventually causing extinctions. The extinction was biased toward larger-sized species because smaller species have greater resilience because of their life history traits (e.g., shorter gestation time, greater population sizes, etc.). Humans are thought to be the cause because other earlier immigrations of mammals into North America from Eurasia did not cause extinctions.<ref name="MacPhee&Marx1997" /> A similar suggestion is that pathogens were transmitted by the expanding [[human]]s via the domesticated [[dog]]s they brought with them.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fiedel |first=S. |date=2005 |title=Man's best friend: mammoth's worst enemy? |url=https://zenodo.org/record/895416 |journal=World Archaeology |volume=37 |pages=11–35 |doi=10.1080/0043824042000329540 |s2cid=161477134}}</ref> A related theory proposes that a highly contagious [[prion]] disease similar to [[chronic wasting disease]] or [[scrapie]] that was capable of infecting a large number of species was the culprit. Animals weakened by this "superprion" would also have easily become reservoirs of viral and bacterial diseases as they succumbed to neurological degeneration from the prion, causing a cascade of different diseases to spread among various mammal species. This theory could potentially explain the prevalence of heterozygosity at codon 129 of the prion protein gene in humans, which has been speculated to be the result of natural selection against homozygous genotypes that were more susceptible to prion disease and thus potentially a tell-tale of a major prion pandemic that affected humans of or younger than reproductive age far in the past and disproportionately killed before they could reproduce those with homozygous genotypes at codon 129.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nyström |first1=Sofie |last2=Hammarström |first2=Per |date=7 January 2014 |title=Is the prevalent human prion protein 129M/V mutation a living fossil from a Paleolithic panzootic superprion pandemic? |journal=Prion |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=2–10 |doi=10.4161/pri.27601 |pmc=7030913 |pmid=24398570}}</ref>

If a disease was indeed responsible for the end-Pleistocene extinctions, then there are several criteria it must satisfy (see Table 7.3 in MacPhee & Marx 1997). First, the [[pathogen]] must have a stable [[Asymptomatic carrier|carrier]] state in a reservoir species. That is, it must be able to sustain itself in the environment when there are no susceptible [[Host (biology)|hosts]] available to infect. Second, the pathogen must have a high infection rate, such that it is able to infect virtually all individuals of all ages and sexes encountered. Third, it must be extremely lethal, with a mortality rate of c. 50–75%. Finally, it must have the ability to infect multiple host species without posing a serious threat to humans. Humans may be infected, but the disease must not be highly lethal or able to cause an [[epidemic]].{{citation needed|reason=Where did this list of criteria come from?|date=February 2021}}

As with other hypotheses, a number of counterarguments to the hyperdisease hypothesis have been put forth. Generally speaking, disease has to be very virulent to kill off all the individuals in a [[genus]] or [[species]]. Even such a virulent disease as [[West Nile fever]] is unlikely to have caused extinction.<ref name="Lyons et al2004">{{cite journal |last1=Lyons |first1=K. |last2=Smith |first2=F. A. |last3=Wagner |first3=P. J. |last4=White |first4=E. P. |last5=Brown |first5=J. H. |date=2004 |title=Was a 'hyperdisease' responsible for the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction? |journal=Ecology Letters |volume=7 |issue=9 |pages=859–68 |url= http://biology.unm.edu/fasmith/Web_Page_PDFs/Lyons_et_al_2004_WN.pdf |doi=10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00643.x|bibcode=2004EcolL...7..859K }}</ref> The disease would need to be implausibly selective while being simultaneously implausibly broad. Such a disease needs to be capable of killing off wolves such as ''Canis dirus'' or goats such as ''Oreamnos harringtoni'' while leaving other very similar species (''Canis lupus'' and ''Oreamnos americanus'', respectively) unaffected. It would need to be capable of killing off flightless birds while leaving closely related flighted species unaffected. Yet while remaining sufficiently selective to afflict only individual species within genera it must be capable of fatally infecting across such clades as birds, [[marsupial]]s, [[placental]]s, [[testudines]], and [[crocodilian]]s. No disease with such a broad scope of fatal infectivity is known, much less one that remains simultaneously incapable of infecting numerous closely related species within those disparate clades. On the other hand, this objection does not account for the possibility of a variety of different diseases being introduced around the same era.{{citation needed|reason=who is saying this?|date=February 2021}} Numerous species including wolves, mammoths, camelids, and horses had emigrated continually between Asia and North America over the past 100,000 years. For the disease hypothesis to be applicable there it would require that the population remain immunologically naive despite this constant transmission of genetic and pathogenic material.{{citation needed|reason=who is saying this?|date=February 2021}} The dog-specific hypothesis in particular cannot account for several major extinction events, notably the Americas (for reasons already covered) and Australia. Dogs did not arrive in Australia until approximately 35,000 years after the first humans arrived there, and approximately 30,000 years after the Australian megafaunal extinction was complete.{{citation needed|reason=who is saying this?|date=February 2021}}

=== Extraterrestrial impact ===
{{main|Younger Dryas impact hypothesis}}

An extraterrestrial impact, which has occasionally been proposed as a cause of the Younger Dryas,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bunch |first1=Ted E. |last2=Hermes |first2=Robert E. |last3=Moore |first3=Andrew M.T. |last4=Kennett |first4=Douglas J. |last5=Weaver |first5=James C. |last6=Wittke |first6=James H. |last7=DeCarli |first7=Paul S. |last8=Bischoff |first8=James L. |last9=Hillman |first9=Gordon C. |last10=Howard |first10=George A. |last11=Kimbel |first11=David R. |last12=Kletetschka |first12=Gunther |last13=Lipo |first13=Carl P. |last14=Sakai |first14=Sachiko |last15=Revay |first15=Zsolt |last16=West |first16=Allen |last17=Firestone |first17=Richard B. |last18=Kennett |first18=James P. |date=10 July 2012 |title=Very high-temperature impact melt products as evidence for cosmic airbursts and impacts 12,900 years ago |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |language=en |volume=109 |issue=28 |pages=E1903-12 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1204453109 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=3396500 |pmid=22711809 |bibcode=2012PNAS..109E1903B }}</ref> has been suggested by some authors as a potential cause of the extinction of North America's megafauna due to the temporal proximity between a proposed date for such an impact and the following megafaunal extinctions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Firestone |first1=R. B. |last2=West |first2=A. |last3=Kennett |first3=J. P. |last4=Becker |first4=L. |last5=Bunch |first5=T. E. |last6=Revay |first6=Z. S. |last7=Schultz |first7=P. H. |last8=Belgya |first8=T. |last9=Kennett |first9=D. J. |last10=Erlandson |first10=J. M. |last11=Dickenson |first11=O. J. |last12=Goodyear |first12=A. C. |last13=Harris |first13=R. S. |last14=Howard |first14=G. A. |last15=Kloosterman |first15=J. B. |date=9 October 2007 |title=Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |language=en |volume=104 |issue=41 |pages=16016–16021 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0706977104 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=1994902 |pmid=17901202 |bibcode=2007PNAS..10416016F }}</ref><ref name="SynchronousExtinction" /> However, the [[Younger Dryas impact hypothesis]] lacks widespread support among scholars due to various inconsistencies in the hypothesis,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pinter |first1=Nicholas |last2=Scott |first2=Andrew C. |last3=Daulton |first3=Tyrone L. |last4=Podoll |first4=Andrew |last5=Koeberl |first5=Christian |last6=Anderson |first6=R. Scott |last7=Ishman |first7=Scott E. |date=1 June 2011 |title=The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis: A requiem |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825211000262 |journal=[[Earth-Science Reviews]] |volume=106 |issue=3 |pages=247–264 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2011.02.005 |bibcode=2011ESRv..106..247P |issn=0012-8252 |access-date=2 January 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boslough |first1=Mark |date=March 2023 |title=Apocalypse! |url=https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/graham-hancocks-ancient-apocalypse-hypothesis-put-to-test/ |journal=Skeptic Magazine |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=51–59}}</ref> and another group of researchers has published a review contesting the arguments for it point by point.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Holliday |first1=Vance T. |last2=Daulton |first2=Tyrone L. |last3=Bartlein |first3=Patrick J. |last4=Boslough |first4=Mark B. |last5=Breslawski |first5=Ryan P. |last6=Fisher |first6=Abigail E. |last7=Jorgeson |first7=Ian A. |last8=Scott |first8=Andrew C. |last9=Koeberl |first9=Christian |last10=Marlon |first10=Jennifer R. |last11=Severinghaus |first11=Jeffrey |last12=Petaev |first12=Michail I. |last13=Claeys |first13=Philippe |date=December 2023 |title=Comprehensive refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0012825223001915 |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |language=en |volume=247 |pages=104502 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104502|bibcode=2023ESRv..24704502H }}</ref>

=== Geomagnetic field weakening ===
Around 41,500 years ago, the [[Earth's magnetic field]] weakened in an event known as the [[Laschamp event]]. This weakening may have caused increased flux of [[UVB radiation|UV-B radiation]] and has been suggested by a few authors as a cause of megafaunal extinctions in the Late Quaternary.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Channell |first1=J. E. T. |last2=Vigliotti |first2=L. |date=29 May 2019 |title=The Role of Geomagnetic Field Intensity in Late Quaternary Evolution of Humans and Large Mammals |journal=[[Reviews of Geophysics]] |language=en |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=709–738 |doi=10.1029/2018RG000629 |issn=8755-1209 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2019RvGeo..57..709C }}</ref> The full effects of such events on the [[biosphere]] are poorly understood, however these explanations have been criticized as they do not account for the [[population bottleneck]]s seen in many megafaunal species and nor is there evidence for extreme radio-isotopic changes during the event. Considering these factors, causation is unlikely.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Voosen |first=Paul |date=19 February 2021 |title=Kauri trees mark magnetic flip 42,000 years ago |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.371.6531.766 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=371 |issue=6531 |pages=766 |doi=10.1126/science.371.6531.766 |pmid=33602836 |bibcode=2021Sci...371..766V |issn=0036-8075}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU24/EGU24-10977.html |title=Long-term changes of the geomagnetic field: recent progress, challenges and applications |last=Panovska |first=Sanja |date=7 March 2024 |publisher=Copernicus Meetings |issue=EGU24-10977 |doi=10.5194/egusphere-egu24-10977 |doi-access=free |language=en}}</ref>

== Effects ==
The extinction of the megafauna has been argued by some authors to have caused disappearance of the [[mammoth steppe]] rather than the other way around. Alaska now has low nutrient soil unable to support bison, mammoths, and horses. R. Dale Guthrie has claimed this as a cause of the extinction of the megafauna there; however, he may be interpreting it backwards. The loss of large herbivores to break up the permafrost allows the cold soils that are unable to support large herbivores today. Today, in the arctic, where trucks have broken the permafrost, grasses and diverse flora and fauna can be supported.<ref>{{cite book |author=Kershaw, G.P. |title=Northern Ecology and Resource Management: Memorial Essays honoring Don Gill |publisher=Univ. Alberta Press |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-88864-047-5 |editor=Olson, R. |location=Edmonton, Canada |pages=[https://archive.org/details/northernecologyr0000unse/page/239 239–311] |chapter=Tundra plant communities of the Mackenzie mountains, Northwest Territories; floristic characteristics of long term surface disturbances |editor2=Hastings, R. |editor3=Geddes, F. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/northernecologyr0000unse/page/239}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Webber, P.J. |title=An Arctic ecosystem: the coastal tundra at Barrow, Alaska |author2=Miller, P.C. |author3=Chapin, F.S. III |author4=MacCown, B.H. |publisher=Dowden Hutchinson & Ross |year=1980 |editor=Brown, J. |series=US/IBP Synthesis |location=Stroudsburg, PA |pages=186–219 |chapter=The vegetation: pattern and succession |id=12 |editor2=Miller, P.C. |editor3=Tieszen, L.L. |editor4=Bunnell, F.L.}}</ref> In addition, Chapin (Chapin 1980) showed that simply adding fertilizer to the soil in Alaska could make grasses grow again like they did in the era of the mammoth steppe. Possibly, the extinction of the megafauna and the corresponding loss of dung is what led to low nutrient levels in modern-day soil and therefore is why the landscape can no longer support megafauna.
[[File:Last Glacial Maximum Vegetation Map.svg|thumb|Vegetation types at the time of [[Last Glacial Maximum]]. The steppe-tundra, also known as [[mammoth steppe]], was once the Earth's most extensive biome.]]
However, more recent authors have viewed it as more likely that the collapse of the mammoth steppe was driven by climatic warming, which in turn impacted the megafauna, rather than the other way around.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Dehasque |first1=Marianne |last2=Pečnerová |first2=Patrícia |last3=Muller |first3=Héloïse |last4=Tikhonov |first4=Alexei |last5=Nikolskiy |first5=Pavel |last6=Tsigankova |first6=Valeriya I. |last7=Danilov |first7=Gleb K. |last8=Díez-del-Molino |first8=David |last9=Vartanyan |first9=Sergey |last10=Dalén |first10=Love |last11=Lister |first11=Adrian M. |date=May 2021 |title=Combining Bayesian age models and genetics to investigate population dynamics and extinction of the last mammoths in northern Siberia |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379121001207 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=259 |pages=106913 |bibcode=2021QSRv..25906913D |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106913}}</ref>

Megafauna play a significant role in the lateral transport of mineral nutrients in an ecosystem, tending to translocate them from areas of high to those of lower abundance. They do so by their movement between the time they consume the nutrient and the time they release it through elimination (or, to a much lesser extent, through decomposition after death).<ref name="Wolf2013">{{cite journal |last1=Wolf |first1=A. |last2=Doughty |first2=C. E. |last3=Malhi |first3=Y. |author-link3=Yadvinder Malhi |year=2013 |title=Lateral Diffusion of Nutrients by Mammalian Herbivores in Terrestrial Ecosystems |journal=[[PLoS ONE]] |volume=8 |issue=8 |pages=e71352 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...871352W |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0071352 |pmc=3739793 |pmid=23951141 |doi-access=free}}</ref> In South America's [[Amazon Basin]], it is estimated that such lateral diffusion was reduced over 98% following the megafaunal extinctions that occurred roughly 12,500 years ago.<ref name="Marshall_2013">{{cite magazine |last=Marshall |first=M. |date=11 August 2013 |title=Ecosystems still feel the pain of ancient extinctions |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24026-ecosystems-still-feel-the-pain-of-ancient-extinctions.html |magazine=[[New Scientist]] |access-date=12 August 2013}}</ref><ref name="DoughtyWolf2013">{{cite journal |last1=Doughty |first1=C. E. |last2=Wolf |first2=A. |last3=Malhi |first3=Y. |author-link3=Yadvinder Malhi |year=2013 |title=The legacy of the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions on nutrient availability in Amazonia |url=https://zenodo.org/record/3425870 |journal=[[Nature Geoscience]] |volume=6 |issue=9 |pages=761–764 |bibcode=2013NatGe...6..761D |doi=10.1038/ngeo1895}}{{Dead link|date=February 2020|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Given that [[phosphorus]] availability is thought to limit productivity in much of the region, the decrease in its transport from the western part of the basin and from floodplains (both of which derive their supply from the uplift of the [[Andes]]) to other areas is thought to have significantly impacted the region's ecology, and the effects may not yet have reached their limits.<ref name="DoughtyWolf2013" /> The extinction of the [[mammoth]]s allowed [[grasslands]] they had maintained through grazing habits to become [[birch]] forests.<ref name="Doughty, C. E. 20102">{{cite journal |last1=Doughty |first1=C. E. |last2=Wolf |first2=A. |last3=Field |first3=C. B. |year=2010 |title=Biophysical feedbacks between the Pleistocene megafauna extinction and climate: The first human-induced global warming? |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=37 |issue=15 |pages=n/a |bibcode=2010GeoRL..3715703D |doi=10.1029/2010GL043985 |s2cid=54849882 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The new forest and the resulting forest fires may have induced [[Climate change (general concept)|climate change]].<ref name="Doughty, C. E. 20102" /> Such disappearances might be the result of the proliferation of [[modern human]]s.<ref name="SpecialIssue">{{Cite journal |last=Vignieri |first=S. |date=25 July 2014 |title=Vanishing fauna (Special issue) |journal=Science |volume=345 |issue=6195 |pages=392–412 |bibcode=2014Sci...345..392V |doi=10.1126/science.345.6195.392 |pmid=25061199 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sandom |first1=Christopher |last2=Faurby |first2=Søren |last3=Sandel |first3=Brody |last4=Svenning |first4=Jens-Christian |date=4 June 2014 |title=Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change |journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Society B]] |volume=281 |issue=1787 |pages=20133254 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2013.3254 |pmc=4071532 |pmid=24898370}}</ref>

Large populations of megaherbivores have the potential to contribute greatly to the atmospheric concentration of [[methane]], which is an important [[greenhouse gas]]. Modern [[ruminant]] [[herbivores]] produce methane as a byproduct of [[foregut fermentation]] in digestion, and release it through belching or flatulence. Today, around 20% of annual [[methane emissions]] come from livestock methane release. In the [[Mesozoic]], it has been estimated that [[sauropod]]s could have emitted 520 million tons of methane to the atmosphere annually,<ref name="Wilkinson">{{cite journal |last1=Wilkinson |first1=D. M. |last2=Nisbet |first2=E. G. |last3=Ruxton |first3=G. D. |year=2012 |title=Could methane produced by sauropod dinosaurs have helped drive Mesozoic climate warmth? |journal=[[Current Biology]] |volume=22 |issue=9 |pages=R292–R293 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2012.03.042 |pmid=22575462 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2012CBio...22.R292W }}</ref> contributing to the warmer climate of the time (up to 10&nbsp;°C warmer than at present).<ref name="Wilkinson" /><ref name="sauropod_methane">{{cite web |date=7 May 2012 |title=Dinosaur gases 'warmed the Earth' |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17953792 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151201084318/http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17953792 |archive-date=1 December 2015 |access-date=8 May 2012 |website=BBC Nature News}}</ref> This large emission follows from the enormous estimated biomass of sauropods, and because methane production of individual herbivores is believed to be almost proportional to their mass.<ref name="Wilkinson" />

Recent studies have indicated that the extinction of megafaunal herbivores may have caused a reduction in [[atmospheric methane]]. One study examined the methane emissions from the [[American bison|bison]] that occupied the [[Great Plains]] of North America before contact with European settlers. The study estimated that the removal of the bison caused a decrease of as much as 2.2 million tons per year.<ref name="Kelliher">{{Cite journal |last=Kelliher |first=F. M. |author2=Clark, H. |date=15 March 2010 |title=Methane emissions from bison—An historic herd estimate for the North American Great Plains |journal=[[Agricultural and Forest Meteorology]] |volume=150 |issue=3 |pages=473–577 |bibcode=2010AgFM..150..473K |doi=10.1016/j.agrformet.2009.11.019}}</ref> Another study examined the change in the methane concentration in the atmosphere at the end of the Pleistocene epoch after the extinction of megafauna in the Americas. After early humans migrated to the Americas about 13,000 [[Before Present|BP]], their hunting and other associated ecological impacts led to the extinction of many megafaunal species there. Calculations suggest that this extinction decreased methane production by about 9.6 million tons per year. This suggests that the absence of megafaunal methane emissions may have contributed to the abrupt climatic cooling at the onset of the [[Younger Dryas]]. The decrease in atmospheric methane that occurred at that time, as recorded in [[ice core]]s, was 2–4 times more rapid than any other decrease in the last half million years, suggesting that an unusual mechanism was at work.<ref name="Smith">{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=F. A. |author2=Elliot, S. M. |author3=Lyons, S. K. |date=23 May 2010 |title=Methane emissions from extinct megafauna |journal=[[Nature Geoscience]] |volume=3 |issue=6 |pages=374–375 |bibcode=2010NatGe...3..374S |doi=10.1038/ngeo877 |s2cid=128832000}}</ref>

The extermination of megafauna left many niches vacant, which has been cited as an explanation for the vulnerability and fragility of many ecosystems to destruction in the later Holocene extinction. The comparative lack of megafauna in modern ecosystems has reduced high-order interactions among surviving species, reducing ecological complexity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tóth |first1=Anikó B. |last2=Lyons |first2=S. Kathleen |last3=Barr |first3=W. Andrew |last4=Behrensmeyer |first4=Anna K. |last5=Blois |first5=Jessica L. |last6=Bobe |first6=René |last7=Davis |first7=Matt |last8=Du |first8=Andrew |last9=Eronen |first9=Jussi T. |last10=Faith |first10=J. Tyler |last11=Fraser |first11=Danielle |last12=Gotelli |first12=Nicholas J. |last13=Graves |first13=Gary R. |last14=Jukar |first14=Advait M. |last15=Miller |first15=Joshua H. |date=20 September 2019 |title=Reorganization of surviving mammal communities after the end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw1605 |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |language=en |volume=365 |issue=6459 |pages=1305–1308 |doi=10.1126/science.aaw1605 |pmid=31604240 |bibcode=2019Sci...365.1305T |issn=0036-8075 |access-date=2 January 2024}}</ref> This depauperate, post-megafaunal ecological state has been associated with diminished [[ecological resilience]] to stressors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Felisa A. |last2=Elliott Smith |first2=Emma A. |last3=Villaseñor |first3=Amelia |last4=Tomé |first4=Catalina P. |last5=Lyons |first5=S. Kathleen |last6=Newsome |first6=Seth D. |date=27 September 2022 |title=Late Pleistocene megafauna extinction leads to missing pieces of ecological space in a North American mammal community |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |language=en |volume=119 |issue=39 |pages=e2115015119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2115015119 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=9522422 |pmid=36122233 |bibcode=2022PNAS..11915015S }}</ref> Many extant species of plants have adaptations that were advantageous in the presence of megafauna but are now useless in their absence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Galetti |first1=Mauro |last2=Moleón |first2=Marcos |last3=Jordano |first3=Pedro |last4=Pires |first4=Mathias M. |last5=Guimarães |first5=Paulo R. |last6=Pape |first6=Thomas |last7=Nichols |first7=Elizabeth |last8=Hansen |first8=Dennis |last9=Olesen |first9=Jens M. |last10=Munk |first10=Michael |last11=de Mattos |first11=Jacqueline S. |last12=Schweiger |first12=Andreas H. |last13=Owen-Smith |first13=Norman |last14=Johnson |first14=Christopher N. |last15=Marquis |first15=Robert J. |date=9 October 2017 |title=Ecological and evolutionary legacy of megafauna extinctions |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.12374 |journal=[[Biological Reviews]] |language=en |volume=93 |issue=2 |pages=845–862 |doi=10.1111/brv.12374 |pmid=28990321 |s2cid=4762203 |issn=1464-7931 |access-date=2 January 2024 |via=Wiley Online Library}}</ref> The demise of megafaunal [[ecosystem engineer]]s in the Arctic that maintained open grassland environments has been highly detrimental to shorebirds of the genus ''[[Numenius (bird)|Numenius]].''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tan |first1=Hui Zhen |last2=Jansen |first2=Justin JFJ |last3=Allport |first3=Gary A |last4=Garg |first4=Kritika M |last5=Chattopadhyay |first5=Balaji |last6=Irestedt |first6=Martin |last7=Pang |first7=Sean EH |last8=Chilton |first8=Glen |last9=Gwee |first9=Chyi Yin |last10=Rheindt |first10=Frank E |date=7 August 2023 |title=Megafaunal extinctions, not climate change, may explain Holocene genetic diversity declines in Numenius shorebirds |journal=[[eLife]] |language=en |volume=12 |doi=10.7554/eLife.85422 |issn=2050-084X |pmc=10406428 |pmid=37549057 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Relationship to later extinctions ==
{{Main|Holocene extinction}}
{{See also|Timeline of extinctions in the Holocene}}

There is no general agreement on where the Quaternary extinction event ends, and the [[Holocene]], or [[Human impact on the environment|anthropogenic]], extinction begins, or if they should be considered separate events at all.<ref name="Doughty, C. E. 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Doughty |first1=C. E. |last2=Wolf |first2=A. |last3=Field |first3=C. B. |year=2010 |title=Biophysical feedbacks between the Pleistocene megafauna extinction and climate: The first human-induced global warming? |journal=Geophys. Res. Lett. |volume=37 |issue=15 |page=L15703 |bibcode=2010GeoRL..3715703D |doi=10.1029/2010GL043985 |s2cid=54849882 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="link.springer.com">{{cite journal |last1=Grayson |first1=Donald K. |last2=Meltzer |first2=David J. |date=December 2012 |title=Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction: A Critical Review of the Evidence |journal=Journal of World Prehistory |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=313–359 |doi=10.1023/A:1022912030020 |s2cid=162794300}}</ref> Some authors have argued that the activities of earlier archaic humans have also resulted in extinctions, though the evidence for this is equivocal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Faith |first1=J. Tyler |last2=Rowan |first2=John |last3=Du |first3=Andrew |last4=Barr |first4=W. Andrew |date=July 2020 |title=The uncertain case for human-driven extinctions prior to Homo sapiens |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0033589420000514/type/journal_article |journal=Quaternary Research |language=en |volume=96 |pages=88–104 |doi=10.1017/qua.2020.51 |bibcode=2020QuRes..96...88F |issn=0033-5894}}</ref>

This hypothesis is supported by rapid megafaunal extinction following recent human colonisation in [[Australian megafauna|Australia]], [[List of extinct animals of New Zealand|New Zealand]] and [[List of African animals extinct in the Holocene|Madagascar]],<ref name="SixthExtinctionUnnaturalHistory">{{Cite book |last=Kolbert |first=Elizabeth |title=The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4088-5121-0}}</ref> in a similar way that any [[Invasive species|large, adaptable predator moving into a new ecosystem would]]. In many cases, it is suggested even minimal hunting pressure was enough to wipe out large fauna, particularly on [[Geographical isolation|geographically isolated]] islands.<ref name="Perry-2014">{{Cite journal |last1=Perry |first1=George L. W. |last2=Wheeler |first2=Andrew B. |last3=Wood |first3=Jamie R. |last4=Wilmshurst |first4=Janet M. |date=1 December 2014 |title=A high-precision chronology for the rapid extinction of New Zealand moa (Aves, Dinornithiformes) |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |volume=105 |pages=126–135 |bibcode=2014QSRv..105..126P |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.09.025}}</ref><ref name="Crowley-2010">{{Cite journal |last=Crowley |first=Brooke E. |date=1 September 2010 |title=A refined chronology of prehistoric Madagascar and the demise of the megafauna |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |series=Special Theme: Case Studies of Neodymium Isotopes in Paleoceanography |volume=29 |issue=19–20 |pages=2591–2603 |bibcode=2010QSRv...29.2591C |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.06.030}}</ref> Only during the most recent parts of the extinction have [[Effect of climate change on plant biodiversity|plants also suffered large losses]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Li |first=Sophia |date=20 September 2012 |title=Has Plant Life Reached Its Limits? |url=http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/has-plant-life-reached-its-limits/?_r=0 |access-date=22 January 2016 |website=Green Blog}}</ref>

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Australian megafauna}}
* {{annotated link|Holocene extinction}}
* {{annotated link|Late Quaternary prehistoric birds}}
* [[List of Ice Age species preserved as permafrost mummies]]
* {{annotated link|Megafauna}}
* {{annotated link|Pleistocene rewilding}}
* {{annotated link|Toba catastrophe theory}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==

===Hyperdisease hypothesis===
* {{cite web |last1=MacFee |first1=Ross D. E. |last2=Marx |first2=Preston A. |date=1998 |title=Lightning Strikes Twice: Blitzkrieg, Hyperdisease, and Global Explanations of the Late Quaternary Catastrophic Extinctions |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |url=http://www.amnh.biz/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/bytes/MacPheePres.html|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903232653/http://www.amnh.biz/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/bytes/MacPheePres.html |archive-date=3 September 2011}}
* {{cite web|title=Was a hyperdisease responsible? |url=http://biology.unm.edu/JHBrown/Published/WasAHyperdiseaseResponsible.x.pdf |author=J.H. Brown|url-status=dead |archive-date=27 May 2006 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060527220000/http://biology.unm.edu/JHBrown/Published/WasAHyperdiseaseResponsible.x.pdf}}

===Second-order predation===
* {{cite web|url=http://quaternary.net/|title=Quaternary.Net|author=Elin Whitney-Smith|access-date=9 August 2008|archive-date=3 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203172538/http://quaternary.net/|url-status=dead}}

===Other links===
* {{cite web|url=http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/ice-age-bay-area2|title=Ice Age Bay Area|url-status=dead |archive-date=26 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226005001/http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/ice-age-bay-area2}}
* {{cite web |title=The Extinct Late Pleistocene Mammals of North America |website=[[PBS]] |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/mega-list.html}}
* {{cite web|author=Peter Tyson|title=End of the Big Beasts |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beta/evolution/end-big-beasts.html |website=[[PBS]]|access-date=3 September 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121221041349/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/end-big-beasts.html|archive-date=21 December 2012|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite journal |title=Of mice, mastodons and men: human-mediated extinctions on four continents|author=S. Kathleen Lyons |author2=Felisa A. Smith |author3=James H. Brown |url=http://biology.unm.edu/fasmith/Web_Page_PDFs/Lyons_et_al_2004_EER.pdf |journal=Evolutionary Ecology Research |year=2004 |volume=6 |pages=339–358}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.tarpits.org/education/guide/index.html |title=Return to the Ice Age: The La Brea Exploration Guide |url-status=dead|archive-date=12 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812031103/http://www.tarpits.org/education/guide/index.html}}

{{Quaternary Footer}}
{{Extinction}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quaternary Extinction Event}}
[[Category:Extinction events]]
[[Category:Pleistocene]]
[[Category:Quaternary extinctions| ]]
[[Category:Younger Dryas impact hypothesis]]
[[Category:Megafauna]]