View source for Earth:Quaternary extinction

{{short description|mass extinction, occurring around 10,000 BCE, marking the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene}}[[File:Ice_age_fauna_of_northern_Spain_-_Mauricio_Antón.jpg|thumb|upright=1.45|Late Pleistocene landscape of northern {{wipe|Spain}}, by Mauricio Antón (left to right: ''Equus ferus'', ''Mammuthus primigenius'', ''Rangifer tarandus, Panthera spelaea, Coelodonta antiquitatis'')]]
The [[Earth:Quaternary|Quaternary]] period (from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present) has seen the [[Biology:Extinction|extinction]]s of numerous predominantly [[Biology:Megafauna|megafauna]]l species, which have resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity and the extinction of key ecological strata across the globe. The most prominent event in the [[Earth:Late Pleistocene|Late Pleistocene]] is differentiated from previous Quaternary pulse extinctions by the widespread absence of [[Earth:Ecological succession|ecological succession]] to replace these extinct species, and the [[Earth:Regime shift|regime shift]] of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence.

The earliest casualties were incurred at [[Earth:Eemian|130,000&nbsp;BCE]] (the [[Earth:Eemian|start]] of the Late Pleistocene), in [[Earth:Australia (continent)|Australia]] ~ 60,000 years ago, in [[Earth:Americas|Americas]] ~ 15 000 years ago, coinciding in time with the [[Biology:Early human migrations|early human migrations]].<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Martin|first1=Paul S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIDC7ybvHQEC|title=Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution|last2=Klein|first2=Richard G.|date=1989-01-01|publisher=University of Arizona Press|isbn=978-0-8165-1100-6|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":10" /> However, the great majority of extinctions in [[Earth:Afro-Eurasia|Afro-Eurasia]] and the [[Earth:Americas|Americas]] occurred during the transition from the [[Earth:Pleistocene|Pleistocene]] to the [[Earth:Holocene|Holocene]] epoch (13,000&nbsp;BCE to 8,000&nbsp;BCE). This extinction wave did not stop at the end of the Pleistocene, continuing, especially on isolated islands, in [[Earth:Holocene extinction|human-caused extinctions]], although there is debate as to whether these should be considered separate events or part of the same event.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History|last=Kolbert|first=Elizabeth|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2014|isbn=9780805092998|title-link=The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History}}</ref>

Among the main causes hypothesized by paleontologists are overkill by the widespread appearance of humans and natural [[Earth:Climate change (general concept)|climate change]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Koch|first1=Paul L.|last2=Barnosky|first2=Anthony D.|date=2006-01-01|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|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/2c670ea1d5327e9c0e76e976102c2ba54e1a083e}}</ref> A notable modern human presence first appeared during the [[Earth:Middle Pleistocene|Middle Pleistocene]] in Africa,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stringer|first1=Chris|last2=Galway-Witham|first2=Julia|title=Palaeoanthropology: On the origin of our species|journal=Nature|volume=546|issue=7657|pages=212–214|doi=10.1038/546212a|pmid=28593955|year=2017|bibcode=2017Natur.546..212S|doi-access=free}}</ref> and started to establish continuous, permanent populations in [[Earth:Eurasia|Eurasia]] and [[Place:Australasia|Australasia]] from 100,000&nbsp;BCE<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewen|title=Teeth from China reveal early human trek out of Africa|url=http://www.nature.com/news/teeth-from-china-reveal-early-human-trek-out-of-africa-1.18566|journal=Nature|doi=10.1038/nature.2015.18566|year=2015|s2cid=181399291}}</ref> and 63,000&nbsp;BCE<ref name=":22">{{Cite news|url=https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021|title=Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years|last=Marwick|first=Ben|work=The Conversation|access-date=2017-09-07}}</ref> respectively, and the Americas from 22,000&nbsp;BCE.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Bourgeon|first1=Lauriane|last2=Burke|first2=Ariane|last3=Higham|first3=Thomas|date=2017-01-06|title=Earliest Human Presence in North America Dated to the Last Glacial Maximum: New Radiocarbon Dates from Bluefish Caves, Canada|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=12|issue=1|pages=e0169486|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0169486|pmid=28060931|pmc=5218561|issn=1932-6203|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1269486B|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Curry|first=Andrew|date=2012-05-03|title=Ancient migration: Coming to America|journal=Nature|volume=485|issue=7396|pages=30–32|doi=10.1038/485030a|pmid=22552076|bibcode=2012Natur.485...30C|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/humans-didn-t-wait-melting-ice-settle-americas|title=Humans didn't wait on melting ice to settle the Americas|date=2016-06-06|work=Science {{!}} AAAS|access-date=2017-09-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewen|date=2017-09-07|title=Skeleton plundered from Mexican cave was one of the Americas' oldest|journal=Nature|volume=549|issue=7670|pages=14–15|doi=10.1038/nature.2017.22521|pmid=28880302|bibcode=2017Natur.549...14C|s2cid=4446815|doi-access=free}}</ref>

A variant of the former possibility is the second-order predation hypothesis, which focuses more on the indirect damage caused by overcompetition with nonhuman predators. Recent studies have tended to favor the human-overkill theory.<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|page= 20133254|doi=10.1098/rspb.2013.3254|pmid=24898370 |pmc=4071532 }}</ref><ref>Extinctions in Near Time.  Pages 46–47.  By R. D. E. MacPhee.  Springer Press.  1999.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Vignieri|first1=S.|date=25 July 2014|title=Vanishing fauna (Special issue)|journal=Science|volume=345|issue=6195|pages=392–412|doi=10.1126/science.345.6195.392|pmid=25061199|quote=Although some debate persists, most of the evidence suggests that humans were responsible for extinction of this Pleistocene fauna, and we continue to drive animal extinctions today through the destruction of wild lands, consumption of animals as a resource or a luxury, and persecution of species we see as threats or competitors.|doi-access=free|bibcode=2014Sci...345..392V}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{cite journal |last1= Smith|first1=Felisa A.|display-authors=0.|date=April 20, 2018 |title=Body size downgrading of mammals over the late Quaternary|journal=Science |volume=360 |issue=6386|pages=310–313|doi=10.1126/science.aao5987 |pmid=29674591|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1= Faurby |first1= Søren |last2= Svenning |first2=Jens-Christian |date=2015 |title=Historic and prehistoric human‐driven extinctions have reshaped global mammal diversity patterns |journal=Diversity and Distributions |volume=21 |issue=10 |pages=1155–1166 |doi=10.1111/ddi.12369 |hdl=10261/123512 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

==Extinctions by biogeographic realm==
=== Summary ===
{|class=wikitable
|+ Extinctions range of the continental large and medium-sized mammals from 40,000–4,000 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|volume=Supplement No.4}}</ref>
|-
!rowspan=2|[[Biology:Biogeographic realm|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
|-
!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{H:title|Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{H:title|Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{H:title|Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{H:title|Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category at 40,000 BP|Start}}!!{{H:title|Number of mammals in this size category that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|Loss}}!!{{H:title|Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
!{{H:title|Number of mammals at 40,000 BP|start}}!!{{H:title|Number of mammals that had been lost to extinction by 4,000 BP|loss}}!!{{H:title|Percentage of total that went extinct|%}}
|-
![[Biology: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% 
| [[Place:Sub-Saharan Africa|Trans-Saharan Africa]] and Arabia
|-
![[Biology: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% 
| [[Earth:Indian subcontinent|Indian subcontinent]], [[Place:Southeast Asia|Southeast Asia]], and southern {{wipe|China}}
|-
![[Biology:Palearctic realm|Palearctic]]
|  8 || -8 || 100%
| 10 || -5 || 50%
| 14 || -5 || 13.7%
| 23 || -3 || 15%
| 41 || -1 || 2.4%
|style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 96  ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| -22 ||style="background: #F2CEE0;"| 22.9% 
| [[Earth:Eurasia|Eurasia]] and [[Place:North Africa|North Africa]]
|-
![[Biology: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% 
| [[Earth:North America|North America]]
|-
![[Biology: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% 
| [[Earth:South America|South America]], Central America, and the Caribbean
|-
![[Biology: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% 
| {{wipe|Australia}}, New Guinea, [[Earth:New Zealand|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:Last Glacial Maximum Vegetation Map.svg|thumb|upright=2.75|A reconstruction of normative vegetation cover at the Last Glacial Maximum, circa 18,000 years ago, based on fossil pollen samples recovered from lake and bog sediments.]]
The Late Pleistocene saw the extinction of many mammals weighing more than 40&nbsp;kg. 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.

Extinctions in the [[Earth:Americas|Americas]] eliminated all mammals larger than 100&nbsp;kg of South American origin, including those which migrated north in the [[Earth:Great American Interchange|Great American Interchange]]. It was only in Australia and the Americas that extinction occurred at family taxonomic levels or higher.  This may relate to non-African [[Biology:Megafauna|megafauna]] and ''Homo sapiens'' not having evolved as species alongside each other. These continents had no known native species of [[Biology:Hominoidea|Hominoidea]] (apes) at all, so no species of [[Biology:Hominidae|Hominidae]] (greater apes) or ''[[Biology:Homo|Homo]]''.

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 is no evidence of megafaunal extinctions at the height of the [[Earth:Last Glacial Maximum|Last Glacial Maximum]], suggesting that increased cold and glaciation were not factors in the Pleistocene extinction.<ref name="cooper20152">{{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|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|last10=Cooper|first10=Alan|s2cid=4473573}}</ref>

There are three main hypotheses to explain this extinction:
* [[Earth:Climate change (general concept)|climate change]] associated with the advance and retreat of major ice caps or ice sheets.
* "prehistoric overkill hypothesis"<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>
* the extinction of the [[Biology:Woolly mammoth|woolly mammoth]] allowed the extensive grassland to become birch forest, then subsequent forest fires changed the climate.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Grayson|first1=Donald K.|last2=Meltzer|first2=David J.|date=2002|journal=Journal of World Prehistory|title=Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction: A Critical Review of the Evidence|volume=16|issue=4|pages=313–359|doi=10.1023/A:1022912030020|s2cid=162794300}}</ref>
There are some inconsistencies between the current available data and the prehistoric overkill hypothesis. For instance, there are ambiguities around the timing of sudden 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, [[Biology: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 1,000 years after their extinction on the mainland, while [[Biology:Steller's sea cow|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}}</ref> The later disappearance of these island species correlates with the later colonization of these islands by humans.

Alternative hypotheses to the theory of human responsibility include [[Earth:Climate change (general concept)|climate change]] associated with the [[Earth:Last glacial period|last glacial period]], and the [[Earth:Younger Dryas impact hypothesis|Younger Dryas impact hypothesis]] as well as [[Earth:Tollmann's hypothetical bolide|Tollmann's hypothesis]] that extinctions resulted from [[Astronomy:Bolide|bolide]] impacts.

Recent research indicates that each 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 [[Earth:Climate change (general concept)|climate change]], [[Biology:Interspecific competition|competition between species]], unstable population dynamics, and human predation.<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=323–360|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>

===Afrotropic and Indomalaya: Africa and southern Asia===
[[File:Indian Aurochs B p namadicus 3.jpg|thumb|Speculative life restoration of an Indian aurochs (''Bos'' (''primigenius'') ''namadicus'')]]
[[File:Pelorovis.JPG|thumb|Several species of the [[Biology:Pelorovis|giant long-horned buffalo]] (''Pelorovis''): ''P. antiquus'', ''P. turkanensis'' & ''P. oldowayensis'' (from left to right)]]
[[File:Hippopotamus lemerlei skull.jpg|thumb|''[[Biology:Hippopotamus lemerlei|Hippopotamus lemerlei]]'' skull]]
[[File:MegatapirusDB.jpg|thumb|Giant tapir (''Tapirus augustus'') restoration]]
[[File:ExtinctElephant-SiwalikHills.JPG|thumb|Life-sized models of ''Stegodon'']]
[[File:Palaeoloxodon namadicus.JPG|thumb|upright|''[[Biology:Palaeoloxodon namadicus|Palaeoloxodon namadicus]]'' fossil at Indian Museum, Kolkata, {{wipe|India}}]]
[[File:Archaeolemur edwardsi.jpg|thumb|''[[Biology:Archaeolemur|Archaeolemur edwardsi]]'' life restoration]]
[[File:Archaeoindris fontoynonti.jpg|thumb|''[[Biology:Archaeoindris|Archaeoindris fontoynontii]]'' life restoration]]
[[File:Vorombe titan.jpg|thumb|upright|Comparison of the [[Biology:Aepyornithidae|aepyornithids]] ''Mullerornis'' (front), ''Vorombe titan'' (largest), and ''Aepyornis'' (back)]]
[[File:Xiahe mandible.jpg|thumb|Fossil jaw (Xiahe mandible) of a denisovan|alt=]]

The [[Biology:Afrotropical realm|Afrotropic]] and [[Biology:Indomalayan realm|Indomalaya]] [[Biology:Biogeographic realm|biogeographic realm]]s, or Old World tropics, were relatively spared by the Late Pleistocene extinctions. [[Place:Sub-Saharan Africa|Sub-Saharan Africa]] and southern [[Earth:Asia|Asia]] are the only regions that have terrestrial mammals weighing over 1000&nbsp;kg today. However, there are indications of megafaunal extinction events throughout the Pleistocene, particularly in Africa two million years ago, which coincide with key stages of human evolution and climatic trends.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Werdelin|first1=Lars|last2=Lewis|first2=Margaret E.|date=2013-03-06|title=Temporal Change in Functional Richness and Evenness in the Eastern African Plio-Pleistocene Carnivoran Guild|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8|issue=3|pages=e57944|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0057944|pmid=23483948|pmc=3590191|issn=1932-6203|bibcode=2013PLoSO...857944W|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Tollefson">{{Cite journal|last=Tollefson|first=Jeff|title=Early humans linked to large-carnivore extinctions|url=http://www.nature.com/news/early-humans-linked-to-large-carnivore-extinctions-1.10508?nc=1370632369631|journal=Nature|doi=10.1038/nature.2012.10508|year=2012|s2cid=86950741}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/rise-of-humans-two-million-years-ago-doomed-large-carnivores/|title=Rise of Humans 2 Million Years Ago Doomed Large Carnivores|last=Wong|first=Kate|work=Scientific American Blog Network|access-date=2017-09-11}}</ref> The center of human evolution and expansion, Africa and Asia were inhabited by advanced hominids by 2mya, with ''[[Biology:Homo habilis|Homo habilis]]'' in Africa, and ''Homo erectus'' on both continents. By the advent and proliferation of ''Homo sapiens'' circa 315,000&nbsp;BCE,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gunz|first1=Philipp|last2=Harvati|first2=Katerina|last3=Benazzi|first3=Stefano|last4=Cabec|first4=Adeline Le|last5=Bergmann|first5=Inga|last6=Skinner|first6=Matthew M.|last7=Neubauer|first7=Simon|last8=Freidline|first8=Sarah E.|last9=Bailey|first9=Shara E.|date=June 2017|title=New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens|journal=Nature|volume=546|issue=7657|pages=289–292|doi=10.1038/nature22336|pmid=28593953|issn=1476-4687|bibcode=2017Natur.546..289H|url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/62267/1/Submission_288356_1_art_file_2637492_j96j1b.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hublin|first1=Jean-Jacques|last2=Ben-Ncer|first2=Abdelouahed|last3=Bailey|first3=Shara E.|last4=Freidline|first4=Sarah E.|last5=Neubauer|first5=Simon|last6=Skinner|first6=Matthew M.|last7=Bergmann|first7=Inga|last8=Le Cabec|first8=Adeline|last9=Benazzi|first9=Stefano|date=2017-06-07|title=New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens|journal=Nature|volume=546|issue=7657|pages=289–292|doi=10.1038/nature22336|pmid=28593953|issn=0028-0836|bibcode=2017Natur.546..289H|url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/62267/1/Submission_288356_1_art_file_2637492_j96j1b.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/morocco-early-human-fossils-anthropology-science/|title=These Early Humans Lived 300,000 Years Ago—But Had Modern Faces|date=2017-06-07|access-date=2017-10-13}}</ref> dominant species included ''[[Biology:Homo heidelbergensis|Homo heidelbergensis]]'' in Africa, the [[History:Denisovan|denisovan]]s and [[Biology:Neanderthal|neanderthal]]s (fellow ''H. heidelbergensis'' descendants) in Eurasia, and ''[[Biology:Homo erectus|Homo erectus]]'' in Eastern Asia. Ultimately, on both continents, these groups and other populations of Homo were subsumed by successive radiations of ''H. sapiens''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Akey|first1=Joshua M.|last2=Wolf|first2=Aaron B.|date=2018-05-31|title=Outstanding questions in the study of archaic hominin admixture|journal=PLOS Genetics|volume=14|issue=5|pages=e1007349|doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1007349|issn=1553-7404|pmc=5978786|pmid=29852022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Chan|first1=Paul K. S.|last2=Burk|first2=Robert D.|last3=DeSalle|first3=Rob|last4=Chan|first4=Martin C. W.|last5=Law|first5=Priscilla T. Y.|last6=Boon|first6=Siaw Shi|last7=Ho|first7=Wendy C. S.|last8=Chen|first8=Zigui|date=2017-11-01|title=Ancient Evolution and Dispersion of Human Papillomavirus 58 Variants|journal=Journal of Virology|volume=91|issue=21|pages=e01285–17|doi=10.1128/JVI.01285-17|issn=0022-538X|pmid=28794033|pmc=5640864}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gokcumen|first1=Omer|last2=Ruhl|first2=Stefan|last3=Blekhman|first3=Ran|last4=DeGiorgio|first4=Michael|last5=Flanagan|first5=Colin|last6=Alachiotis|first6=Nikolaos|last7=Taskent|first7=Recep Ozgur|last8=Pavlidis|first8=Pavlos|last9=Xu|first9=Duo|date=2017-10-01|title=Archaic Hominin Introgression in Africa Contributes to Functional Salivary MUC7 Genetic Variation|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution|volume=34|issue=10|pages=2704–2715|doi=10.1093/molbev/msx206|pmid=28957509|pmc=5850612|issn=0737-4038}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewen|title=Evidence mounts for interbreeding bonanza in ancient human species|url=http://www.nature.com/news/evidence-mounts-for-interbreeding-bonanza-in-ancient-human-species-1.19394|journal=Nature News|doi=10.1038/nature.2016.19394|year=2016|s2cid=87029139}}</ref><ref name="Callaway">{{Cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewen|title=Mystery humans spiced up ancients' sex lives|url=http://www.nature.com/news/mystery-humans-spiced-up-ancients-sex-lives-1.14196|journal=Nature News|doi=10.1038/nature.2013.14196|year=2013|s2cid=163316342}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lachance|first1=Joseph|last2=Vernot|first2=Benjamin|last3=Elbers|first3=Clara C.|last4=Ferwerda|first4=Bart|last5=Froment|first5=Alain|last6=Bodo|first6=Jean-Marie|last7=Lema|first7=Godfrey|last8=Fu|first8=Wenqing|last9=Nyambo|first9=Thomas B.|date=2012-08-03|title=Evolutionary history and adaptation from high-coverage whole-genome sequences of diverse African hunter-gatherers|journal=Cell|volume=150|issue=3|pages=457–469|doi=10.1016/j.cell.2012.07.009|issn=0092-8674|pmc=3426505|pmid=22840920}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hsieh|first1=PingHsun|last2=Woerner|first2=August E.|last3=Wall|first3=Jeffrey D.|last4=Lachance|first4=Joseph|last5=Tishkoff|first5=Sarah A.|last6=Gutenkunst|first6=Ryan N.|last7=Hammer|first7=Michael F.|date=March 2016|title=Model-based analyses of whole-genome data reveal a complex evolutionary history involving archaic introgression in Central African Pygmies|journal=Genome Research|volume=26|issue=3|pages=291–300|doi=10.1101/gr.196634.115|issn=1549-5469|pmc=4772012|pmid=26888264}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewen|title=Hunter-gatherer genomes a trove of genetic diversity|url=http://www.nature.com/news/hunter-gatherer-genomes-a-trove-of-genetic-diversity-1.11076|journal=Nature News|doi=10.1038/nature.2012.11076|year=2012|s2cid=87081207}}</ref> There is evidence of an early migration event 268,000&nbsp;BCE and later within [[Biology:Neanderthal genetics|neanderthal genetics]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Posth|first1=Cosimo|last2=Wißing|first2=Christoph|last3=Kitagawa|first3=Keiko|last4=Pagani|first4=Luca|last5=Holstein|first5=Laura van|last6=Racimo|first6=Fernando|last7=Wehrberger|first7=Kurt|last8=Conard|first8=Nicholas J.|last9=Kind|first9=Claus Joachim|date=2017-07-04|title=Deeply divergent archaic mitochondrial genome provides lower time boundary for African gene flow into Neanderthals|journal=Nature Communications|volume=8|pages=ncomms16046|doi=10.1038/ncomms16046|pmid=28675384|pmc=5500885|bibcode=2017NatCo...816046P}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/science/neanderthals-dna-homo-sapiens-human-evolution.html|title=In Neanderthal DNA, Signs of a Mysterious Human Migration|last=Zimmer|first=Carl|date=2017-07-04|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-10-13|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Castellano|first1=Sergi|last2=Siepel|first2=Adam|last3=Meyer|first3=Matthias|last4=Pääbo|first4=Svante|last5=Viola|first5=Bence|last6=Andrés|first6=Aida M.|last7=Marques-Bonet|first7=Tomas|last8=Gušic|first8=Ivan|last9=Kucan|first9=Željko|date=February 2016|title=Ancient gene flow from early modern humans into Eastern Neanderthals|journal=Nature|volume=530|issue=7591|pages=429–433|doi=10.1038/nature16544|pmid=26886800|pmc=4933530|issn=1476-4687|bibcode=2016Natur.530..429K}}</ref> however the earliest dating for ''H. sapiens'' inhabitation is 118,000&nbsp;BCE in Arabia, [[Earth:Fuyan Cave|China]] and [[Social:Skhul and Qafzeh hominins|Israel]],<ref name=":02" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://discovermagazine.com/2016/june/15-when-neanderthals-replaced-us|title=When Neanderthals Replaced Us {{!}} DiscoverMagazine.com|work=Discover Magazine|access-date=2017-09-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lawler|first=Andrew|date=2011-01-28|title=Did Modern Humans Travel Out of Africa Via Arabia?|journal=Science|volume=331|issue=6016|pages=387|doi=10.1126/science.331.6016.387|issn=0036-8075|pmid=21273459|bibcode=2011Sci...331..387L}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/10/the-first-humans-moved-from-africa-to-china-not-europe/|title=The First Humans Moved From Africa To China -- Not Europe|date=2015-10-16|work=Gizmodo Australia|access-date=2017-10-14}}</ref> and 71,000&nbsp;BCE in Indonesia.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Westaway|first1=K. E.|last2=Louys|first2=J.|last3=Awe|first3=R. Due|last4=Morwood|first4=M. J.|last5=Price|first5=G. J.|last6=Zhao|first6=J.-x|last7=Aubert|first7=M.|last8=Joannes-Boyau|first8=R.|last9=Smith|first9=T. M.|date=2017-08-17|title=An early modern human presence in Sumatra 73,000–63,000 years ago|journal=Nature|volume=548|issue=7667|pages=322–325|doi=10.1038/nature23452|pmid=28792933|issn=0028-0836|bibcode=2017Natur.548..322W|s2cid=4398895|url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/412591/1/combinbed_files.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/deadthings/2017/08/09/were-modern-humans-in-indonesia-73000-years-ago/#.WbYZQdN97Vo|title=Were Modern Humans in Indonesia 73,000 Years Ago? - Dead Things|date=2017-08-09|work=Dead Things|access-date=2017-09-11}}</ref> Additionally, not only have these early Asian migrations left a genetic mark on modern Papuan populations,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pagani|first1=Luca|last2=Lawson|first2=Daniel John|last3=Jagoda|first3=Evelyn|last4=Mörseburg|first4=Alexander|last5=Eriksson|first5=Anders|last6=Mitt|first6=Mario|last7=Clemente|first7=Florian|last8=Hudjashov|first8=Georgi|last9=DeGiorgio|first9=Michael|date=2016-09-21|title=Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia|journal=Nature|volume=538|issue=7624|pages=238–242|doi=10.1038/nature19792|pmid=27654910|issn=1476-4687|pmc=5164938|bibcode=2016Natur.538..238P}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/almost-all-living-people-outside-africa-trace-back-single-migration-more-50000-years|title=Almost all living people outside of Africa trace back to a single migration more than 50,000 years ago|date=2016-09-20|work=Science {{!}} AAAS|access-date=2017-10-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/deadthings/2016/09/21/human-migration-challenging-the-chronology-of-our-first-road-trip/#.Wd9iqtOg_Vr|title=Human Migration: Challenging the Chronology of Our First Road Trip - Dead Things|date=2016-09-21|work=Dead Things|access-date=2017-10-14}}</ref> the oldest known pottery in existence was found in China, dated to 18,000&nbsp;BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wu|first1=Xiaohong|last2=Zhang|first2=Chi|last3=Goldberg|first3=Paul|last4=Cohen|first4=David|last5=Pan|first5=Yan|last6=Arpin|first6=Trina|last7=Bar-Yosef|first7=Ofer|date=2012-06-29|title=Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong Cave, China|journal=Science|volume=336|issue=6089|pages=1696–1700|doi=10.1126/science.1218643|issn=0036-8075|pmid=22745428|bibcode=2012Sci...336.1696W|s2cid=37666548|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/b6ccd811c8311dc706fe38cc4508341da59646bf}}</ref>  Particularly during the late Pleistocene, megafaunal diversity was notably reduced from both these continents, often without being replaced by comparable successor fauna. [[Earth:Climate change (general concept)|Climate change]] has been explored as a prominent cause of extinctions in [[Place:Southeast Asia|Southeast Asia]].<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Julien Louys|author2=Darren Curnoe|author3=Haowen Tong.|year=2007|title=Characteristics of Pleistocene megafauna extinctions in Southeast Asia|journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology|volume=243|issue=1–2|pages=152–173|doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.07.011}}</ref>

* Several [[Biology:Bovidae|Bovidae]] spp.
** [[Biology:Indian aurochs|Indian aurochs]] (''Bos'' (''primigenius'') ''namadicus'') (ancestor to the domestic zebu cattle)
** ''[[Biology:Bos palaesondaicus|Bos palaesondaicus]]'' (ancestor to the [[Biology:Banteng|banteng]])
** ''Bison hanaizumiensis''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=HASEGAWA Y.，OKUMURA Y., TATSUKAWA H.|date=2009|title=First record of Late Pleistocene Bison from the fissure deposits of the Kuzuu Limestone, Yamasuge，Sano-shi，Tochigi Prefecture, Japan|url=http://www.gmnh.pref.gunma.jp/wp-content/uploads/bulletin13_5.pdf|journal=Gunma Museum of Natural History and Kuzuu Fossil Museum|volume=13|pages=47–52}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://liaj.lin.gr.jp/japanese/liajnews/liaj10909.pdf|title=モノが語る牛と人間の文化 – ② 岩手の牛たち|last=Kurosawa Y.|work=LIAJ News No.109- Oshu City Cattle Museum p. 29-31}}</ref><ref>[https://trekgeo.net/f/d/bisonHanaizumiensise.htm Bison hanaizumiensis - TrekGEO]</ref>
** [[Biology:Bubalus cebuensis|Cebu tamaraw]] (''Bubalus cebuensis'')
** ''[[Biology:Bubalus grovesi|Bubalus grovesi]]''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rozzi|first=Roberto|date=2017-02-01|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>
** ''[[Biology:Bubalus wansijocki|Bubalus wansijocki]]''
** ''[[Biology:Bubalus mephistopheles|Bubalus mephistopheles]]''
** [[Biology:Pelorovis|Giant long-horned buffalo]] (''Pelorovis'')
** ''[[Biology:Megalovis|Megalovis]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=42796|title=Fossilworks: Megalovis|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-05-29}}</ref>
** [[Biology:Megalotragus|Giant hartebeest]] (''Megalotragus'')
** ''[[Biology:Hippotragus|Hippotragus]]'' spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Hippotragus gigas|Hippotragus gigas]]''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8iiqIZRhQoC|title=The Cambridge History of Africa|last=Clark|first=J. Desmond|date=1982-02-25|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521222150}}</ref>
** ''[[Biology:Rusingoryx|Rusingoryx]]''
** ''Sivacobus sankaliai''
** Various ''[[Biology:Gazelle|Gazella]]'' spp.<ref name="Fossilworks: Gazella2">{{cite web|title=Fossilworks: Gazella|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=42774|access-date=2016-05-27|website=fossilworks.org}}</ref>
* ''[[Biology:Sinomegaceros|Sinomegaceros]]''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcWZX-IMEVkC&q=sinomegaceros&pg=PA125|title=Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behaviour, and Ecology|last=Geist|first=Valerius|date=1998-01-01|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=9780811704960}}</ref>
* ''[[Biology:Megaceroides algericus|Megaceroides algericus]]''
* ''[[Biology:Sivatherium|Sivatherium maurusium]]''
* ''Dorcabune''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=42599|title=Fossilworks: Dorcabune|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-05-29}}</ref>
* ''[[Biology:Hippopotamus|Hippopotamus]]'' spp.
** [[Biology:Hippopotamus|Hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus amphibius''; extirpated in [[Place:Western Asia|western Asia]] circa 1,000&nbsp;BCE)<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Horwitz|first1=Liora Kolska|last2=Tchernov|first2=Eitan|date=1990-01-01|title=Cultural and Environmental Implications of Hippopotamus Bone Remains in Archaeological Contexts in the Levant|journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research|volume=280|issue=280|pages=67–76|doi=10.2307/1357310|jstor=1357310|s2cid=163871070}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Haas|first=Georg|date=1953-01-01|title=On the Occurrence of Hippopotamus in the Iron Age of the Coastal Area of Israel (Tell Qasîleh)|journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research|volume=132|issue=132|pages=30–34|doi=10.2307/1355798|jstor=1355798|s2cid=163758714}}</ref>
** All Malagasy hippopotamus spp.
*** [[Biology:Hippopotamus lemerlei|Malagasy dwarf hippopotamus]]
*** [[Biology:Hippopotamus madagascariensis|Malagasy pygmy hippopotamus]],
*** ''[[Biology:Hippopotamus laloumena|Hippopotamus laloumena]]''
* ''[[Biology:Hexaprotodon|Hexaprotodon]]''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jukar|first=Advait M.|last2=Patnaik|first2=Rajeev|last3=Chauhan|first3=Parth R.|last4=Li|first4=Hong-Chun|last5=Lin|first5=Jih-Pai|date=2019-09-10|title=The youngest occurrence of Hexaprotodon Falconer and Cautley, 1836 (Hippopotamidae, Mammalia) from South Asia with a discussion on its extinction|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618218310085|journal=Quaternary International|series=AMS 14C Applications II|language=en|volume=528|pages=130–137|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2019.01.005|issn=1040-6182}}</ref>
* Wild [[Biology:Equus (genus)|''Equus'']] spp.
** ''[[Biology:Equus capensis|Equus capensis]]''
** ''[[Biology:Equus mauritanicus|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>
** ''[[Biology:Equus namadicus|Equus namadicus]]''
** [[Biology:Equus sivalensis|Indian horse]]
** [[Biology:Yunnan horse|Yunnan horse]]
* Several Rhinoceros (Rhinocerotidae) spp.
** ''Ceratotherium mauritanicum''
** ''Rhinoceros philippinensis''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=164277|title=Fossilworks: Rhinoceros philippinensis|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-04-28}}</ref>
** ''Rhinoceros sinensis''
** South Asian rhinoceros (''Rhinoceros sivalensis'')
* [[Biology:Giant tapir|Giant tapir]] (''Tapirus augustus'')
* Various [[Biology:Felidae|Felidae]] spp.
** ''[[Biology:Sivapanthera|Sivapanthera]]''
** [[Biology:Sri Lanka lion|Sri Lanka lion]] (''Panthera leo'' ''sinhaleyus'')
** [[Biology:Leopard|Leopard]] (''Panthera pardus''; extirpated from {{wipe|Japan}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=The wild mammals of Japan|last1=Ohdachi|first1=Satoshi D.|last2=Ishibashi|first2=Yasuyuki|last3=Iwasa|first3=Masahiro A.|last4=Fukui|first4=Dai|last5=Saitoh|first5=Takashi|publisher=Shoukadoh|year=2015|isbn=9784879746917|edition=2nd|oclc=946607025}}</ref> and Sumatra)
** [[Biology:Tiger|Tiger]] (''Panthera tigris''; extirpated from {{wipe|Japan}},<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.audubon.org/news/the-last-wild-tigers|title=The Last Wild Tigers|date=2014-06-25|work=Audubon|access-date=2017-03-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.paleobiodb.org/classic/displayReference?reference_no=34644|title=PBDB|website=www.paleobiodb.org|access-date=2017-03-03}}</ref> [[Biology:Caspian tiger|Western and Central Asia]], [[Biology:Javan tiger|Java]], [[Biology:Bali tiger|Bali]], Borneo and Palawan)
* ''[[Biology:Ailuropoda baconi|Ailuropoda baconi]]'' (ancestor to the [[Biology:Giant panda|giant panda]])
* [[Biology:Aardvark|Aardvark]] (''Orycteropus afer''; extirpated in [[Place:South Asia|South Asia]] circa 13,000&nbsp;BCE)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/article76865.ece?service=print|title=Rock paintings show species that roamed India|website=www.newindianexpress.com|access-date=2016-09-14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ugq5BgAAQBAJ&q=aardvark+indian+fossils&pg=PA349|title=Mammalogy: Adaptation, Diversity, Ecology|last1=Feldhamer|first1=George A.|last2=Drickamer|first2=Lee C.|last3=Vessey|first3=Stephen H.|last4=Merritt|first4=Joseph F.|last5=Krajewski|first5=Carey|date=2015-01-01|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9781421415888}}</ref>
* ''[[Biology:Stegodon|Stegodon]]''
* [[Biology:Elephas|Elephas]] spp.
** ''[[Biology:Elephas hysudricus|Elephas hysudricus]]''
** ''[[Biology:Elephas hysudrindicus|Elephas hysudrindicus]]''
** Asian Elephant (extirpated in Java and [[Biology:Syrian elephant|Syria]])
* ''[[Biology:Palaeoloxodon|Palaeoloxodon]]'' spp.
** [[Biology:Palaeoloxodon namadicus|Asian straight-tusked elephant]] (largest land mammal on record)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Larramendi|first=Asier|date=2015|title=Shoulder height, body mass and shape of proboscideans|url=http://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app60/app001362014_acc.pdf|journal=Acta Palaeontologica Polonica|doi=10.4202/app.00136.2014|s2cid=2092950|doi-access=free}}</ref>
** [[Biology:Palaeoloxodon naumanni|Naumann's elephant]]
** ''Palaeoloxodon recki''
** ''Paleoloxodon turkmenicus''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pushinka|first=Diana|date=2007|title=The Pleistocene easternmost distribution in Eurasia of the species associated with the Eemian ''Paleoloxodon antiquus'' assemblage|url=http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/131/1318084071.pdf|journal=Mammal Review|volume=37|issue=3|pages=224–245|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2907.2007.00109.x}}</ref>
* ''[[Biology:Loxodonta atlantica|Loxodonta atlantica]]'' (possible ancestor of the [[Biology:African bush elephant|African bush elephant]]) 
* ''[[Biology:Coryphomys|Coryphomys]]''
* [[Biology:Verhoeven's giant tree rat|Verhoeven's giant tree rat]] (''Papagomys theodorverhoeveni'')
* [[Biology:Asian ostrich|Asian ostrich]] (''Struthio asiaticus'')
* [[Biology:Shiriyanetta|Japanese flightless duck]] (''Shiriyanetta hasegawai'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Watanabe|first1=Junya|last2=Matsuoka|first2=Hiroshige|date=2015-11-02|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|s2cid=83689129}}</ref>
* [[Biology:Bennu heron|Bennu heron]] (''Ardea bennuides'')
* ''[[Biology:Leptoptilos robustus|Leptoptilos robustus]]''
* ''[[Biology:Megalochelys atlas|Megalochelys atlas]]'' (largest recorded giant tortoise in existence)
* ''[[Biology:Hipposideros besaoka|Hipposideros besaoka]]''
* Giant fossa (''Cryptoprocta spelea'')
* ''[[Biology:Microgale macpheei|Microgale macpheei]]''
* [[Biology:Plesiorycteropus|Bibymalagasy]] (aardvark-like mammals endemic to Madagascar)
* Giant members of lemur (Lemuroidea)
** [[Biology:Giant aye-aye|Giant aye-aye]] (''Daubentonia robusta'')
** ''[[Biology:Pachylemur|Pachylemur]]''
** Koala lemur (''Megaladapis'')
** All [[Biology:Archaeolemuridae|monkey lemur]] (Archaeolemuridae) spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Hadropithecus|Hadropithecus]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Archaeolemur|Archaeolemur]]''
** All [[Biology:Palaeopropithecidae|sloth lemur]] (Palaeopropithecidae) spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Archaeoindris|Archaeoindris]]'' (largest lemur on record)
*** ''[[Biology:Palaeopropithecus|Palaeopropithecus]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Babakotia|Babakotia]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Mesopropithecus|Mesopropithecus]]''
* All members of [[Biology:Aepyornithidae|elephant bird]], also known as vorompatra in Malagasy language (Aepyornithidae)
** ''[[Biology:Aepyornis|Aepyornis]]''
** ''[[Biology:Mullerornis|Mullerornis]]''
** ''[[Biology:Vorombe|Vorombe titan]]'' (largest bird on record)<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hansford|first1=James P.|last2=Turvey|first2=Samuel T.|date=2018-09-26|title=Unexpected diversity within the extinct elephant birds (Aves: Aepyornithidae) and a new identity for the world's largest bird|journal=R Soc Open Sci.|volume=5,9|issue=181295|pages=181295|doi=10.1098/rsos.181295|pmid=30839722|pmc=6170582|bibcode=2018RSOS....581295H}}</ref>
* [[Biology:Malagasy sheldgoose|Malagasy sheldgoose]] (''Centrornis'')
* [[Biology:Malagasy shelduck|Malagasy shelduck]] (''Alopochen sirabensis'')
* [[Biology:Hova gallinule|Hova gallinule]] (''Hovacrex roberti'')
* [[Biology:Malagasy lapwing|Malagasy lapwing]] (''Vanellus madagascariensis'')
* [[Biology:Malagasy crowned eagle|Malagasy crowned eagle]] (''Stephanoaetus maher'')
* [[Biology:Ampoza ground roller|Ampoza ground roller]] (''Brachypteracias langrandi'')
* ''[[Biology:Voay|Voay]]''
* Various ''[[Biology:Aldabrachelys|Aldabrachelys]]'' giant tortoise
** ''[[Biology:Aldabrachelys abrupta|Abrupt giant tortoise]]''
** ''[[Biology:Aldabrachelys grandidieri|Grandidier's giant tortoise]]''
* ''[[Biology:Aldabrachampsus|Aldabrachampsus]]''
* ''[[Biology:Canariomys|Canariomys]]''
* [[Biology:Canary Islands quail|Canary Islands quail]] (''Coturnix gomerae'')
* [[Biology:Long-legged bunting|Long-legged bunting]] (''Emberiza alcoveri'')
* ''[[Biology:Centrochelys|Centrochelys]]''
* ''[[Biology:Gallotia goliath|Gallotia goliath]]''
* Several [[Biology:Simian|monkey]] (Simiiformes) spp.
**''Macaca'' spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Macaca anderssoni|Macaca anderssoni]]'' 
*** ''[[Biology:Macaca jiangchuanensis|Macaca jiangchuanensis]]'' 
*** Robust macaque (''Macaca robustus'')
** ''[[Biology:Gorgopithecus|Gorgopithecus]]''
** [[Biology:Pongo hooijeri|Vietnamese Orugutan]]
** Various ''[[Biology:Homo|Homo]]'' spp.
***Archaic African hominins (undescribed)<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewen|date=2016-03-17|title=Oldest ancient-human DNA details dawn of Neanderthals|journal=Nature News|volume=531|issue=7594|pages=296–286|doi=10.1038/531286a|pmid=26983523|bibcode=2016Natur.531..296C|s2cid=4459329|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*** ''[[Biology:Homo erectus|Homo erectus]]''
*** [[Biology:Homo floresiensis|Flores Man]]
*** ''[[Biology:Homo luzonensis|Homo luzonensis]]''
*** Denisovans (''Homo'' sp.)
*** Neanderthals (''Homo'' (''sapiens'') ''neanderthalensis'')
*** Red Deer Cave people (''Homo'' sp.)
*** Unknown Asiatic hominins (''Homo'' sp.)<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lao|first1=Oscar|last2=Bertranpetit|first2=Jaume|last3=Mondal|first3=Mayukh|date=2019-01-16|title=Approximate Bayesian computation with deep learning supports a third archaic introgression in Asia and Oceania|journal=Nature Communications|volume=10|issue=1|pages=246|doi=10.1038/s41467-018-08089-7|pmid=30651539|pmc=6335398|issn=2041-1723|bibcode=2019NatCo..10..246M}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pennisi|first=Elizabeth|date=2013-05-17|title=More Genomes From Denisova Cave Show Mixing of Early Human Groups|journal=Science|volume=340|issue=6134|pages=799|doi=10.1126/science.340.6134.799|issn=0036-8075|pmid=23687020|bibcode=2013Sci...340..799P}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dna-data-offer-evidence-unknown-extinct-human-relative|title=DNA data offer evidence of unknown extinct human relative|last=Saey|first=Tina Hesman|date=2016-11-02|website=Science News|access-date=2019-01-28}}</ref>
*** Balangoda Man (''Homo sapiens balangodensis'')

===Palearctic: Europe and northern Asia===
[[File:Saiga.jpg|thumb|upright|Saiga antelope (''Saiga spp.'') inhabited a range from England and {{wipe|France}} to Yukon in the Late Pleistocene, diversifying into two species. ''S. borealis'' is now extinct and the critically endangered ''S. tatarica'' is now limited to the steppe in Kazakhstan and Mongolia]]
[[File:Hippopotamus_amphibius_Whipsnade_Zoo.jpg|thumb|[[Biology:Hippopotamus (genus)|Hippopotamuses]] (''Hippopotamus'' spp.) inhabited Great Britain until 80,000&nbsp;BCE, whence due to glacial shifts, hippopotamuses were restricted to southeastern Europe, Mediterranean islands and finally western Asia until 1,000&nbsp;BCE]]
[[File:Wild_horse_reconstruction.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the five [[Biology:Phenotype|phenotype]]s of Pleistocene wild horse. The coat colours and dimensions are based on genetic evidence and historic descriptions]]
[[File:Elasm062.jpg|thumb|''Elasmotherium sibiricum'' reconstruction]]
[[File:16 PanneauDesLions(CentreGauche)RhinocérosEnFuite.jpg|thumb|Cave paintings of the wooly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') in Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave, {{wipe|France}}]]
[[File:Iranian_Cheetah_roars.jpg|thumb|[[Biology:Cheetah|Modern cheetah]] (''Acinonyx jubatus'') replaced giant cheetah (''Acinonyx pardinensis'') in Eurasia after the Middle Pleistocene and inhabited a range from eastern Europe and the Balkans to {{wipe|China}}. Today, the critically endangered Eurasian cheetah are now restricted to Iran]]
[[File:Lions_painting,_Chauvet_Cave_(museum_replica).jpg|thumb|The 'Gallery of Lions', representations of the Eurasian cave lion in Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave, {{wipe|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 {{wipe|Spain}} and the {{wipe|United Kingdom}} in the west, to {{wipe|South Africa}} in the south, and Siberia, {{wipe|Japan}} and Sundaland in the east during the Late Pleistocene]]
[[File:Ursus_spelaeus_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|Cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') reconstruction]] 
[[File:Mamut_lanudo.jpg|thumb|The woolly mammoth became extinct around 10,000&nbsp;BCE – except for diminutive relict populations on St. Paul Island and Wrangel Island, which humans did not colonise until 3,600&nbsp;BCE and 2,000&nbsp;BCE respectively]]
[[File:Elephasantiquus.jpg|thumb|Models of the straight-tusked elephant (''Paleoloxodon antiquus'')]]
[[File:Hypnomys by L.Meslin.png|thumb|Majorcan giant dormouse (''Hypnomys morpheus'') life restoration]]
The [[Biology:Palearctic realm|Palearctic realm]] spans the entirety of the [[Earth:Europe|European continent]] and stretches into [[Place:North Asia|northern Asia]], through the [[Earth:Caucasus|Caucasus]] and [[Place:Central Asia|central Asia]] to northern China, Siberia and [[Earth:Beringia|Beringia]]. During the [[Earth:Late Pleistocene|Late Pleistocene]], this region was noted for its great diversity and dynamism of [[Biology:Biome|biome]]s, including the warm climes of the [[Place:Mediterranean Basin|Mediterranean basin]], open [[Biology:Woodland|temperate woodlands]], [[Earth:Plain|arid plains]], [[Earth:Heath|mountainous heathland]] and [[Earth:Swamp|swamp]]y [[Earth:Wetland|wetland]]s, all of which were vulnerable to the severe climatic fluctuations of the interchanges between glacial and interglacials periods ([[Earth:Stadial|stadial]]s). However, it was the expansive [[Earth:Mammoth steppe|mammoth steppe]] which was the [[Earth:Ecoregion|ecosystem]] which united and defined this region during the Late Pleistocene.<ref name=":62">{{Cite journal|last=Kahlke|first=Ralf-Dietrich|date=2014|title=The origin of Eurasian Mammoth Faunas (''Mammuthus''-''Coelodonta'' Faunal Complex)|url=http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/140/1404659577.pdf|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=96|pages=32–49|bibcode=2014QSRv...96...32K|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.01.012}}</ref> One of the key features of Europe's Late Pleistocene climate was the often drastic turnover of conditions and biota between the numerous stadials, which could set within a century. For example, during glacial periods, the entire North Sea was drained of water to form [[Earth:Doggerland|Doggerland]]. The final major cold spell occurred from 25,000&nbsp;BCE to 18,000&nbsp;BCE and is known as the [[Earth:Last Glacial Maximum|Last Glacial Maximum]], when the Fenno-Scandinavian ice sheet covered much of [[History:Last Glacial Maximum refugia|northern Europe]], while the Alpine ice sheet occupied significant parts of central-southern Europe.

Europe and northern Asia, being [[Earth:Ice age#Positive and negative feedback in glacial periods|far colder and drier]] than today,<ref name="Zimov 26–452">{{Cite journal|last1=Zimov|first1=S. A.|last2=Zimov|first2=N. S.|last3=Tikhonov|first3=A. N.|last4=Chapin III|first4=F. S.|date=2012-12-04|title=Mammoth steppe: a high-productivity phenomenon|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=57|pages=26–45|bibcode=2012QSRv...57...26Z|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.10.005}}</ref> was largely [[Earth:Ecoregion|hegemonized]] by the [[Earth:Mammoth steppe|mammoth steppe]], an [[Earth:Ecosystem|ecosystem]] dominated by palatable [[Earth:Productivity (ecology)|high-productivity]] [[Biology:Poaceae|grasses]], [[Biology:Herbaceous plant|herbs]] and [[Biology:Willow|willow shrubs]].<ref name="Zimov 26–452" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sher|first1=A. V.|last2=Kuzmina|first2=S. A.|last3=Kuznetsova|first3=T. V.|last4=Sulerzhitsky|first4=L. D.|date=2005-03-01|title=New insights into the Weichselian environment and climate of the East Siberian Arctic, derived from fossil insects, plants, and mammals|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=24|issue=5–6|pages=533–569|bibcode=2005QSRv...24..533S|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.09.007|url=http://oceanrep.geomar.de/28296/1/2005_Sher-etal-New_QSR-25.pdf}}</ref> This supported an [[Biology:Species richness|extensive biota]] of [[Earth:Steppe|grassland]] fauna and stretched eastwards from {{wipe|Spain}} in the [[Place:Iberian Peninsula|Iberian Peninsula]] to [[Earth:Yukon|Yukon]] in modern-day {{wipe|Canada}}.<ref name=":62" /><ref name="Zimov 26–452" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Adams|first1=J. M.|last2=Faure|first2=H.|last3=Faure-Denard|first3=L.|last4=McGlade|first4=J. M.|last5=Woodward|first5=F. I.|date=1990-12-27|title=Increases in terrestrial carbon storage from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present|journal=Nature|volume=348|issue=6303|pages=711–714|bibcode=1990Natur.348..711A|doi=10.1038/348711a0|s2cid=4233720}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Álvarez-Lao|first1=Diego J.|last2=García|first2=Nuria|date=2011-03-15|title=Geographical distribution of Pleistocene cold-adapted large mammal faunas in the Iberian Peninsula|journal=Quaternary International|series=Quaternary Floral and Faunal Assemblages: Ecological and Taphonomical Investigations|volume=233|issue=2|pages=159–170|bibcode=2011QuInt.233..159A|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2010.04.017}}</ref> The area was populated by many species of [[Biology:Grazing (behaviour)|grazers]] which assembled in large herds similar in size to those in Africa today. Populous species which roamed the great grasslands included the [[Biology:Woolly mammoth|woolly mammoth]], [[Biology:Woolly rhinoceros|woolly rhinoceros]], ''Elasmotherium'', steppe bison, [[Biology:Equus (genus)|Pleistocene horse]], [[Biology:Muskox|muskox]], ''[[Biology:Cervalces latifrons|Cervalces]]'', [[Biology:Reindeer|reindeer]], various [[Biology:Antelope|antelope]]s (goat-horned antelope, [[Biology:Mongolian gazelle|mongolian gazelle]], [[Biology:Saiga antelope|saiga antelope]] and twisted-horned antelope) and steppe pika. Carnivores included Eurasian cave lion, scimitar cat, [[Biology:Cave hyena|cave hyena]], grey wolf, [[Biology:Dhole|dhole]] and the [[Biology:Arctic fox|Arctic fox]].<ref name="Hoffecker2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQkpVuA7_6UC&q=baikal+yak&pg=PA56|title=Human Ecology of Beringia|last1=Hoffecker|first1=John F.|last2=Elias|first2=Scott A.|date=2012-05-29|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231503884}}</ref><ref name=":72">{{Cite journal|last1=Vereshchagin|first1=N. K.|last2=Baryshnikov|first2=G. F.|date=1991-01-01|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><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIDC7ybvHQEC&q=parabubalis+capricornis&pg=PA489|title=Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution|last1=Martin|first1=Paul S.|last2=Klein|first2=Richard G.|date=1989-01-01|publisher=University of Arizona Press|isbn=9780816511006}}</ref>

At the edges of these large stretches of grassland could be found more [[Earth:Shrub-steppe|shrub-like]] terrain and dry [[Biology:Pinophyta|conifer]] [[Earth:Forest|forest]] and [[Biology:Woodland|woodland]] (akin to [[Earth:Forest steppe|forest steppe]] or taiga). The browsing collective of megafauna included [[Biology:Woolly rhinoceros|woolly rhinoceros]], giant deer, moose, ''[[Biology:Cervalces latifrons|Cervalces]]'', [[Biology:Tarpan|tarpan]], [[Biology:Aurochs|aurochs]], [[Biology:Bison|woodland bison]], camels and smaller deer (Siberian roe deer, [[Biology:Red deer|red deer]] and Siberian musk deer). [[Biology:Brown bear|Brown bear]]s, [[Biology:Wolverine|wolverine]]s, [[Biology:Cave bear|cave bear]], wolves, [[Biology:Lynx|lynx]], [[Biology:Leopard|leopard]]s and [[Biology:Red fox|red fox]]es also inhabited this biome. [[Biology:Tiger|Tiger]]s were at stages also present, from the edges of [[Place:Eastern Europe|eastern Europe]] around the Black Sea to [[Earth:Beringia|Beringia]]. The more [[Earth:Montane ecosystems|mountainous terrain]], incorporating montane grassland, subalpine conifer forest, [[Earth:Alpine tundra|alpine tundra]] and [[Earth:Schrofen|broken, craggy slopes]], was occupied by several species of mountain-going animals like [[Biology:Argali|argali]], chamois, [[Biology:Capra (genus)|ibex]], [[Biology:Mouflon|mouflon]], pika, wolves, [[Biology:Leopard|leopard]]s, [[Biology:Ursus (genus)|''Ursus spp.'']] and [[Biology:Lynx|lynx]], with [[Biology:Snow leopard|snow leopard]]s, Baikal yak and [[Biology:Snow sheep|snow sheep]] in [[Place:North Asia|northern Asia]]. Arctic tundra, which lined the north of the mammoth steppe, reflected modern ecology with species such as the [[Biology:Polar bear|polar bear]], [[Biology:Tundra wolf|wolf]], [[Biology:Reindeer|reindeer]] and [[Biology:Muskox|muskox]].

Other biomes, although less noted, were significant in contributing to the diversity of fauna in Late Pleistocene Europe. Warmer grasslands such as temperate steppe and Mediterranean savannah hosted ''Stephanorhinus'', [[Biology:Gazelle|gazelle]], [[Biology:European bison|European bison]], [[Biology:Asian ostrich|Asian ostrich]]es, ''[[Biology:Leptobos|Leptobos]]'', [[Biology:Cheetah|cheetah]] and [[Biology:Onager|onager]]. These biomes also contained an assortment of mammoth steppe fauna, such as [[Biology:Saiga antelope|saiga antelope]], [[Biology:History of lions in Europe|lions]], scimitar cats, [[Biology:Cave hyena|cave hyena]]s, wolves, [[Biology:Equus (genus)|Pleistocene horse]], [[Biology:Steppe bison|steppe bison]], twisted-horned antelope, [[Biology:Aurochs|aurochs]] and camels. [[Biology:Temperate coniferous forest|Temperate coniferous]], [[Earth:Temperate deciduous forest|deciduous]], mixed broadleaf and Mediterranean forest and open woodland accommodated [[Biology:Straight-tusked elephant|straight-tusked elephant]]s, ''[[Biology:Praemegaceros|Praemegaceros]]'', ''Stephanorhinus'', wild boar, bovids such as [[Biology:European bison|European bison]], tahr and tur, species of ''[[Biology:Ursus (genus)|Ursus]]'' such as the [[Biology:Ursus etruscus|Etruscan bear]] and smaller deer ([[Biology:Roe deer|Roe deer]], [[Biology:Red deer|red deer]], [[Biology:Fallow deer|fallow deer]] and Mediterranean deer) with several mammoth steppe species such as [[Biology:Lynx|lynx]], [[Biology:Tarpan|tarpan]], wolves, [[Biology:Dhole|dhole]]s, moose, giant deer, [[Biology:Bison|woodland bison]], [[Biology:Leopard|leopard]]s and [[Biology:Aurochs|aurochs]]. [[Biology:Woolly rhinoceros|Woolly rhinoceros]] and [[Biology:Woolly mammoth|mammoth]] occasionally resided in these temperate biomes, mixing with predominately temperate fauna to escape harsh glacials.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/the-remarkable-life-appearance-of-the-woolly-rhino/|title=The remarkable life appearance of the Woolly rhino|last=Naish|first=Darren|work=Scientific American Blog Network|access-date=2017-04-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=pdfviewer&id=1402660443&folder=140|title=New discoveries of woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros from northern Iberia|last=Diego J. ÁLVAREZ-LAO|website=Scientific Annals, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki|publisher=Greece VIth International Conference on Mammoths and their Relatives, Special Volume 102|access-date=2017-04-16}}</ref> In warmer [[Earth:Wetland|wetland]]s, [[Biology:Bubalus murrensis|European water buffalo]] and [[Biology:Hippopotamus antiquus|hippopotamus]] were present. Although these habitats were restricted to [[Biology:Refugium (population biology)|micro refugia]] and to [[Place:Southern Europe|southern Europe]] and its fringes, being in [[Place:Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]], Italy, the [[Place:Balkans|Balkans]], Ukraine's Black Sea [[Place:Pontic–Caspian steppe|basin]], the [[Earth:Caucasus|Caucasus]] and [[Place:Western Asia|western Asia]], during inter-glacials these biomes had a far more northernly range. For example, [[Biology:Hippopotamus|hippopotamus]] inhabited Great Britain and [[Biology:Straight-tusked elephant|straight-tusked elephant]] the Netherlands, as recently as 80,000&nbsp;BCE and 42,000&nbsp;BCE respectively.<ref name=":52">{{Cite journal|last=Pushinka|first=Diana|date=2007|title=The Pleistocene easternmost distribution in Eurasia of the species associated with the Eemian ''Paleoloxodon antiquus'' assemblage|url=http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/131/1318084071.pdf|journal=Mammal Review|volume=37|issue=3|pages=224–245|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2907.2007.00109.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author1=Anthony J. Stuart |author2=Adrian M. LiSter|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264785182|title=Patterns of Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions in Europe and northern Asia |journal=CFS Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg |volume=259 |pages=289–299|access-date=2017-03-28}}</ref>

The first possible indications of habitation by hominins are the 7.2 million year old finds of ''[[Biology:Graecopithecus|Graecopithecus]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Fuss|first1=Jochen|last2=Spassov|first2=Nikolai|last3=Begun|first3=David R.|last4=Böhme|first4=Madelaine|date=2017-05-22|title=Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=12|issue=5|pages=e0177127|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0177127|pmid=28531170|pmc=5439669|issn=1932-6203|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1277127F|doi-access=free}}</ref> and 5.7 million year old footprints in Crete — however established habitation is noted in Georgia from 1.8 million years ago, proceeded to Germany and France, by ''[[Biology:Homo erectus#Descendants and synonyms|Homo erectus]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gierliński|first1=Gerard D.|last2=Niedźwiedzki|first2=Grzegorz|last3=Lockley|first3=Martin G.|last4=Athanassiou|first4=Athanassios|last5=Fassoulas|first5=Charalampos|last6=Dubicka|first6=Zofia|last7=Boczarowski|first7=Andrzej|last8=Bennett|first8=Matthew R.|last9=Ahlberg|first9=Per Erik|title=Possible hominin footprints from the late Miocene (c. 5.7 Ma) of Crete?|journal=Proceedings of the Geologists' Association|doi=10.1016/j.pgeola.2017.07.006|volume=128|issue=5–6|year=2017|pages=697–710|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/deadthings/2017/09/01/what-made-these-footprints-5-7-million-years-ago/#.WbYbeNN97Vp|title=What Made These Footprints 5.7 Million Years Ago? - Dead Things|date=2017-09-01|work=Dead Things|access-date=2017-09-18}}</ref> Prominent co-current and subsequent species include ''[[Biology:Homo antecessor|Homo antecessor]]'', ''Homo cepranensis'', ''[[Biology:Homo heidelbergensis|Homo heidelbergensis]]'', [[Biology:Neanderthal|neanderthal]]s and [[History:Denisovan|denisovan]]s,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pääbo|first1=Svante|last2=Prüfer|first2=Kay|last3=Kelso|first3=Janet|last4=Viola|first4=Bence|last5=Carbonell|first5=Eudald|last6=Castro|first6=José María Bermúdez de|last7=Ana Gracia|last8=Martínez|first8=Ignacio|last9=Nickel|first9=Birgit|date=March 2016|title=Nuclear DNA sequences from the Middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos hominins|journal=Nature|volume=531|issue=7595|pages=504–507|doi=10.1038/nature17405|pmid=26976447|issn=1476-4687|bibcode=2016Natur.531..504M|s2cid=4467094}}</ref> preceding habitation by Homo sapiens circa 38,000&nbsp;BCE. Extensive contact between African and Eurasian Homo groups is known at least in part through transfers of stone-tool technology in 500,000 BCE and again at 250,000 BCE.<ref name=":8" />

Europe's Late Pleistocene biota went through two phases of extinction. Some fauna became extinct before 13,000&nbsp;BCE, in staggered intervals, particularly between 50,000&nbsp;BCE and 30,000&nbsp;BCE. Species include [[Biology:Cave bear|cave bear]], ''Elasmotherium'', [[Biology:Straight-tusked elephant|straight-tusked elephant]], ''Stephanorhinus'', [[Biology:Bubalus murrensis|water buffalo]], [[Biology:Neanderthal|neanderthal]]s, [[Biology:Gazelle|gazelle]] and scimitar cat. However, the great majority of species were [[Biology:Biodiversity loss|extinguished]], extirpated or experienced severe [[Biology:Population bottleneck|population contractions]] between 13,000 BCE and 9,000&nbsp;BCE,<ref>See Figure 1 in {{cite book|year=2001 |authors=L.A. Orlova, Y.V. Kuzmin, A.J. Stuart, A.N. Tikhonov|chapter-url=https://fdocuments.net/document/mammuthus-primigenius-blumenbach-extinction-in-northern-asia.html|chapter=Chronology and environment of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blum.) extinction in northern Asia|title=The World of Elephants - International Congress, Rome 2001|access-date=2017-04-07}}</ref> ending with the [[Earth:Younger Dryas|Younger Dryas]]. At that time there were small ice sheets in Scotland and [[Place:Scandinavia|Scandinavia]]. The mammoth steppe [[Biology:Ecological collapse|disappeared]] from the vast majority of its former range, either due to a permanent shift in [[Earth:Ecological succession|climatic conditions]], or an absence of [[Earth:Ecosystem engineer|ecosystem management]] due to [[Earth:Ecological extinction|decimated]], [[Biology:Population fragmentation|fragmented]] or [[Biology:Biodiversity loss|extinct]] populations of [[Biology:Megafauna|megaherbivores]].<ref name="Owen-Smith19922">{{cite book|title=Megaherbivores: The influence of very large body size on ecology. Cambridge studies in ecology|author=Owen-Smith, R.N.|publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0-521-42637-4|location=Cambridge}}</ref><ref name="WhitneySmith20062">{{cite book|title=Clovis and Extinctions – Overkill, Second Order Predation, Environmental Degradation in a Non-equilibrium Ecosystem "Clovis Age Continent"|author=Whitney-Smith, E.|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|year=2006}}</ref> This led to a [[Earth:Ecological threshold|region wide]] [[Earth:Extinction debt|extinction]] vortex, resulting in [[Biology:Density dependence|cyclically]] [[Earth:Carrying capacity|diminishing]] [[Earth:Productivity (ecology)|bio-productivity]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2018}} and [[Earth:Defaunation|defaunation]]. [[Biology:Foster's rule|Insular]] species on Mediterranean islands such as Sardinia, [[Place:Sicily|Sicily]], Malta, [[Place:Cyprus|Cyprus]] and Crete, went extinct around the same time as humans colonised those islands. Fauna included dwarf [[Biology:Dwarf elephant|elephant]]s, [[Biology:Praemegaceros|megacerines]] and [[Biology:Hippopotamus (genus)|hippopotamuses]], and giant avians, [[Biology:Megalenhydris|otters]] and [[Biology:Leithia|rodents]].


* Various [[Biology:Bovidae|Bovidae]] spp.
**[[Biology:Steppe bison|Steppe bison]] (''Bison priscus'')
** [[Biology:Bison schoetensacki|Pleistocene woodland bison]] (''Bison'' (''bonasus'') ''schoetensacki'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Marsolier-Kergoat|first1=Marie-Claude|last2=Palacio|first2=Pauline|last3=Berthonaud|first3=Véronique|last4=Maksud|first4=Frédéric|last5=Stafford|first5=Thomas|last6=Bégouën|first6=Robert|last7=Elalouf|first7=Jean-Marc|date=2015-06-17|title=Hunting the Extinct Steppe Bison (Bison priscus) Mitochondrial Genome in the Trois-Frères Paleolithic Painted Cave|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=10|issue=6|pages=e0128267|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0128267|pmc=4471230|pmid=26083419|bibcode=2015PLoSO..1028267M|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Palacio|first1=Pauline|last2=Berthonaud|first2=Véronique|last3=Guérin|first3=Claude|last4=Lambourdière|first4=Josie|last5=Maksud|first5=Frédéric|last6=Philippe|first6=Michel|last7=Plaire|first7=Delphine|last8=Stafford|first8=Thomas|last9=Marsolier-Kergoat|first9=Marie-Claude|date=2017-01-01|title=Genome data on the extinct Bison schoetensacki establish it as a sister species of the extant European bison (Bison bonasus)|journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology|volume=17|issue=1|page=48|doi=10.1186/s12862-017-0894-2|pmc=5303235|pmid=28187706|doi-access=free}}</ref>
** Baikal yak (''Bos baikalensis'')<ref name="Hoffecker2" />
** [[Biology:Bubalus murrensis|European water buffalo]] (''Bubalus murrensis'')
** [[Biology:Leptobos|''Leptobos'' spp.]]
** European tahr (''Hemitragus cedrensis'')<ref name=":6">{{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|pages = 85–102}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=CRÉGUT-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>
** [[Biology:Praeovibos priscus|Giant muskox]] (''Praeovibos priscus'')<ref>{{Cite book|title=Pleistocene mammals of Europe|last=(1924–1988).|first=Kurtén, Björn|date=2008-01-01|publisher=Aldine Transaction|isbn=9780202309538|oclc=751413776}}</ref>
** [[Biology:Myotragus|Balearic Islands cave goat]] (''Myotragus balearicus'')
** Northern [[Biology:Saiga antelope|saiga antelope]] (''Saiga borealis'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Baryshnikov|first1=G.|last2=Tikhonov|first2=A.|date=1994-10-01|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}}</ref>
** Twisted-horned antelope (''Spirocerus kiakhtensis'')<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQkpVuA7_6UC|title=Human Ecology of Beringia|last1=Hoffecker|first1=John F.|last2=Elias|first2=Scott A.|date=2012-05-29|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231503884}}</ref><ref name=":72" />
** Goat-horned antelope (''Parabubalis capricornis'')<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":72" />
** ''[[Biology:Gazelle|Gazella]]'' spp.<ref name="Fossilworks: Gazella2" />
* Various [[Biology:Deer|deer]] (Cervidae) spp.
** [[Biology:Cervalces latifrons|Broad-fronted moose]] (''Cervalces latifrons'')
** Giant deer (''Megaloceros giganteus'')
** ''[[Biology:Praemegaceros|Praemegaceros]]''
** [[Biology:Candiacervus|Cretan dwarf megacerine]] (''Candiacervus'')
** Mediterranean deer (''Haploidoceros mediterraneus'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sanz|first1=Montserrat|last2=Daura|first2=Joan|last3=Brugal|first3=Jean-Philip|date=2014-01-01|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}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rivals|first1=Florent|last2=Sanz|first2=Montserrat|last3=Daura|first3=Joan|date=2016-05-01|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>
** Palmated red deer (''Cervus elaphus acoronatus'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Abbazzi|first1=Laura|last2=Azzaroli|first2=A.|date=1995-09-01|title=Occurrence of palmated Cervus elaphus from Italian late Pleistocene localities|journal=Rendiconti Lincei|volume=6|issue=3|pages=189–206|doi=10.1007/BF03001667|s2cid=127135783|issn=1120-6349}}</ref>
* All native ''[[Biology: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=2013-03-25|publisher=Newnes|isbn=9780444536426}}</ref>
** [[Biology:Hippopotamus antiquus|European hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus antiquus'')
** [[Biology:Hippopotamus melitensis|Maltese dwarf hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus melitensis'')
** [[Biology:Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus|Cyprus dwarf hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus minor'')
** [[Biology: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 ''Camelus'' spp.
* Various [[Biology:Equus (genus)|''Equus'']] spp. e.g.
** [[Biology:Wild horse|Wild horse]] ([[Biology:Wild horse#Subspecies and their history|''Equus ferus'' ssp.]])
** ''Equus'' [[Biology:Open nomenclature|cf.]] ''gallicus''<ref name="researchgate.net2">{{cite book |last=Foronova |first=I. |year=2006 |chapter=Late quaternary equids (genus Equus) of South-western and South-central Siberia |editor=M. Mashkour |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 |pages=20–30}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XTPbVI5Gf6MC&q=equus+gallicus&pg=PA146|title=The Cave of Fontéchevade: Recent Excavations and Their Paleoanthropological Implications|last=Chase|first=Philip G.|date=2009-01-01|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521898447}}</ref>
** [[Biology:European ass|European Ass]] (''Equus hydruntinus'')
** ''Equus'' [[Biology:Open nomenclature|cf.]] ''latipes''<ref name=":72" /><ref name="researchgate.net2" /><ref>{{Cite book|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|last1=Yanko-Hombach|first1=Valentina|last2=Gilbert|first2=Allan S.|last3=Panin|first3=Nicolae|last4=Dolukhanov|first4=Pavel M.|date=2006-11-15|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9781402053023}}</ref>
** ''Equus'' [[Biology:Open nomenclature|cf.]] ''lenensis''<ref name=":72" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxolBQAAQBAJ&q=equus+lenensis&pg=PA349|title=Paleoecology of Beringia|last1=Hopkins|first1=David M.|last2=Matthews|first2=John V.|last3=Schweger|first3=Charles E.|date=2013-09-17|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9781483273402}}</ref>
** ''Equus'' [[Biology:Open nomenclature|cf.]] ''uralensis''<ref name="researchgate.net2"/>
* All native [[Biology:Rhinocerotidae|Rhinoceros]] (Rhinocerotidae) spp.
** ''Elasmotherium''
** [[Biology:Woolly rhinoceros|Woolly rhinoceros]] (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'')
** ''Stephanorhinus'' spp. 
*** Merck's rhinoceros (''Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis'')
*** Narrow-nosed rhinoceros (''Stephanorhinus hemiotoechus'')
* [[Biology:Cave wolf|Cave wolf]] (''Canis lupus spelaeus'')
*[[Biology:Dire wolf|Dire wolf]] (''Aenocyon dirus'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lu|first=Dan|last2=Yang|first2=Yangheshan|last3=Li|first3=Qiang|last4=Ni|first4=Xijun|date=2021-07-30|title=A late Pleistocene fossil from Northeastern China is the first record of the dire wolf (Carnivora: Canis dirus) in Eurasia|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618220306194|journal=Quaternary International|series=Cave Deposits from Luotuo Hill, Northeast China: A Geochronologically Calibrated Mammalian Biostratigraphic Standard for the Quaternary of Eastern Asia|language=en|volume=591|pages=87–92|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2020.09.054|issn=1040-6182}}</ref>
* Various [[Biology:Felidae|Felidae]] spp.
** Eurasian scimitar cat (''Homotherium latidens'')
** [[Biology:Cave lynx|Cave lynx]] (''Lynx spelaeus'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ghezzo|first1=Elena|last2=Boscaini|first2=Alberto|last3=Madurell-Malapeira|first3=Joan|last4=Rook|first4=Lorenzo|date=2014-12-16|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}}</ref>
** Issoire lynx (''Lynx issiodorensis'')
** [[Biology:Panthera|Panthera]] spp.
*** Cave lion (''Panthera spelaea'')
*** European ice age leopard (''Panthera pardus spelaea'')
* [[Biology:Cave hyena|Cave hyena]] (''Crocuta crocuta spelaea'')
* [[Biology:European dhole|European dhole]] (''Cuon alpinus europaeus'')
* [[Biology:Sardinian dhole|Sardinian dhole]] (''Cynotherium sardous'')
* Several [[Biology:Lutrinae|otter]] (Lutrinae) spp.
** [[Biology:Cyrnaonyx|Robust Pleistocene European otter]] (''Cyrnaonyx'')
** [[Biology:Algarolutra|Pleistocene Mediterranean otter]] (''Algarolutra'')
** Sardinian giant otter (''Megalenhydris barbaricina'')
** [[Biology:Sardolutra|Sardinian dwarf otter]] (''Sardolutra'')
** [[Biology:Cretan otter|Cretan otter]] (''Lutrogale cretensis'')
* Various [[Biology:Ursus (genus)|''Ursus'']] spp.
** [[Biology:Ursus deningeri|Deninger's bear]] (''Ursus deningeri'')
** [[Biology:Ursus etruscus|Etruscan bear]] (''Ursus etruscus'')
** [[Biology: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=2014-08-07|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=339–340|pages=148–163|bibcode=2014QuInt.339..148M|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2013.10.020}}</ref>
** [[Biology:Ursus rossicus|Pleistocene small cave bear]] (''Ursus rossicus'')
** [[Biology:Cave bear|Cave bear]] (''Ursus spelaeus'')
** [[Biology:Ursus maritimus tyrannus|Giant polar bear]] (''Ursus maritimus tyrannus'')
* All native [[Biology:Elephantidae|Elephant]] (Elephantidae) spp.
** [[Biology:Woolly mammoth|Woolly mammoth]] (''Mammuthus primigenius'')
** [[Biology:Dwarf elephant|Dwarf mammoth]]
*** [[Biology:Mammuthus creticus|Cretan dwarf mammoth]] (''Mammuthus creticus'')
*** [[Biology:Mammuthus lamarmorai|Dwarf Sardinian mammoth]] (''Mammuthus lamarmorai'')
** [[Biology:Straight-tusked elephant|Straight-tusked elephant]] (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'')
** [[Biology:Dwarf elephant|Dwarf elephant]]
*** ''[[Biology:Palaeoloxodon chaniensis|Palaeoloxodon chaniensis]]''
*** [[Biology:Cyprus dwarf elephant|Cyprus dwarf elephant]] (''Palaeoloxodon cypriotes'')
*** [[Biology:Palaeoloxodon falconeri|Pygmy elephant]] (''Palaeoloxodon falconeri'')
*** ''[[Biology:Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis|Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis]]''
* Balearic giant dormouse (''Hypnomys'')  spp. e.g.
** [[Biology:Majorcan giant dormouse|Majorcan giant dormouse]] (''Hypnomys morpheus'')
* ''[[Biology:Leithia|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=2016-04-20}}</ref>
* Pika (''Ochotona'') spp. e.g. 
** [[Biology:Giant pika|Giant pika]] (''Ochotona whartoni'')
* [[Biology:Asian ostrich|Asian ostrich]] (''Struthio asiaticus'')
* Giant swan (''Cygnus falconeri'')
* [[Biology:Anser djuktaiensis|Yakutian goose]] (''Anser djuktaiensis'')
* Various European [[Biology:Crane (bird)|crane]] spp. (Genus ''[[Biology:Grus (genus)|Grus]]'')
** ''Grus primigenia''
** ''Grus melitensis''
* Cretan owl (''Athene cretensis'')
* [[History:Denisovan|Denisovan]]s (''Homo'' sp.)
* Neanderthals (''Homo'' (''sapiens'') ''neanderthalensis''; survived until about 40,000 years ago on the Iberian peninsula)

Many species extant today were present in areas either far to the south or west of their contemporary ranges- for example, all the arctic fauna on this list inhabited regions as south as the [[Place:Iberian Peninsula|Iberian Peninsula]] at various stages of the [[Earth:Late Pleistocene|Late Pleistocene]]. Recently extinct organisms are noted as †. Species extirpated from significant portions of or all former ranges in Europe and northern Asia during the Quaternary extinction event include-
* †European lion (''Panthera leo europaea)''
* [[Biology:Tiger|Tiger]] (''Panthera tigris'', from the {{wipe|Ukraine}} Black Sea to [[Earth:Beringia|Beringia]])<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BQtyg5m1zQkC|title=Annotated Bibliography of Quaternary Vertebrates of Northern North America: With Radiocarbon Dates|last1=Harington|first1=Charles Richard|last2=Nature|first2=Canadian Museum of|date=2003-01-01|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9780802048172}}</ref><ref name="Big cats and their relatives">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=66mRJSxIAfoC|title=The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives: An Illustrated Guide to Their Evolution and Natural History|last=Turner|first=Alan|date=1997-01-01|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231102285}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFIbjBEQolMC&q=panthera+tigris+beringia&pg=PA59|title=Tigers of the World: The Science, Politics and Conservation of Panthera tigris|last1=Tilson|first1=Ronald|last2=Nyhus|first2=Philip J.|date=2009-11-30|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=9780080947518}}</ref>
* [[Biology:Cheetah|Cheetah]] (''Acinonyx'' ''jubatus'')<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIDC7ybvHQEC&q=cheetah+europe+pleistocene&pg=PA57|title=Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution|last1=Martin|first1=Paul S.|last2=Klein|first2=Richard G.|date=1989-01-01|publisher=University of Arizona Press|isbn=9780816511006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OsPBXSNL8ZkC&q=Asiatic+Cheetah+troy&pg=PA89|title=Pleistocene Mammals of Europe|last=KurtÃ©n|first=BjÃ¶rn|date=1968-01-01|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=9781412845144}}</ref>
* [[Biology:Leopard|Leopard]] (''Panthera pardus)''
* [[Biology:Snow leopard|Snow leopard]] (''Panthera uncia'')
* [[Biology:Eurasian lynx|Eurasian]] and [[Biology:Iberian lynx|Iberian]] lynx ([[Biology:Eurasian lynx|''Lynx lynx'']] and [[Biology:Iberian lynx|''Lynx pardinus'']])
* [[Biology:Wolverine|Wolverine]] (''Gulo gulo'')
* [[Biology:Polar bear|Polar bear]] (''Ursus maritimus'')
* [[Biology:Arctic fox|Arctic fox]] (''Vulpes lagopus'')
* [[Biology:Dhole|Dhole]] (''Cuon alpinus)''
* Gray wolf (†[[Biology:Megafaunal wolf|Megafaunal]] et [[Biology:Beringian wolf|Beringian wolf]], and the [[Biology:Paleolithic dog|Paleolithic dog]] (''Canis lupus''))
* †[[Biology:Tarpan|Tarpan]] (''Equus ferus ferus'')
* [[Biology:Fallow deer|Fallow deer]] (''Dama dama'')
* [[Biology:Mouflon|Mouflon]] (''Ovis gmelini)''
* Chamois (''Rupicapra'' spp.)
* West Caucasian tur (''Capra caucasica'')<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" />
* [[Biology:Saiga antelope|Saiga antelope]] (''Saiga tatarica'')
* [[Biology:Reindeer|Reindeer]] (''Rangifer tarandus'')
* Moose (''Alces alces'')
* [[Biology:Onager|Onager]] ''(Equus hemionus'')
* †[[Biology:Aurochs|Aurochs]] (''Bos primigenius'')
* [[Biology:European bison|European bison]] (''Bison bonasus'')
* Asian water buffalo (''Bubalus arnee'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freenature.eu/free-en/p000429/news/news-archive/2012/wild-waterbuffalo-in-holocene-europe|title=English website FREE Nature – Wild waterbuffalo in holocene Europe|website=www.freenature.eu|access-date=2017-04-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807214644/http://www.freenature.eu/free-en/p000429/news/news-archive/2012/wild-waterbuffalo-in-holocene-europe|archive-date=2016-08-07}}</ref>
* Musk ox (''Ovibos moschatus)''
* [[Biology:Asian elephant|Asian elephant]] (''Elephas maximus,'' from the Black Sea to Northern China)
* Steppe pika (''Ochotona pusilla'')
* [[Biology:Great jerboa|Great jerboa]] (''Allactaga major'')
* [[Biology:Hippopotamus|Hippopotamus]] (''Hippopotamus amphibius'')
* [[Biology:Northern bald ibis|Northern bald ibis]] (''Geronticus eremita)''
* †[[Biology:Great auk|Great auk]] (''Pinguinus impennis'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Pinguinus_impennis/|title=Pinguinus impennis (great auk)|website=Animal Diversity Web|access-date=2017-03-03}}</ref>
* Snowy owl (''Bubo scandiacus'')
* [[Biology:Barbary macaque|Barbary macaque]] (''Macaca sylvanus'')

===Nearctic: {{visible anchor|North America}}===
[[File:Bison_latifrons_fossil_buffalo_(Pleistocene;_North_America)_1_(15257877377).jpg|thumb|Long-horned/Giant bison (''Bos latifrons''), fossil bison skeleton (public display, Cincinnati Museum of Natural History & Science, Cincinnati, Ohio, {{wipe|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'']]
[[File:Tetrameryx shuleri.png|thumb|''[[Biology:Tetrameryx|Tetrameryx shuleri]]'' restoration]]
[[File:Catagonus_wagneri_closeup.jpg|thumb|A [[Biology:Chacoan peccary|Chacoan peccary]] (''Catagonus wagneri''), believed to be the closest surviving relative of the extinct ''Platygonus'']]
[[File:Camelops hesternus Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|Western camel (''Camelops hesternus'') reconstruction]]
[[File:Equus_ferus_lambei.jpg|thumb|Life restoration of the Yukon horse (''Equus lambei'')]]
[[File:Mixotoxodon.jpg|thumb|''[[Biology:Mixotoxodon|Mixotoxodon larenis]]'' reconstruction]]
[[File:Smilodon_fatalis_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|[[Biology:Smilodon|Saber-toothed cat]] (''Smilodon fatalis'') reconstruction]]
[[File:Homotherium serum.jpg|thumb|Scimitar cat (''Homotherium serum'') reconstruction]]
[[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 Iberia to Mexico during the Late Pleistocene]]
[[File:Arctodus_simus_Sergiodlarosa.jpg|thumb|[[Biology:Short-faced bear|Short-faced bear]] (''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|Giant beaver (''Castoroides ohioensis'') skeleton displayed at the Field Museum of Natural History, {{wipe|Chicago}}, Illinois, {{wipe|United States}}]]
[[File:Paralouatta marianae skull.jpg|thumb|Skull of ''[[Biology:Paralouatta|Paralouatta marianae]]'', one of the two Cuban members of the extinct Antilles monkeys (Xenotrichini)]]
[[File:WLA hmns Giant ground sloth 2.jpg|thumb|''[[Biology:Eremotherium|Eremotherium laurillardi]]'' skeleton displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science]]
[[File:Nothrotheriops.jpg|thumb|Life restoration of ''[[Biology:Nothrotheriops|Nothrotheriops texanus]]'']]
[[File:Glyptotheriumm.jpg|thumb|''Glyptotherium'' reconstruction]]
[[File:Chendytes_lawi.jpg|thumb|upright|Californian flightless sea duck (''Chendytes lawi'')]]
[[File:Gymnogyps_amplus_skeleton.jpg|thumb|Californian turkey (''Meleagris californica'') and 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 Cuban giant owl (''Ornimegalonyx oteroi''), of Pleistocene Cuba, with the carcass of a large solenodon]]
During the last 60,000 years, including the end of the [[Earth:Last glacial period|last glacial period]], approximately 51 genera of large mammals have become extinct in [[Earth:North America|North America]]. Of these, many genera extinctions can be reliably attributed to a brief interval of 11,500 to 10,000 radiocarbon years before present, shortly following the arrival of the Clovis people in North America {{citation needed|date=March 2020}}. Prominent paleontological sites include Mexico<ref name=":32">{{Cite book|title=Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in AmericasnVolume 1|others=Sanz, Nuria|date=31 December 2015|isbn=9789231001406|volume=1|location=Paris|oclc=1002234186}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wBcxDgAAQBAJ&q=Plyolimbus+baryosteus&pg=PA550|title=The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology|last1=Albarella|first1=Umberto|last2=Rizzetto|first2=Mauro|last3=Russ|first3=Hannah|last4=Viner-Daniels|first4=Sarah|date=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199686476}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Palma-Ramírez|first1=Arturo|last2=Goyenechea|first2=Irene|last3=Castillo-Cerón|first3=Jesús M.|date=2014-12-01|title=Panbiogeography of the Santa María Amajac area, Hidalgo, Mexico|journal=Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad|volume=85|issue=4|pages=1228–1234|doi=10.7550/rmb.44392|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>[https://www.uv.mx/personal/tcarmona/files/2010/08/Arroyo-et-al-2008.pdf Arroyo-et-al-2008]</ref> and Panama, the crossroads of the [[Earth:Great American Interchange|American Interchange]].<ref>[https://azueroearthproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/A.B4000_Pearson_2005_eng.pdf Pearson 2005]</ref> Most other extinctions are poorly constrained in time, though some definitely occurred outside of this narrow interval.<ref>{{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|volume=306|issue=5693|pages=70–75|bibcode=2004Sci...306...70B|doi=10.1126/science.1101476|pmid=15459379|citeseerx=10.1.1.574.332|s2cid=36156087}}</ref> In contrast, only about half a dozen small mammals disappeared during this time. Previous North American extinction pulses had occurred at the end of glaciations, but not with such an ecological imbalance between large mammals and small ones (Moreover, previous extinction pulses were not comparable to the Quaternary extinction event; they involved primarily species replacements within ecological niches, while the latter event resulted in many ecological niches being left unoccupied). Such include the last native North American terror bird (''[[Biology:Titanis|Titanis]]''), rhinoceros (''Aphelops'') and hyena (''[[Biology:Chasmaporthetes|Chasmaporthetes]]''). Human habitation commenced unequivocally approximately 22,000&nbsp;BCE north of the glacier,<ref name=":1" /> and 13,500&nbsp;BCE south,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Waters|first1=Michael R.|last2=Forman|first2=Steven L.|last3=Jennings|first3=Thomas A.|last4=Nordt|first4=Lee C.|last5=Driese|first5=Steven G.|last6=Feinberg|first6=Joshua M.|last7=Keene|first7=Joshua L.|last8=Halligan|first8=Jessi|last9=Lindquist|first9=Anna|date=2011-03-25|title=The Buttermilk Creek Complex and the Origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas|journal=Science|volume=331|issue=6024|pages=1599–1603|doi=10.1126/science.1201855|pmid=21436451|issn=0036-8075|bibcode=2011Sci...331.1599W|s2cid=206531951|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/7e0c5b0ba093748258cdc515ad47e72ee99b3f1d}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/americas/discoveries-challenge-beliefs-on-humans-arrival-in-the-americas.html|title=Discoveries Challenge Beliefs on Humans' Arrival in the Americas|last=Romero|first=Simon|date=2014-03-27|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-09-16|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> however disputed evidence of southern human habitation exists from 130,000&nbsp;BCE and 17,000&nbsp;BCE onwards, described from sites in California and Meadowcroft in Pennsylvania.<ref name=":32" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/mastodons-americas-peopling-migrations-archaeology-science/|title=Humans in California 130,000 Years Ago? Get the Facts|date=2017-04-26|access-date=2017-09-15}}</ref> North American extinctions (noted as herbivores  ('''H''') or carnivores ('''C''')) included:
* Various [[Biology:Bovidae|Bovidae]] spp.
** Most forms of Pleistocene [[Biology:Bison|bison]] (only [[Biology:American bison|''Bison bison'']] in North America, and [[Biology:European bison|''Bison bonasus'']] in Eurasia, survived)
***[[Biology:Bison antiquus|Ancient bison]] (''Bison antiquus'') ('''H''')
*** [[Biology:Bison latifrons|Long-horned/Giant bison]] (''Bison latifrons'') ('''H''')
*** [[Biology:Steppe bison|Steppe bison]] (''Bison priscus'') ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Bison occidentalis|Bison occidentalis]]'' ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Wild yak|Wild yak]] (''Bos mutus''; extirpated)<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.12.011|title=Pleistocene megafauna from eastern Beringia: Paleoecological and paleoenvironmental interpretations of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope and radiocarbon records|url=https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.710.5357&rep=rep1&type=pdf|journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology|volume=261|issue=1–2|pages=30–46|year=2008|last1=Fox-Dobbs|first1=Kena|last2=Leonard|first2=Jennifer A.|last3=Koch|first3=Paul L.|bibcode=2008PPP...261...30F|citeseerx=10.1.1.710.5357}}</ref> ('''H''')
** Several members of ''[[Biology:Caprinae|Caprinae]]'' (the [[Biology:Muskox|muskox]] survived)
*** [[Biology:Praeovibos priscus|Giant muskox]] (''Praeovibos priscus'') ('''H''') 
*** Shrub-ox (''Euceratherium collinum'') ('''H''')
*** Harlan's muskox (''Bootherium bombifrons'') ('''H''')
*** [[Biology:Soergelia mayfieldi|Soergel's ox]] (''Soergelia mayfieldi'') ('''H''')
*** [[Biology:Harrington's mountain goat|Harrington's mountain goat]] (''Oreamnos harringtoni''; smaller and more southern distribution than its surviving relative) ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Saiga|Saiga antelope]] (''Saiga tatarica''; extirpated) ('''H''')
* Stag-moose (''Cervalces scotti'') ('''H''')
* [[Biology:American mountain deer|American mountain deer]] (''Odocoileus lucasi'') ('''H''')
* ''[[Biology:Torontoceros|Torontoceros hypnogeos]]'' ('''H''')
* Various [[Biology:Antilocapridae|Antilocapridae]] genera (pronghorns survived)
** [[Biology:Capromeryx minor|''Capromeryx'']] ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Hayoceros|Hayoceros]]'' ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Stockoceros|Stockoceros]]'' ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Tetrameryx|Tetrameryx]]'' ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Antilocapra pacifica|Pacific pronghorn]] (''Antilocapra pacifica'') ('''H''')
* Several peccary (Tayassuidae) spp.
**Flat-headed peccary (''Platygonus'') ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Long-nosed peccary|Long-nosed peccary]] (''Mylohyus'') ('''H''')
**Collared peccary (''Dicotyles tajacu''; extirpated, range semi-recolonised) ('''H''') (''Muknalia minimus'' is a junior synonym)
* Various members of [[Biology:Camelidae|Camelidae]]
** [[Biology:Camelops|Western camel]] (''Camelops hesternus'') ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Hemiauchenia|Stilt legged llamas]] (''Hemiauchenia'' ssp.) ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Palaeolama|Stout legged llamas]] (''Palaeolama'' ssp.) ('''H''')
* All native forms of [[Biology:Equidae|Equidae]]
** ''[[Biology:Equus alaskae|Equus alaskae]]'' ('''H''')
** ''Equus cedralensis''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Teresa Alberdi, Arroyo-Cabrales, Marín-Leyva, Polaco|first=María, Joaquín, Alejandro H., and Oscar J.|date=April 28, 2014|title=Study of Cedral Horses and their place in the Mexican Quaternary|url=http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/rmcg/v31n2/v31n2a6.pdf|journal=Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas}}</ref> ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Equus conversidens|Mexican horse]] (''Equus conversidens'') ('''H''')
** ''Equus complicatus''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=46261|title=Fossilworks: Equus complicatus|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-04-27}}</ref> ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Equus fraternus|Equus fraternus]]'' ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Equus giganteus|Giant horse]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=46273|title=Fossilworks: Equus giganteus|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-04-27}}</ref> ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Onager|Onager]] (''Equus hemionus''; extirpated)<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Guthrie|first1=R. Dale|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KZnxAQAAQBAJ&q=equus+hemionus+beringia&pg=PA256|title=Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe|date=November 2013|publisher=University of Chicago Press|publication-date=November 1, 2013|pages=338|isbn=9780226159713}}</ref> ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Kiang|Kiang]] (''Equus kiang''; extirpated)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=162072|title=Fossilworks: Equus (Asinus) kiang|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-07-12}}</ref> ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Equus lambei|Yukon horse]] (''Equus lambei'') ('''H''')
** ''Equus mexicanus''<ref name=":422">{{Cite journal|last=Teresa Alberdi, Arroyo-Cabrales, Marín-Leyva, Alberdi Polaco|first=María, Joaquín, Alejandro H., and Oscar J.|date=April 28, 2014|title=Study of Cedral Horses and their place in the Mexican Quaternary|url=http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/rmcg/v31n2/v31n2a6.pdf|journal=Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas}}</ref> ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Equus niobrarensis|Niobrara horse]] (''Equus niobrarensis'') ('''H''')
** Pacific horse (''Equus pacificus'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=46295|title=Fossilworks: Equus pacificus|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-04-27}}</ref> ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Equus occidentalis|Western horse]] (''Equus occidentalis'') ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Equus semiplicatus|Equus semiplicatus]]'' ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Hagerman horse|Hagerman horse]] (''Equus simplicidens'') ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Equus scotti|Scott's horse]] (''Equus scotti'') ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Haringtonhippus|Stilt-legged horse]] (''Haringtonhippus francisci'' / ''Equus francisci''; may be a synonym of Mexican horse) ('''H''')
* All members of North American [[Biology:Tapir|tapir]] (''[[Biology:Tapirus|Tapirus]]''; four species)
** California tapir (''Tapirus californicus'') ('''H''')
** Cope's tapir (''Tapirus copei'') ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Tapirus merriami|Merriam's tapir]] (''Tapirus merriami'') ('''H''')
** Vero tapir (''Tapirus veroensis'') ('''H''')
* ''[[Biology:Mixotoxodon|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=2016-01-23|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|hdl=1808/13587|s2cid=53601518|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |year=2001 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230820008|title=A New Occurrence of Toxodonts in the Pleistocene of México|website=Current Research in the Pleistocene |volume=28 |pages=29–30|access-date=2016-01-23}}</ref> ('''H''')
* Several [[Biology:Felidae|Felidae]] spp.
** [[Biology:Smilodon|North American saber-toothed cat]] (''Smilodon fatalis'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Homotherium|North American scimitar cat]] (''Homotherium serum'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:American cheetah|American cheetah]] (''Miracinonyx''; not true cheetah)
*** ''Miracinonyx inexpectatus'' ('''C''')
*** ''Miracinonyx trumani'' ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Cougar|Cougar]] (''Puma concolor''; megafaunal ecomorph extirpated from North America, South American populations recolonised former range) ('''C''')
** Jaguarundi (''Herpailurus yagouaroundi''; extirpated, range semi-recolonised) ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Margay|Margay]] (''Leopardus weidii''; extirpated) ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Ocelot|Ocelot]] (''Leopardus pardalis''; extirpated, range marginally recolonised) ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Eurasian lynx|Eurasian lynx]] (''Lynx lynx''; extirpated)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=160980|title=Fossilworks: Lynx lynx|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-06-21}}</ref> ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Panthera onca augusta|Pleistocene North American jaguar]] (''Panthera onca augusta''; range semi-recolonised by other subspecies) ('''C''')
** [[Biology:American lion|American lion]] (''Panthera atrox''; endemic to North America after 340,000 BP) ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Panthera spelaea|Eurasian cave lion]] (''Panthera spelaea''; present only as far as modern day [[Earth:Yukon|Yukon]]) ('''C''')
*[[Biology:Enhydra macrodonta|Californian sea otter]] (''Enhydra macrodonta'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=46079|title=Fossilworks: Enhydra macrodonta|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2017-08-27}}</ref> ('''C''')
*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''')
*[[Biology:Dire wolf|Dire wolf]] (''Aenocyon dirus'') ('''C''')
*[[Biology:Pleistocene coyote|Pleistocene coyote]] (''Canis latrans orcutti'') ('''C''')
* [[Biology:Megafaunal wolf|Megafaunal wolf]] e.g. 
** [[Biology:Beringian wolf|Beringian wolf]] (''Canis lupus'' ssp.) ('''C''')
*[[Biology:Dhole|Dhole]] (''Cuon alpinus''; extirpated) ('''C''')
* ''Protocyon troglodytes''<ref name=":9" /> ('''C''')
*[[Biology:Brachyprotoma obtusata|Short-faced skunk]] (''Brachyprotoma obtusata'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Youngman|first=Phillip M.|date=1986-03-01|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''')
* Various bear (Ursidae) spp.
** Short-faced bear (''Arctodus'') spp.
*** ''Arctodus simus'' ('''C''')
*** ''Arctodus pristinus'' ('''C''')
** Florida spectacled bear (''Tremarctos floridanus'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Arctotherium|South American short-faced bear]] (''Arctotherium wingei'')<ref name=":32" /><ref name=":9">{{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=2019-05-31|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''')
** [[Biology:Ursus maritimus tyrannus|Giant polar bear]] (''Ursus maritimus tyrannus''; a possible inhabitant) ('''C''')
* [[Biology:Pristine mustached bat|Pristine mustached bat]] (''Pteronotus'' (''Phyllodia'') ''pristinus'') ('''C''')
* [[Biology:Stock's vampire bat|Stock's vampire bat]] (''Desmodus stocki'') ('''C''') 
* All native spp. of [[Biology:Proboscidea|Proboscidea]]
** American mastodon (''Mammut americanum'') ('''H''')
** Pacific mastodon (''Mammut pacificus'') ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Gomphotheriidae|Gomphotheriidae]] spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Cuvieronius|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=2014-07-29|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''')
*** ''[[Biology:Stegomastodon|Stegomastodon]]''<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Alberdi|first1=María Teresa|last2=Juárez-Woo|first2=Javier|last3=Polaco|first3=Oscar J.|last4=Arroyo-Cabrales|first4=Joaquín|date=2009-02-01|title=Description of the most complete skeleton of Stegomastodon (Mammalia, Gomphotheriidae) recorded for the Mexican Late Pleistocene|journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen|volume=251|issue=2|pages=239–255|doi=10.1127/0077-7749/2009/0251-0239}}</ref> ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Mammoth|Mammoth]] (''Mammuthus'') spp.
*** [[Biology:Columbian mammoth|Columbian mammoth]] (''Mammuthus columbi'') ('''H''')
*** [[Biology:Pygmy mammoth|Pygmy mammoth]] (''Mammuthus exilis'') ('''H''')
*** [[Biology:Woolly mammoth|Woolly mammoth]] (''Mammuthus primigenius'') ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Steller's sea cow|Steller's sea cow]] (''Hydrodamalis gigas''; extirpated in North America) ('''H''')
* Californian beaver (''Castor'' cf. ''californicus'')<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbQwDwAAQBAJ&q=giant+anteater+late+pleistocene&pg=PA68|title=A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert|last1=Phillips|first1=Steven John|last2=Comus|first2=Patricia Wentworth|last3=Dimmitt|first3=Mark Alan|last4=Brewer|first4=Linda M.|date=2015-11-17|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=9780520287471}}</ref> ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Castoroides|Giant beaver]] (''Castoroides'') spp. 
** ''[[Biology:Castoroides|Castoroides ohioensis]]'' ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Castoroides|Castoroides leiseyorum]]'' ('''H''')
* ''[[Biology:Neochoerus|Neochoerus]]'' spp. e.g. 
** [[Biology:Neochoerus pinckneyi|Pinckney's capybara]] (''Neochoerus pinckneyi'') ('''H''')
* Klein's porcupine (''Erethizon kleini'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=46322|title=Fossilworks: Erethizon kleini|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2017-05-18}}</ref> ('''H''')
* All [[Biology:Giant hutia|giant hutia]] (Heptaxodontidae) spp.
** [[Biology:Blunt-toothed giant hutia|Blunt-toothed giant hutia]] (''Amblyrhiza inundata''; could grow as large as an [[Biology:American black bear|American black bear]]) ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Plate-toothed giant hutia|Plate-toothed giant hutia]] (''Elasmodontomys obliquus'') ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Twisted-toothed mouse|Twisted-toothed mouse]] (''Quemisia gravis'') ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Osborn's key mouse|Osborn's key mouse]] (''Clidomys osborn's'') ('''H''')
** ''Xaymaca fulvopulvis'' ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Aztlanolagus|Aztlan rabbit]] (''Aztlanolagus'' sp.) ('''H''')
* Webb's marsh rabbit (''Sylvilagus webbi'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=51920|title=Fossilworks: Sylvilagus webbi|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2017-05-18}}</ref> ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Giant pika|Giant pika]] (''Ochotona whartoni'') ('''H''')
* All members of the [[Biology:Xenotrichini|Antilles monkeys]] (''Xenotrichini'')
** [[Biology:Jamaican monkey|Jamaican monkey]] (''Xenothrix mcgregori'') ('''H''')
** Cuban monkey (''Paralouatta) ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Hispaniola monkey|Hispaniola monkey]] (''Antillothrix bernensis'') ('''H''')
** ''Insulacebus toussaintiana'' ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Giant anteater|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|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vW_aBwAAQBAJ&q=giant+anteater+late+pleistocene+honduras&pg=PA119|title=Neogene Mammals: Bulletin 44|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 [[Biology:Ground sloth|ground sloth]] spp.
** ''[[Biology:Eremotherium|Eremotherium]]'' ([[Biology:Megatheriidae|megatheriid]] ground sloth) ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Nothrotheriops|Nothrotheriops]]'' ([[Biology:Nothrotheriidae|nothrotheriid]] ground sloth) ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Megalonychidae|Megalonychid]] ground sloth spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Megalonyx|Megalonyx]]'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Nohochichak|Nohochichak]]''<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=McDonald|first1=H. Gregory|last2=Chatters|first2=James C.|last3=Gaudin|first3=Timothy J.|date=2017-05-04|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|s2cid=90414512|issn=0272-4634}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ice-age-fossils-underwater-cave-bears-humans-science/|title=Ice Age Predators Found Alongside Oldest Human in Americas|date=2017-08-25|access-date=2017-10-13}}</ref> ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Xibalbaonyx|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=2017-06-01|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|s2cid=134188352|issn=0031-0220}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ancient-giant-sloth-new-species-mexico-cave-spd/|title=Ancient Giant Sloth Fossil Found in Underwater Cave|date=2017-08-18|access-date=2017-10-13}}</ref>  ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Megalocnidae|Megalocnid]] Greater Antillean dwarf ground sloth spp. (some were probably at least partly arboreal)
*** ''[[Biology:Acratocnus|Acratocnus]]'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Habanocnus|Habanocnus]]'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Megalocnus|Megalocnus]]'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Miocnus|Miocnus]]'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Neocnus|Neocnus]]'' ('''H''')
** [[Biology:Mylodontidae|Mylodontid]] ground sloth spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Paramylodon|Paramylodon]]'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Glossotherium|Glossotherium]]'' ('''H''')
* All members of Glyptodontidae
** ''[[Biology:Glyptotherium|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=9780595229888}}</ref> ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Pachyarmatherium|Pachyarmatherium]]'' ('''H''')
* [[Biology: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=2013-03-18|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=9780806189215}}</ref> ('''H''')
* All [[Biology:Pampatheriidae|Pampatheriidae]] spp. e.g. 
** ''[[Biology:Holmesina|Holmesina]]'' ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Bermuda flightless duck|Bermuda flightless duck]] (''Anas pachyscelus'') ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Chendytes|Californian flightless sea duck]] (''Chendytes lawi'') ('''C''')
* [[Biology:Stiff-tailed duck|Mexican stiff-tailed duck]] (''Oxyura zapatima'')<ref name=":32" /> ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Turkey (bird)|Turkey]] (''Meleagris'') spp.
** [[Biology:Californian turkey|Californian turkey]] (''Meleagris californica'') ('''H''')
** ''Meleagris crassipes''<ref name=":32" /> ('''H''')
* Various [[Biology:Gruiformes|Gruiformes]] spp.
** All [[Biology:Nesotrochis|cave rail]] (''Nesotrochis'') spp. e.g. 
*** [[Biology:Antillean cave rail|Antillean cave rail]] (''Nesotrochis debooyi'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Barbados rail|Barbados rail]] ([[Biology:Incertae sedis|Incertae sedis]]) ('''C''')
** Cuban flightless crane (''Antigone cubensis'') ('''H''')
** La Brea crane (''Grus pagei'') ('''H''')
* Various [[Biology:Flamingo|flamingo]] (Phoenicopteridae) spp.
** [[Biology:Minute flamingo|Minute flamingo]] (''Phoenicopterus minutus'')<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biolib.cz/en/taxon/id476718/|title=BioLib: Biological library|last=ondrej.zicha(at)gmail.com|first=Ondrej Zicha|website=www.biolib.cz|access-date=2016-04-12}}</ref> ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Cope's flamingo|Cope's flamingo]] (''Phoenicopterus copei'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=335545|title=Fossilworks: Phoenicopterus copei|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-04-12}}</ref> ('''C''')
* [[Biology:Dow's puffin|Dow's puffin]] (''Fratercula dowi'') ('''C''')
* Pleistocene Mexican [[Biology:Loon|diver]] spp.
**''Plyolimbus baryosteus'' ('''C''')
** ''[[Biology:Podiceps|Podiceps]]'' spp.
***''Podiceps parvus''<ref name=":32" /> ('''C''')
* [[Biology:Ciconia maltha|La Brea/Asphalt stork]] (''Ciconia maltha'')<ref name=":32" /> ('''C''')
* Wetmore's stork (''Mycteria wetmorei'')<ref name=":32" /> ('''C''')
* Pleistocene Mexican [[Biology:Cormorant|cormorant]]s spp. (genus ''[[Biology:Phalacrocorax|Phalacrocorax]]'')<ref name=":32" />
**''Phalacrocorax goletensis'' ('''C''')
** ''Phalacrocorax chapalensis'' ('''C''')
* [[Biology:Jamaican ibis|Jamaican ibis]] (''Xenicibis xympithecus'') ('''C''')
* All remaining [[Biology:Teratornithidae|teratorn]] (Teratornithidae) spp.
**[[Biology:Aiolornis|''Aiolornis incredibilis'']] ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Cathartornis|''Cathartornis gracilis'']] ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Oscaravis|''Oscaravis olsoni'']] ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Teratornis|''Teratornis merriami'']] ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Teratornis|''Teratornis woodburnensis'']] ('''C''')
* Several New World vultures (Cathartidae) spp.
** [[Biology:Black vulture|Pleistocene black vulture]] (''Coragyps occidentalis'' ssp.) ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Gymnogyps amplus|Megafaunal Californian condor]] (''Gymnogyps amplus'') ('''C''')
** Clark's condor (''Breagyps clarki'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Gymnogyps varonai|Cuban condor]] (''Gymnogyps varonai'') ('''C''')
* Several [[Biology:Accipitridae|Accipitridae]] spp.
** American neophrone vulture (''Neophrontops americanus'')<ref name=":32" /><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=978-0300078619}}</ref> ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Woodward's eagle|Woodward's eagle]] (''Amplibuteo woodwardi'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Buteogallus borrasi|Cuban great hawk]] (''Buteogallus borrasi'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Buteogallus daggetti|Daggett's eagle]] (''Buteogallus daggetti'') ('''C''')
** Fragile eagle (''Buteogallus fragilis'') ('''C''')
** 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=9780520256491}}</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=2009-05-28|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780199535095}}</ref> ('''C''')
** Errant eagle (''Neogyps errans'') ('''C''')
** Grinnell's crested eagle (''Spizaetus grinnelli'')<ref name=":32" /> ('''C''')
** Willett's hawk-eagle (''Spizaetus willetti'')<ref name=":32" /> ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Titanohierax|Caribbean titan hawk]] (''Titanohierax'') ('''C''')
* Several [[Biology:Owl|owl]] (Strigiformes) spp.
** [[Biology:Asphaltoglaux|Brea miniature owl]] (''Asphaltoglaux'') ('''C''')
** Kurochkin's pygmy owl (''Glaucidium kurochkini'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Oraristrix|Brea owl]] (''Oraristix brea'') ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Ornimegalonyx|Cuban giant owl]] (''Ornimegalonyx'') ('''C''')
* [[Biology:Bermuda flicker|Bermuda flicker]] (''Colaptes oceanicus'') ('''C''')
* Several [[Biology:Caracara (subfamily)|caracara]] (Caracarinae) spp.
** Bahaman terrestrial caracara (''[[Biology:Caracara (genus)|Caracara]]'' sp.) ('''C''')
** Puerto Rican terrestrial caracara (''[[Biology:Caracara (genus)|Caracara]]'' sp.) ('''C''')
** [[Biology:Jamaican caracara|Jamaican caracara]] (''Carcara tellustris'') ('''C''')
** Cuban caracara (''[[Biology:Milvago|Milvago]]'' sp.) ('''C''')
** Hispaniolan caracara (''[[Biology:Milvago|Milvago]]'' sp.) ('''C''')
* Saint Croix macaw (''Ara autocthones'') ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Rhynchopsitta phillipsi|Mexican thick-billed parrot]] (''Rhynchopsitta phillipsi'')<ref name=":32" /> ('''H''')
* [[Biology:Puerto Rican crow|Puerto Rican crow]] (''Corvus pumilis'') ('''C''')
* Several giant tortoise spp. 
** ''[[Biology:Hesperotestudo|Hesperotestudo]]'' ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Gopherus|Gopherus]]'' spp.
*** ''Gopherus donlaloi'' ('''H''')
** ''[[Biology:Chelonoidis|Chelonoidis]]'' spp.
*** ''Chelonoidis marcanoi'' ('''H''')
*** ''[[Biology:Chelonoidis alburyorum|Chelonoidis alburyorum]]'' ('''H''')

The survivors are in some ways as significant as the losses: [[Biology:Bison|bison]] ('''H'''), grey wolf ('''C'''), [[Biology:Lynx|lynx]] ('''C'''), [[Biology:Grizzly bear|grizzly bear]] ('''C'''), [[Biology:American black bear|American black bear]] ('''C'''), [[Biology:Deer|deer]] (e.g. caribou, moose, [[Biology:Elk|wapiti (elk)]], ''[[Biology:Odocoileus|Odocoileus]]'' spp.) ('''H'''), pronghorn ('''H'''), white-lipped peccary ('''H'''), [[Biology:Muskox|muskox]] ('''H'''), [[Biology:Bighorn sheep|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 [[Biology:Cougar|cougar]] ('''C'''), [[Biology:Jaguar|jaguar]] ('''C'''), [[Biology:Giant anteater|giant anteater]] ('''C'''), collared peccary ('''H'''), [[Biology:Ocelot|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, RDE|publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers|year=1999|isbn=978-0-306-46092-0}}</ref> Pronghorns are the second-fastest land mammal (after the [[Biology:Cheetah|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=0}}</ref><ref name="ScottandCox200822">{{cite book|title=Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of Western and Southern North America|author=Scott, E., 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., R.E. Weems, and 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 name="Shapiro, B., et al. 2004 1561–156522">{{cite journal|author=Shapiro, B.|display-authors=0|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., L.V. Hills, and 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|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/b466a6d5391345bf6966a57bd326c8f433c7a59f}}</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. 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.

The culture that has been connected with the wave of extinctions in North America is the paleo-American culture associated with the Clovis people (''q.v.''), who were thought to use 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 [[Software:Climate change scenario|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.

===Neotropic: South America===
[[File:Hippidion_principale_skull.JPG|thumb|Fossil skull of ''Hippidion'', a genus of horse native to South America which went extinct in the early Holocene (6,000 BCE).]]
[[File:Macrauchenia (reconstruction).jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of a ''Macrauchenia'' mother and calf, from Pleistocene South America.]]
[[File:Charles_Darwin_200_year_exhibition_Brazil_skull.jpg|thumb|A ''Toxodon'' skull in an exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, Esplanada dos Ministérios, Brasília]]
[[File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (Aenocyon dirus).jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the Dire wolf (''Aeoncyon dirus)'' ]]
[[File:Arctotherium.jpg|thumb|Life restoration of ''Arctotherium bonariense.'']]
[[File:Cuvieronius.jpg|thumb|''Cuvieronius'' reconstruction]]
[[File:Megatherum_DB.jpg|thumb|upright|An illustration of ''[[Biology:Megatherium|Megatherium]]''.]]
[[File:Doedicurus_BW.jpg|thumb|''Doedicurus clavicaudatus'' reconstruction, distributed in the temperate savannah and woodland of South America.]]
[[File:Panochthus_frenzelianus.jpg|thumb|Fossil reconstruction of ''[[Biology:Panochthus|Panochthus frenzelianus]]'' with metal model.]]
[[File:Procariama.jpg|thumb|The disputed Late Pleistocene remains of a [[Biology:Phorusrhacidae|phorusrhacid]] in Uruguay are similar in size to the above Pliocene age ''Procariama simplex''.]]
The [[Biology:Neotropical realm|Neotropical realm]] was affected by the fact that [[Earth:South America|South America]] had been isolated as an island continent for many millions of years, and had a wide range of fauna found nowhere else, although many of them became extinct during the [[Earth:Great American Interchange|Great American Interchange]] about 3 million years ago, such as the ''[[Biology:Sparassodonta|Sparassodonta]]'' family. Those that survived the interchange included the [[Biology:Ground sloth|ground sloth]]s, glyptodonts, litopterns, pampatheres, [[Biology:Phorusrhacidae|phorusrhacids]] (terror birds) and notoungulates; all managed to extend their range to North America.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2sZBgAAQBAJ&q=Doedicurus+central+america&pg=PA439|title=A Neotropical Companion: An Introduction to the Animals, Plants, and Ecosystems of the New World Tropics. Illustrated by Andrea S. LeJeune|last=Kricher|first=John|date=2015-02-18|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400866915}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jG_TV-akte8C&q=giant+anteater+late+pleistocene&pg=PA109|title=Central America: A Natural and Cultural History|last=Coates|first=Anthony George|date=1999|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300080650}}</ref> <ref>https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/files/7513/9447/0046/bulletin-Mcdonaldlowres.pdf</ref> In the Pleistocene, South America remained largely unglaciated except for increased mountain glaciation in the [[Place:Andes|Andes]], which had a two-fold effect- there was a faunal divide between the Andes,<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|jstor=4523312|journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology|volume=10|issue=2|pages=158–169|doi=10.1080/02724634.1990.10011804}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=MacFadden|first=Bruce J.|date=2013-03-20|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|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0059277|issn=1932-6203|pmc=3603859|pmid=23527150|page=e59277|bibcode=2013PLoSO...859277M|doi-access=free}}</ref> and the colder, arid interior resulted in the advance of temperate lowland woodland, tropical savanna and desert at the expense of rainforest.<ref name="Jackson">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eJgcnw5p6qEC&q=Doedicurus+central+america&pg=PA344|title=Evolution and Environment in Tropical America|last1=Jackson|first1=Jeremy B. C.|last2=Budd|first2=Ann F.|last3=Coates|first3=Anthony G.|date=1996-12-15|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226389448}}</ref><ref name="Vizcaíno 27–38">{{Cite journal|last1=Vizcaíno|first1=Sergio F.|last2=Bargo|first2=M. Susana|date=2014-12-01|title=Loss of Ancient Diversity of Xenarthrans and the Value of Protecting Extant Armadillos, Sloths and Anteaters|journal=Edentata|volume=15|issue=1|pages=27–38|doi=10.5537/020.015.0111|issn=1413-4411|url=http://naturalis.fcnym.unlp.edu.ar/repositorio/_documentos/sipcyt/bfa005306.pdf|hdl=11336/33323|s2cid=84814335}}</ref><ref name=":032">{{cite journal|doi=10.1127/0077-7749/2010/0116 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233519649|title=On the presence of ''Glyptotherium'' in the Late Pleistocene of Northeastern Brazil, and the status of "''Glyptodon''" and "''Chlamydotherium''". Paleobiogeographic implications|year=2010|last1=Oliveira|first1=Édison V.|last2=Porpino|first2=Kleberson O.|last3=Barreto|first3=Alcina F.|journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen|volume=258|issue=3|pages=353–363}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.jaridenv.2006.01.007|bibcode=2006JArEn..66..498O|title=Paleoenvironmental evolution of southern South America during the Cenozoic|year=2006|last1=Ortiz-Jaureguizar|first1=E.|last2=Cladera|first2=G.A.|journal=Journal of Arid Environments|volume=66|issue=3|pages=498–532}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Almeida|first1=Rocha-dos-Santos, Bruno Cesar de|last2=Scherer|first2=Carolina Saldanha|last3=Avilla|first3=Leonardo dos Santos|date=2017|title=fossil Camelidae (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla) from the Gruta do Urso cave, northern Brazil|url=http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201700082560|journal=Quaternary International|volume=436|pages=181–191|language=en|issn=1040-6182|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2017.01.025|bibcode=2017QuInt.436..181R}}</ref> Within these open environments, megafauna diversity was extremely dense, with over 40 genera recorded from the Guerrero member of Luján Formation alone.<ref>{{Cite book|title=American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene|last1=Cione|first1=Alberto L.|last2=Tonni|first2=Eduardo P.|last3=Soibelzon|first3=Leopoldo|date=2009|publisher=Springer, Dordrecht|pages=125–144|doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_7|chapter = Did Humans Cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mammalian Extinctions in South America in a Context of Shrinking Open Areas?|series = Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology|isbn = 978-1-4020-8792-9|hdl = 10915/5370}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSTnzG6yetsC&q=Propaopus&pg=PT7768|title=Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science|last1=Elias|first1=Scott|last2=Mock|first2=Cary|date=2013-03-25|publisher=Newnes|isbn=9780444536426}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=exmtOsvSKj4C&q=Propaopus&pg=PA117|title=Pré-história do Nordeste do Brasil|last=Martin|first=Gabriela|date=1997|publisher=Editora Universitária UFPE|isbn=9788573150834|language=pt}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Figueroa|first=Natalia|date=2016|title=Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinctions in South America: Chronology, environmental changes and human impacts at regional scales|url=http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/VillavicencioFigueroa_berkeley_0028E_16754.pdf|journal=University of California, Berkeley}}</ref> Ultimately, by the [[Earth:Holocene|mid-Holocene]], all the preeminent genera of megafauna became extinct- the last specimens of ''[[Biology:Doedicurus|Doedicurus]]'' and ''[[Biology:Toxodon|Toxodon]]'' have been dated to [[History:5th millennium BC|4,555&nbsp;BCE]] and [[History:30th century BC|3,000&nbsp;BCE]] respectively.<ref name="Turvey2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mbU-F42JU1AC&q=Propaopus&pg=PA349|title=Holocene Extinctions|last=Turvey|first=Samuel T.|date=2009-05-28|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780191579981}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Q-MY4-nlwwC&q=Doedicurus+central+america&pg=PA122|title=The Physical Geography of South America|last1=Veblen|first1=Thomas T.|last2=Young|first2=Kenneth R.|last3=Orme|first3=Antony R.|date=2015-12-01|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198031840}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hubbe|first1=A.|last2=Hubbe|first2=M.|last3=Neves|first3=W.|date=2007-09-01|title=Early Holocene survival of megafauna in South America|journal=Journal of Biogeography|volume=34|issue=9|pages=1642–1646|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2699.2007.01744.x|issn=1365-2699|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Jackson"/> Their smaller relatives remain, including [[Biology:Anteater|anteater]]s, [[Biology:Sloth|tree sloths]], [[Biology:Armadillo|armadillo]]s; [[Biology:Ameridelphia|New World marsupials]]: [[Biology:Opossum|opossum]]s, [[Biology:Shrew opossum|shrew opossum]]s, and the [[Biology:Monito del monte|monito del monte]] (actually more related to [[Biology:Australidelphia|Australian marsupials]]).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkLjBwAAQBAJ&q=Propaopus&pg=PA383|title=Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences|last1=MacPhee|first1=Ross D. E.|last2=SUES|first2=HANS-DIETER|date=2013-11-09|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9781475752021}}</ref> Intense human habitation was established circa 11,000&nbsp;BCE, however partly disputed evidence of pre-clovis habitation occurs since 46,000&nbsp;BCE and 20,000&nbsp;BCE, such as at the Serra da Capivara National Park (Brazil) and Monte Verde (Chile) sites.<ref name=":32" /><ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Borrero|first=Luis Alberto|date=2016-01-02|title=Ambiguity and Debates on the Early Peopling of South America|journal=PaleoAmerica|volume=2|issue=1|pages=11–21|doi=10.1080/20555563.2015.1136498|issn=2055-5563|hdl=11336/43075|s2cid=131330906}}</ref> Today the largest land mammals remaining in South America are the wild camels of the ''[[Biology:Lamini|Lamini]]'' group, such as the guanacos and vicuñas, and the genus ''[[Biology:Tapir|Tapirus]]'', of which [[Biology:Baird's tapir|Baird's tapir]] can reach up to 400&nbsp;kg. Other notable surviving large fauna are peccaries, marsh deer (''[[Biology:Capreolinae|Capreolinae]]''), [[Biology:Giant anteater|giant anteater]]s, [[Biology:Spectacled bear|spectacled bear]]s, [[Biology:Maned wolf|maned wolves]], [[Biology:Cougar|pumas]], [[Biology:Ocelot|ocelot]]s, [[Biology:Jaguar|jaguar]]s, [[Biology:Rhea (bird)|rheas]], [[Biology:Emerald tree boa|emerald tree boa]]s, [[Biology:Boa constrictor|boa constrictor]]s, [[Biology:Anaconda|anaconda]]s, [[Biology:American crocodile|American crocodile]]s, [[Biology:Caimaninae|caimans]], and giant rodents such as capybaras.

* Several [[Biology:Cervidae|Cervidae]] spp.
** ''[[Biology:Morenelaphus|Morenelaphus]]''
** ''[[Biology:Antifer|Antifer]]''
** ''Agalmaceros blicki''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=247645|title=Fossilworks: Agalmaceros|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=247647|title=Fossilworks: Agalmaceros blicki|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-01-24}}</ref>
** ''[[Biology:Odocoileus|Odocoileus]] salinae''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=247644|title=Fossilworks: Odocoileus salinae|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2017-09-01}}</ref><ref name="Turvey2"/>
* Various [[Biology:Camelidae|Camelidae]] spp.
** ''[[Biology:Eulamaops|Eulamaops]]''
** Stilt legged llama ''[[Biology:Hemiauchenia|Hemiauchenia]]''
** Stout legged llama ''[[Biology:Palaeolama|Palaeolama]]''
* All Pleistocene wild horse genera ([[Biology:Equidae|Equidae]])
** [[Biology:Equus (genus)|''Equus'']] (''[[Biology:Amerhippus|Amerhippus]]'')<ref name=":4" /><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}}</ref><ref name=":12" />
*** ''Equus andium''
*** ''Equus insulatus''
*** ''Equus neogeus''
** ''[[Biology:Hippidion|Hippidion]]'' (''Onohippidium'')<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":12" /><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=2016-05-15|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9781421419107}}</ref>
*** ''Hippidion devillei''
*** ''Hippidion principale''
*** ''Hippidion saldiasi''
* All remaining [[Biology:Meridiungulata|Meridiungulata]] genera
** [[Biology:Litopterna|Litopterna]] spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Macrauchenia|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=2017-09-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=43498|title=Fossilworks: Macraucheniopsis|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2017-09-02}}</ref>
*** [[Biology:Proterotheriidae|Proterotheriidae]] spp. e.g. 
**** (''[[Biology: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=2017-03-16|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}}</ref>
*** ''[[Biology:Xenorhinotherium|Xenorhinotherium]]''
** [[Biology:Notoungulata|Notoungulata]] spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Hegetotheriidae|Hegetotheriidae]] spp.''
*** ''[[Biology:Mesotheriidae|Mesotheriidae]] spp.''
*** ''[[Biology:Mixotoxodon|Mixotoxodon]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Toxodon|Toxodon]]''
* Several [[Biology:Felidae|Felidae]] spp.
** [[Biology:Saber-toothed cat|Saber-toothed cat]] (''Smilodon'') spp.<ref name="Kurtén 1990 158–169"/>
*** [[Biology:Smilodon fatalis|North American saber-toothed cat]] (''Smilodon fatalis'')
*** South American saber-toothed cat (''Smilodon populator'')
** Pleistocene South American jaguar (''[[Earth:Panthera onca mesembrina|Panthera onca mesembrina]]'')
* Dire wolf (''[[Biology:Dire wolf|Aenocyon dirus]]'')
* Nehring's wolf (''[[Biology:Canis nehringi|Canis nehringi]]'')
* ''[[Biology:Protocyon|Protocyon]]'' spp.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Prevosti|first1=F. J.|last2=Tonni|first2=E. P.|last3=Bidegain|first3=J. C.|date=2009-12-01|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}}</ref>
** ''Protocyon trogolodytes'' 
** ''Protocyon tarijense''
* ''[[Biology:Dusicyon avus|Dusicyon avus]]'' 
* Pleistocene bush dog (''[[Biology:Speothos pacivorus|Speothos pacivorus]]'')
* South American short-faced bear (''[[Biology:Arctotherium|Arctotherium]]'' spp.)
** ''Arctotherium bonairense''
** ''Arctotherium tarijense''
** ''Arctotherium wingei''
* Giant vampire bat (''[[Biology:Desmodus draculae|Desmodus draculae]]'')
* All remaining Gomphotheridae spp.
** ''[[Biology:Cuvieronius|Cuvieronius]]''
** ''[[Biology:Notiomastodon|Notiomastodon/Haplomastodon]]''
* ''[[Biology:Neochoerus|Neochoerus]]''
* All remaining [[Biology:Ground sloth|ground sloth]] genera
** [[Biology:Megatheriidae|Megatheriidae]] spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Eremotherium|Eremotherium]]''
*** [[Biology:Megatherium|Giant ground sloth]]
** [[Biology:Nothrotheriidae|Nothrotheriidae]] spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Nothropus|Nothropus]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Nothrotherium|Nothrotherium]]''
** [[Biology:Megalonychidae|Megalonychidae]] spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Ahytherium|Ahytherium]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Australonyx|Australonyx]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Diabolotherium|Diabolotherium]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Megistonyx|Megistonyx]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Proplatyarthrus|Proplatyarthrus]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Valgipes|Valgipes]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=137597|title=Fossilworks: Valgipes|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-01-24}}</ref>
** [[Biology:Mylodontidae|Mylodontidae]] spp.
*** ''[[Biology:Catonyx|Catonyx]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Glossotherium|Glossotherium]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Lestodon|Lestodon]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Mylodon|Mylodon]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Nematherium|Nematherium]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Octomylodon|Octomylodon]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Orophodon|Orophodon]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Scelidotherium|Scelidotherium]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Scelidodon|Scelidodon]]
* All remaining Glyptodontinae spp.
** ''[[Biology:Doedicurus|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=2008-12-23|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9781402087936}}</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=2016-11-15|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400884452}}</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=2000-05-15|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226195421}}</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=2013-05-22|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253007193}}</ref>
** ''[[Biology:Eleutherocercus|Eleutherocercus]]''
** ''[[Biology:Glyptodon|Glyptodon/Chlamydotherium]]''<ref name=":032" />
** ''Heteroglyptodon''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/twilightofmammot00paul|url-access=registration|title=Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America|last=Martin|first=Paul Schultz|date=2005-01-01|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520231412}}</ref>
** ''[[Biology:Hoplophorus|Hoplophorus]]''
** ''[[Biology:Lomaphorus|Lomaphorus]]''
** ''[[Biology:Neosclerocalyptus|Neosclerocalyptus]]''
** ''[[Biology:Neuryurus|Neuryurus]]''<ref name=":032" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=43582|title=Fossilworks: Neuryurus|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-01-24}}</ref>
** ''[[Biology:Panochthus|Panochthus]]''
** ''Parapanochthus''<ref name=":032" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=188888|title=Fossilworks: Parapanochthus|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-01-24}}</ref>
** ''[[Biology:Plaxhaplous|Plaxhaplous]]''
** ''[[Biology:Sclerocalyptus|Sclerocalyptus]]''
* Several [[Biology:Dasypodidae|Dasypodidae]] spp.
** Beautiful armadillo (''[[Biology:Dasypus bellus|Dasypus bellus]]'')
** ''[[Biology:Eutatus|Eutatus]]''
** ''[[Biology:Pachyarmatherium|Pachyarmatherium]]''
** ''Propaopus''<ref name="Elias"/><ref name="Turvey2"/>
* All [[Biology:Pampatheriidae|Pampatheriidae]] spp.
** ''[[Biology:Holmesina|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=2005-10-06|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521020817}}</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=2009-05-28|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780199535095}}</ref>
** ''[[Biology:Pampatherium|Pampatherium]]''<ref name=":0222">{{Cite journal|last1=Góis|first1=Flávio|last2=Ruiz|first2=Laureano Raúl González|last3=Scillato-Yané|first3=Gustavo Juan|last4=Soibelzon|first4=Esteban|date=2015-06-17|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>
** ''[[Biology:Tonnicinctus|Tonnicinctus]]''<ref name=":0222" />
* ''[[Biology:Psilopterus|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=2017-12-30|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=2010-05-01|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}}</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>
* 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|s2cid=83648963}}</ref>
** Seymour's caracara (''Caracara seymouri'')<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Suárez|first1=William|last2=Olson|first2=Storrs L.|date=2014-09-01|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=http://fossilworks.org/?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=289782|title=Fossilworks: Milvago brodkorbi|website=fossilworks.org|access-date=2016-04-22}}</ref>
* Various ''[[Biology:Cathartidae|Cathartidae]] spp.''
** ''Pampagyps imperator''
** ''Geronogyps reliquus''
** ''[[Biology:Wingegyps|Wingegyps]] cartellei''
** ''[[Biology:Pleistovultur|Pleistovultur]] nevesi''
* ''[[Biology:Caiman venezuelensis|Caiman venezuelensis]]''
* ''Chelonoidis lutzae'' (Argentina)

===The Pacific (Australasia and Oceania)===
{{See also|Australian megafauna|List of extinct animals of the Hawaiian Islands|List of extinct animals of New Zealand}}One thing that makes the extinction of the Australian megafauna particularly special is that prior to and into the Quaternary period the vast oceans prevented homo sapiens and other animals from reaching the outer world: islands like Australia and Madagascar.  As a result, organisms in these places evolved in isolation for millions of years taking on quite different structures from their Afro-Asian relatives.  One key characteristic of the Australian animals is that they were marsupials.  Marsupials are animals that give birth to tiny, helpless offspring and then nurture them with breast milk in their abdominal pouches.  While many of the animals of Australia were marsupial these types of animals were almost unknown in Africa and Asia.  Secondly many of the animals in Australia were megafauna, megafauna are animals that weight 100 pounds or more.  During the quaternary period homo sapiens acquired the technology to sail the oceans allowing them to settle the outer world.  Evidence shows that homo sapiens first arrived in Australia about 70,000 year ago and colonizing the landscape in about 30,000 years.  Within this 30,000-year period 90% of megafauna species inhabiting Australia went extinct. Scientists hold three main theories behind the extinction of the Australian megafauna.  One is that it was caused by overkill after the widespread appearance of homo sapiens, another is that they went extinct due to natural climate change, and the final theory is that extinction was caused by a combination of overkill by humans and natural climate change.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book|last=Harari|first=Yuval N.|title=Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2015|isbn=978-0-06-231611-0|location=United States of America|pages=63–68}}</ref>  

Beginning with the idea of a human caused extinction event from the book ''Sapiens'' by Yuval Noah Harari, there exists three pieces of evidence that support this hypothesis.  First, despite Australia’s climate changing at the time it is hard to say natural climate change alone could have caused such a massive extinction event.  For example, the giant diprotodon inhabited Australia for more than 1.5 million years before humans showed up and the species is known to have survived 10 previous ice ages.  So, if the giant diproton had survived 10 previous ice ages why did it along with 90% of the other megafauna die out around 45,000 years ago around when homo sapiens colonized Australia.  Secondly, typically when climate change is the cause of mass extinctions, sea organisms usually experience greater consequences than organisms living on land.  Yet there is no evidence of any significant extinction of oceanic fauna 45,000 years ago in Australia.  This points to homo sapiens being the cause of the extinction of the Australian megafauna because at the time homo sapiens still overwhelmingly lived off the land as opposed to the sea.  Thirdly the extinction of megafauna following the arrival of humans has been seen in multiple outer world locations over the last millennia.  Examples include New Zealand only 800 years ago and Wrangel, an artic island, 4000 years ago.  Therefore, it makes sense that this pattern would also hold true in the case of Australian megafauna.<ref name=":11" />

Given that 90% of Australian megafauna went extinct within 30,000 years of the arrival of human beings one must ask themselves why these animals were not fit to survive against humans.  One of these reasons is that megafauna are exceptionally large animals.  As a result, these animals breed slowly, have long pregnancies periods, and produce few offspring per pregnancy.  In addition, there is usually a long break in between pregnancies.  Secondly many of these animals were marsupials so there existed a long development period from birth to maturity and offspring were dependent on their parents for breastmilk for quite some time.  These two characteristics combined contributed to the extinction of Australian megafauna because hunting is more detrimental to these types of populations than others.  For example, if human beings killed one diprotodon every few months it would be enough for yearly diprotodon deaths to outnumber diprotodon births causing population decline, and within a thousand years this could lead to extinction. Another aspect making Australian megafauna less fit to survive against humans is that homo sapiens evolved separately from the Australian megafauna, so the megafauna had no predeveloped fear towards humans making hunting them easier.<ref name=":11" />

The second hypothesis held by scientists is that the Australian megafauna went extinct due to natural climate change.  The main reason this theory exists is that there is evidence of megafauna surviving up until 40,000 years ago, a full 30,000 years after homo sapiens first landed in Australia.  Implying that there was a significant period of homo sapiens and megafauna coexistence. Evidence of these animals existing at this time come from fossils records and ocean sediment.  To begin with, sediment core drilled in the Indian Ocean off the coast of the southwest Australia indicate the existence of a fungus called Sporormiella which survived off the dung of plant eating mammals.  The abundance of these spores in the sediment prior to 45,000 years ago indicates a lot of large mammals existed on the southwest Australian landscape up until that point.  The sediment data also indicated that the megafauna population collapsed within a few thousand years around the 45,000 years ago suggesting a rapid extinction event<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-01-20|title=Humans, not climate change, wiped out Australian megafauna|url=https://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/01/20/humans-not-climate-change-wiped-out-australian-megafauna|access-date=2021-05-05|website=CU Boulder Today|language=en}}</ref>.  In addition, fossils found at South Walker Creek, which is the youngest megafauna site in northern Australia, indicate that at least 16 species of megafauna survived there up until 40,000 years ago.  Furthermore, there is no firm evidence of homo sapiens beings at South Walker Creek 40,000 years ago, therefore no human cause can be attributed to the extinction of these megafauna.  However, there is evidence of major environmental deterioration of South Water Creek 40,000 years ago which the extinction can be attributed to.  These changes include increased fire, reduction in grasslands, and the loss of freshwater<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wilson|first=Lito Vilisoni|date=2020-05-18|title=Mysteries of megafauna extinction unlocked|url=https://about.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2020/may/mysteries-of-megafauna-extinction-unlocked|access-date=2021-05-05|website=Newsroom|language=en}}</ref>.  The same environmental deterioration is seen across Australia at the time further strengthening the climate change argument.  Australia’s climate at the time could best be described as an overall drying of the landscape due to less mean annual precipitation causing less freshwater availability and more drought conditions across the landscape. Overall, this led to changes in vegetation, increased fires, overall reduction in grasslands, and a greater competition for already scarce amount of freshwater<ref>{{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|date=2020-05-18|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|pmid=32418985|pmc=7231803|bibcode=2020NatCo..11.2250H|issn=2041-1723|doi-access=free}}</ref>.  In turn all these environmental changes proved to me too much for the Australian megafauna to cope with causing 90% of megafauna species to go extinct.

The third hypothesis shared by some scientists is that human impacts and natural climate changes led to the extinction of Australian megafauna. To begin with it is important to note that approximately 75% of Australia is semi-arid or arid landscape, therefore it makes sense that megafauna species utilized the same freshwater resources as humans.  As a result, this could have increased the amount of megafauna hunted due to the competition for freshwater as the drought conditions persisted<ref>{{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=2019-11-22|title=Climate-human interaction associated with southeast Australian megafauna extinction patterns|journal=Nature Communications|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=5311|doi=10.1038/s41467-019-13277-0|pmid=31757942|pmc=6876570|bibcode=2019NatCo..10.5311S|issn=2041-1723|doi-access=free}}</ref>.  On top of the already dry conditions and diminishing grasslands, homo sapiens used fire agriculture to burn impassable land.  This further diminished the already disappearing grassland which contained plants that were key dietary component of herbivorous megafauna.  While there is no scientific consensus on the true cause of the extinction of Australian megafauna it is plausible that homo sapiens and natural climate change both had an impact because they were both in Australia at the time.  Overall, there is an immense amount of evidence pointing to humans being the culprit but by ruling out climate change completely as a cause of the Australian megafauna extinction we are not getting the whole picture.  The climate change that occurred in Australia 45,000 years ago destabilized the ecosystem making it particularly vulnerable to hunting and fire agriculture by humans; this is probably what led to the extinction of the Australian megafauna.   

[[File:Thylacoleo_carnifex_cave_art.jpg|thumb|''[[Biology:Thylacoleo carnifex|Thylacoleo carnifex]]'' rock art]]
[[File:Procoptodon goliah NT.png|thumb|''Procoptodon goliath'' reconstruction]]
[[File:American_Flamingo_-_Flamenco_(Phoenicopterus_ruber)_(11854683776).jpg|thumb|The American flamingo (''Phoenicopterus ruber'') was one of four species of flamingo present in Australia in the Quaternary, all of which are now either extinct or extirpated. Australia is now the only inhabited continent in the world without flamingoes.]]
[[File:Varanus_priscus_Melbourne_Museum.jpg|thumb|Megalania skeleton, Melbourne Museum]]
[[File:Lapitiguana_impensa.JPG|thumb|upright|Reconstruction of the extinct Giant Fijian Iguana, ''[[Biology:Lapitiguana|Lapitiguana impensa]]'', and two Viti Levu Giant Pigeons, ''Natunaornis gigoura'', from prehistoric Fiji.]]
[[File:Mekosuchus_inexpectans.JPG|thumb|upright|Reconstruction of the Late Pleistocene mekosuchine crocodile, ''Mekosuchus inexpectans'', of prehistoric Fiji.]]
In [[Earth:Australia (continent)|Sahul]] (a former continent composed of Australia and New Guinea), the sudden and extensive spate of extinctions occurred earlier than in the rest of the world.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIDC7ybvHQEC&q=Phascolomys+medius&pg=PA622|title=Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution|last1=Martin|first1=Paul S.|last2=Klein|first2=Richard G.|date=1989-01-01|publisher=University of Arizona Press|isbn=9780816511006}}</ref><ref name="Lourandos2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tTy-I8no1MwC&q=Phascolomys+medius&pg=PA99|title=Continent of Hunter-Gatherers: New Perspectives in Australian Prehistory|last=Lourandos|first=Harry|date=1997-02-28|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521359467}}</ref><ref name="MacPhee2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZLuF1YXYTcC&q=Euryzygoma&pg=PA251|title=Extinctions in Near Time|last=MacPhee|first=R. D. E.|date=1999-06-30|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=9780306460920}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LwMkO0M1mPQC&q=Warendja+wakefieldi&pg=PA116|title=Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution|last1=Long|first1=John A.|last2=Archer|first2=Michael|date=2002-01-01|publisher=UNSW Press|isbn=9780868404356}}</ref><ref name="Tyndale-Biscoe2">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YALY-B6s7IEC&q=Warendja+wakefieldi&pg=PA269|title=Life of Marsupials|last=Tyndale-Biscoe|first=Hugh|date=2005-04-22|publisher=Csiro Publishing|isbn=9780643099210}}</ref> Most evidence points to a 20,000 year period after human arrival circa 63,000&nbsp;BCE,<ref name=":22" /> but scientific argument continues as to the exact date range.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C0blLvmdp04C&q=Phascolomys+medius&pg=PA279|title=Corridors to Extinction and the Australian Megafauna|last=Webb|first=Steve|date=2013-02-27|publisher=Newnes|isbn=9780124078406}}</ref> In the rest of the Pacific (other [[Biology:Australasian realm|Australasian]] islands such as New Caledonia, and [[Biology:Oceanian realm|Oceania]]) although in some respects far later, endemic fauna also usually perished quickly upon the arrival of humans in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. This section does only include extinctions that took place prior to European discovery of the respective islands.

The extinctions in the Pacific included:
* Various members of ''[[Biology:Diprotodontidae|Diprotodontidae]]''
** ''[[Biology:Diprotodon|Diprotodon]]'' 
** ''[[Biology:Euowenia|Euowenia]]'' 
** ''[[Biology:Euryzygoma|Euryzygoma]] dunense'' 
** ''[[Biology:Hulitherium|Hulitherium]] tomasetti'' 
** ''[[Biology:Maokopia|Maokopia]] ronaldi'' 
** ''[[Biology:Nototherium|Nototherium]]'' 
** ''[[Biology:Zygomaturus|Zygomaturus]]'' 
* ''[[Biology:Palorchestes|Palorchestes]]'' ("marsupial [[Biology:Tapir|tapir]]")
* Various members of ''[[Biology:Wombat|Vombatidae]]''
** ''[[Biology:Lasiorhinus|Lasiorhinus]] angustidens'' (giant wombat)
** ''Phascolomys'' (giant wombat)<ref name="Lourandos2" /><ref name="Tyndale-Biscoe2" /><ref name=":82" /><ref name=":92" /><ref name=":102" /><ref name="MacPhee2"/><ref name="Long">{{Cite book|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|last1=Long|first1=John A.|last2=Archer|first2=Michael|date=2002-01-01|publisher=UNSW Press|isbn=9780868404356}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lIYw_r7_waAC&q=Phascolomys+medius&pg=PA71|title=Australian Mammal Society|last=Society|first=Australian Mammal|date=1981-05-13|publisher=Australian Mammal Society}}</ref>
** ''[[Biology:Phascolonus|Phascolonus]]'' (giant wombat)
** ''[[Biology:Ramasayia|Ramasayia]] magna'' (giant wombat)
** ''[[Biology:Common wombat|Vombatus]] hacketti'' (Hackett's wombat)
** ''[[Biology:Warendja|Warendja]] wakefieldi'' (dwarf wombat)
* ''[[Biology:Giant koala|Phascolarctos stirtoni]]'' (giant koala)
* [[Biology:Marsupial lion|Marsupial lion]] (''Thylacoleo carnifex)''
* Various members of ''[[Biology:Macropodidae|Macropodidae]]''
** ''[[Biology:Procoptodon|Procoptodon]]'' (short-faced kangaroos) e.g. 
*** ''Procoptodon goliah''
** ''[[Biology:Sthenurus|Sthenurus]]'' (giant kangaroo)
** ''[[Biology:Simosthenurus|Simosthenurus]]'' (giant kangaroo)
** Various ''[[Biology:Macropus|Macropus]] (giant [[Biology:Kangaroo|kangaroo]]) spp. e.g. 
*** ''[[Biology:Macropus titan|Macropus titan]]''
*** ''[[Biology:Macropus pearsoni|Macropus pearsoni]]''
** ''[[Biology:Protemnodon|Protemnodon]]'' (giant wallaby)
** ''Troposodon'' ([[Biology:Wallaby|wallaby]])<ref name="Lourandos2" /><ref name="MacPhee2" /><ref name=":82">{{cite web|url=http://austhrutime.com/marsupial_megafauna.htm|title=Megafauna|website=austhrutime.com|access-date=2017-04-20}}</ref><ref name=":92">{{cite web|url=http://www.anaspides.net/earth_life_sciences/megafauna_extinction.html|title=Anaspides.net|website=www.anaspides.net|access-date=2017-04-20}}</ref><ref name=":102">{{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=2013-02-27|publisher=Newnes|isbn=9780124078406}}</ref><ref name="Long"/>
** ''[[Biology:Bohra (genus)|Bohra]]'' (giant tree kangaroo)
** ''[[Biology:Propleopus|Propleopus oscillans]]'' (omnivorous, giant [[Biology:Musky rat-kangaroo|musky rat-kangaroo]])
* [[Biology:Thylacine|Thylacine]] (''Thylacinus cynocephalus''; extirpated on mainland Australia and New Guinea)
* Various forms of ''[[Biology:Sarcophilus|Sarcophilus]]'' (Tasmanian devil)
**''[[Biology:Sarcophilus laniarius|Sarcophilus laniarius]]'' (25 % larger than modern species)
** ''Sarcophilus moornaensis''
** ''Sarcophilus harrisii'' (extirpated on mainland Australia)
* ''Zaglossus hacketti'' (giant echidna)
* ''[[Biology:Megalibgwilia|Megalibgwilia]]'' (oldest known echidna, same extinction period)
* Pygmy Cassowary (''[[Biology:Casuarius lydekkeri|Casuarius lydekkeri]]'')
* [[Biology:Genyornis|Mihirung]] (a {{convert|3|m|ft|adj=mid|-tall|spell=in|sp=us}} [[Biology:Dromornithidae|dromornithid]]
* [[Biology:Tasmanian nativehen|Tasmanian nativehen]] (''Tribonyx mortierii''; extirpated on mainland Australia)
* [[Biology:Giant malleefowl|Giant malleefowl]] (''Leipoa gallinacea'')
* Several [[Biology:Phoenicopteridae|Phoenicopteridae]] spp.
** [[Biology:American flamingo|American flamingo]] (''Phoenicopterus ruber''; extirpated in Australia)<ref name=":112">{{Cite book|last=Bayly|first=I. a. E.|date=1993-01-01|publisher=Springer Netherlands|isbn=9789401049214|editor-last=Hurlbert|editor-first=Stuart H.|series=Developments in Hydrobiology|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>
** ''[[Biology:Xenorhynchopsis|Xenorhynchopsis]]'' spp. (Australian flamingo)<ref name=":112" />
*** ''Xenorhynchopsis minor''
*** ''Xenorhynchopsis tibialis''
** ''Ocyplanus proeses'' (Australian flamingo)<ref name=":112" /> 
*''[[Biology:Ikanogavialis|Ikanogavialis]]'' (the last fully marine crocodilian)
* ''[[Biology:Pallimnarchus|Pallimnarchus]]'' (Australian freshwater crocodile)
* ''[[Biology:Quinkana|Quinkana]]'' (Australian terrestrial crocodile, apex predator)
* ''Wonambi'' (a five-to-six-metre-long Australian constrictor [[Biology:Snake|snake]])
* [[Biology:Megalania|Megalania]] (''Varanus pricus'') (a giant predatory monitor lizard)
* Several spp. of [[Biology:Meiolaniidae|Meiolaniidae]] (giant armoured tortoises)
** ''[[Biology:Meiolania|Meiolania]]''
** ''[[Biology:Ninjemys|Ninjemys]]''
* ''[[Biology:Sylviornis|Sylviornis]]'' (giant, flightless [[Earth:New Caledonia|New Caledonia]]n [[Biology:Galliformes|galliform]]; largest in existence)
* [[Biology:Noble megapode|Noble megapode]] (''Megavitornis altirostris'')
* Giant ''[[Biology:Megapodius|Megapodius]]'' spp.
** [[Biology:Pile-builder megapode|Pile-builder megapode]] (''Megapodius molistructor'')
** [[Biology:Consumed scrubfowl|Consumed scrubfowl]] (''Megapodius alimentum'')
** [[Biology:Viti Levu scrubfowl|Viti Levu scrubfowl]] (''Megapodius amissus'')
* [[Biology:New Caledonian ground dove|New Caledonian ground dove]] (''Gallicolumba longitarsus'')
* [[Biology:Viti Levu giant pigeon|Viti Levu giant pigeon]] (''Natunaornis gigoura'')
* [[Biology:Marquesas cuckoo-dove|Marquesas cuckoo-dove]] (''Macropygia heana'')
* [[Biology:New Caledonian gallinule|New Caledonian gallinule]] (''Porphyrio kukwiedei'')
* Various ''[[Biology:Gallirallus|Gallirallus]]'' spp.
* Various Coenocorypha spp.
** [[Biology:New Caledonian snipe|New Caledonian snipe]] (''Coenocorypha miratropica'')
** [[Biology:Viti Levu snipe|Viti Levu snipe]] (''Coenocorypha neocaledonica'')
* [[Biology:Lowland kagu|Lowland kagu]] (''Rhynochetos orarius'')
* [[Biology:Niue night heron|Niue night heron]] (''Nycticorax kalavikai'')
* Several ''[[Biology:Accipiter|Accipiter]]'' spp.<sup>[[Biology:Accipiter|[3]]]</sup>
** [[Biology:Powerful goshawk|Powerful goshawk]] (''Accipiter efficax'')
** [[Biology:Gracile goshawk|Gracile goshawk]] (''Accipiter quartus'')
* [[Biology:New Caledonian barn owl|New Caledonian barn owl]] (''Tyto letocarti'')
* ''[[Biology:Mekosuchus|Mekosuchus]]'' (two meters long, last fully terrestrial crocodile, South Pacific Islands)
* ''[[Biology:Volia|Volia]]'' (a two-to-three meter long [[Biology:Mekosuchinae|mekosuchine]] crocodylian, apex predator of Pleistocene Fiji)
* ''[[Biology:Varanus|Varanus]] sp.'' (Pleistocene and Holocene New Caledonia)
* Several giant [[Biology:Iguanidae|Iguanidae]] spp.
** ''[[Biology:Lapitiguana|Lapitiguana]]''
** ''[[Biology:Brachylophus gibbonsi|Brachylophus gibbonsi]]''[[File:Giant Haasts eagle attacking New Zealand moa.jpg|thumb|An artist's rendition of a Haast's eagle attacking moa]]
* All [[Biology:Dinornithiformes|Dinornithiformes]] spp.
** Giant moa (''Dinornis'')
** [[Biology:Upland moa|Upland moa]] (''Megalapteryx didinus'')
** [[Biology:Bush moa|Bush moa]] (''Anomalopteryx didiformis'')
** [[Biology:Eastern moa|Eastern moa]] (''Emeus crassus'')
** Coastal moa (''Euryapteryx curtus'')
** ''[[Biology:Pachyornis|Pachyornis]]''
* [[Biology:Scarlett's duck|Scarlett's duck]] (''Malacorhynchus scarletti'')
* [[Biology:New Zealand musk duck|New Zealand musk duck]] (''Biziura delautouri'')
* Chatham Islands duck (''Pachyanas chathamica'')
* [[Biology:New Zealand goose|New Zealand goose]] (''Cnemiornis'')
* [[Biology:New Zealand swan|New Zealand swan]] (''Cygnus sumnerensis'')
* [[Biology:New Zealand owlet-nightjar|New Zealand owlet-nightjar]] (''Aegotheles novazelandiae'')
* [[Biology:Adzebill|Adzebill]] (''Aptornis'')
* [[Biology:Snipe-rail|Snipe-rail]] (''Capellirallus karamu'')
* Hodgen's waterhen (''Gallinula hodgenorum'')
* [[Biology:Waitaha penguin|Waitaha penguin]] (''Megadyptes waitaha'')
* [[Biology:Scarlett's shearwater|Scarlett's shearwater]] (''Puffinus spelaeus'')
* Several harriers (''Circus'')
** [[Biology:Eyles's harrier|Eyles's harrier]] (''Circus eylesi'')
** [[Biology:Wood harrier|Wood harrier]] (''Circus dossenus''; endemic to Hawaii)
* [[Biology:Haast's eagle|Haast's eagle]] (''Hieraaetus moorei''; largest eagle known to have existed)
* Various ''[[Biology:Corvus|Corvus]]'' spp.
** [[Biology:New Zealand raven|New Zealand raven]] (''Corvus antipodum'')
** [[Biology:Chatham raven|Chatham raven]] (''Corvus moriorum'')
** [[Biology:High-billed crow|High-billed crow]] (''Corvus impluviatus''; large crow endemic to Maui)
* [[Biology:Long-billed wren (New Zealand)|Long-billed wren]] (''Dendroscansor decurvirostris'')
* [[Biology:Stout-legged wren|Stout-legged wren]] (''Pachyplichas yaldwyni'')
* Kawekaweau (''Hoplodactylus delcourti'')
* [[Biology:Northland skink|Northland skink]] (''Oligosoma northlandi'')
* Several frogs of the genus ''[[Biology:Leiopelma|Leiopelma]]''
** Aurora frog (''Leiopelma auroraensis'')
** [[Biology:Markham's frog|Markham's frog]] (''Leiopelma markhami'')
** [[Biology:Waitomo frog|Waitomo frog]] (''Leiopelma waitomoensis'')
* ''Synemporion keana'' (Bat endemic to Hawaii)
* Kaua'i mole duck (''Talpanas lippa''; a blind, flightless, terrestrial Hawaiian duck)
* All members of Thambetochenini
** [[Biology:Turtle-jawed moa-nalo|Turtle-jawed moa-nalo]] (''Chelychelynechen quassus''; from Kaua'i)
** [[Biology:Small-billed moa-nalo|Small-billed moa-nalo]] (''Ptaiochen pau''; from Maui)
** O'ahu moa-nalo (''Thambetochen xanion'')
** [[Biology:Maui Nui large-billed moa-nalo|Maui Nui large-billed moa-nalo]] (''Thambetochen chauliodous'')
* Giant Hawaii goose (''Branta rhuax'')
* [[Biology:Nēnē-nui|Nēnē-nui]] (''Branta hylobadistes'')
* [[Biology:Great Maui crake|Great Maui crake]] (''Porzana severnsi'')
* O'ahu petrel (''Pterodroma jugabilis'')
* ''[[Biology:Apteribis|Apteribis]]'' (a giant, flightless ibis)
* [[Biology:Stilt-owl|Stilt-owl]] (''Grallistrix'')
* Giant nukupu'u (''Hemignathus vorpalis'')
* [[Biology:Stout-legged finch|Stout-legged finch]] (''Ciridops tenax'')
* Several finches of the genus ''[[Biology:Telespiza|Telespiza]]''
** Kaua'i finch (''Telespiza persecutrix'')
** [[Biology:Maui Nui finch|Maui Nui finch]] (''Telespiza ypsilon'')
* Kaua'i palila (''Loxioides kikuchi'')
* Several [[Biology:Rhodacanthis|Rhodacanthis]] spp.
** [[Biology:Primitive koa finch|Primitive koa finch]] (''Rhodacanthis litotes'')
** [[Biology:Scissor-billed koa finch|Scissor-billed koa finch]] (''Rhodacanthis forfex'')
* [[Biology:Wahi grosbeak|O'ahu grosbeak]] (''Chloridops wahi'')
* Easter Island crake (''[[Biology:Porzana|Porzana]]'' sp.)
* Easter Island rail (undescribed)
* Undescribed Easter Island [[Biology:Heron|heron]]
* [[Biology:Barn owl|Barn owl]] (''Tyto alba''; extirpated on Easter Island)
* Two species of undescribed Easter Island [[Biology:Parrot|parrot]]s
Some extinct megafauna, such as the [[Religion:Bunyip|bunyip]]-like ''[[Biology:Diprotodon|Diprotodon]]'', may remain in [[Social:Folk memory|folk memory]] or be the sources of [[Biology:Cryptozoology|cryptozoological legends]].

== Relationship to later extinctions ==
{{Main|Earth:Holocene extinction}}

There is no general agreement on where the [[Earth:Holocene|Holocene]], or anthropogenic, extinction begins, and the Quaternary extinction event ends, 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 | doi = 10.1029/2010GL043985 | bibcode=2010GeoRL..3715703D| s2cid = 54849882 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name="link.springer.com">{{cite journal |last1 = Grayson |first1 = Donald K. |last2 = Meltzer |first2 = David J. |title = Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction: A Critical Review of the Evidence |journal = Journal of World Prehistory |date = December 2012 |volume = 16 |issue = 4 |pages = 313–359 |doi = 10.1023/A:1022912030020|s2cid = 162794300 }}</ref> Some have suggested that anthropogenic extinctions may have begun as early as when the first modern humans spread out of Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, which is supported by rapid megafaunal extinction following recent human colonisation in Australia, New Zealand and Madagascar,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title = The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History |last = Kolbert |first = Elizabeth |publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing |year = 2014 |isbn = 9781408851210 }}</ref> in a similar way that any [[Earth: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 geographically isolated islands.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |title = A high-precision chronology for the rapid extinction of New Zealand moa (Aves, Dinornithiformes) |journal = Quaternary Science Reviews |date = 2014-12-01 |pages = 126–135 |volume = 105 |doi = 10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.09.025 |first1 = George L. W. |last1 = Perry |first2 = Andrew B. |last2 = Wheeler |first3 = Jamie R. |last3 = Wood |first4 = Janet M. |last4 = Wilmshurst|bibcode = 2014QSRv..105..126P }}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |title = A refined chronology of prehistoric Madagascar and the demise of the megafauna |journal = Quaternary Science Reviews |date = 2010-09-01 |pages = 2591–2603 |volume = 29 |series = Special Theme: Case Studies of Neodymium Isotopes in Paleoceanography |issue = 19–20 |doi = 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.06.030 |first = Brooke E. |last = Crowley|bibcode = 2010QSRv...29.2591C }}</ref> Only during the most recent parts of the extinction have plants also suffered large losses.<ref>{{cite web |title = Has Plant Life Reached Its Limits? |url = http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/has-plant-life-reached-its-limits/?_r=0 |website = Green Blog |access-date = 2016-01-22 |first = Sophia |last = Li|date = 2012-09-20}}</ref>

Overall, the Holocene extinction can be characterised by the human impact on the environment. The Holocene extinction continues into the 21st century, with overfishing, [[Biology:Ocean acidification|ocean acidification]] and the [[Biology:Decline in amphibian populations|amphibian crisis]] being a few broader examples of an almost universal, cosmopolitan decline of biodiversity.

==Hunting hypothesis==
[[File:Hunting Woolly Mammoth.jpg|thumb|A woolly mammoth hunt]]

The hunting hypothesis suggests that humans hunted [[Earth:Megaherbivore|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> Therefore, 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. [[Earth:Biogeography|Biogeographical]] evidence is also suggestive: the areas of the world where humans evolved currently have more of their Pleistocene megafaunal diversity (the [[Biology:Elephant|elephant]]s and rhinos of [[Earth:Asia|Asia]] and [[Earth:Africa|Africa]]) compared to other areas such as {{wipe|Australia}}, the [[Earth:Americas|Americas]], {{wipe|Madagascar}} and [[Earth:New Zealand|New Zealand]] without the earliest humans. A picture arises of the megafauna of Asia and Africa evolving alongside humans, learning to be wary of them, and in other parts of the world the wildlife appearing [[Biology:Island tameness|ecologically naive]] and easier to hunt.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} This is particularly true of island fauna, which display a disastrous lack of fear of humans.{{Citation needed|date=March 2018}} Of course, it is impossible to demonstrate this naïveté directly in ancient fauna. It is highly assumed that despite many large animals easily viewing humans as a threat, humans' endurance, by literally endlessly chasing said animals over long distances, something most animals, even fast predators, are incapable of doing so, combined with the domestication of dogs, as wolves are also known to have endurance, ultimately made these animals more vulnerable to extinction, as such ended up overwhelming them, and therefore making them too weak to even defend themselves. However, even after the development of weapons used to kill prey much faster as well as domesticating dogs ultimately the defeated the purpose of early humans simply using endurance to catch prey, this only ended up making the resulting extinctions even more severe.
[[File:Jebel Irhoud 1. Homo Sapiens.jpg|thumb|left|The earliest finds of ''Homo sapiens'' point to an emergence during the Middle Pleistocene of Africa. However, there is evidence of extinction waves, particularly of megafaunal carnivores, coinciding with both cranial and technological developments within ancestral ''Homo'' during the Early Pleistocene of Africa. This has suggested a human role in these ecological cascades. ''H. sapiens'' skull described from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, dated to 315,000 BCE.]]
[[File:Homo sapiens lineage.svg|thumb|upright=1.55|[[Biology:Despeciation|Despeciation]] within the genus ''Homo''.]]
[[File:Homo sapiens dispersal routes.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|Known ''H. sapiens'' migration routes in the Pleistocene.]]

Circumstantially, the close correlation in time between the appearance of humans in an area and extinction there provides weight for this scenario. 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 = 2010-06-10
}}</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 ''[[Biology:Protemnodon|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 |author=Diamond J |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>

Worldwide, extinctions seem to follow the migration of humans and to be most severe where humans arrived most recently and least severe where humans originated — in Africa (see figure "March of Man" below). This suggests that prey animals and human hunting ability evolved together, so the animals evolved avoidance techniques. As humans migrated throughout the world and became more and more proficient at hunting, they encountered animals that had evolved without the presence of humans. Lacking the fear of humans that African animals had developed, animals outside of Africa were easy prey for human hunting techniques. It also suggests that this is independent of climate change.{{citation requested|reason=who is saying this?|date=February 2021}}


Extinction through human hunting has been supported by archaeological finds of mammoths with projectile points embedded in their skeletons, by observations of modern naïve animals allowing hunters to approach easily<ref name = "Eaters"/><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. |name-list-style=amp | 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. |name-list-style=amp | 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 }}</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.<ref name="uoe">{{cite web | url =https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_465673_en.html |title=Humans responsible for demise of gigantic ancient mammals |publisher=[[Organization:University of Exeter|University of Exeter]] | date=13 August 2015 | access-date =14 August 2015}}</ref> This was compared against climate reconstructions for the last 90,000 years.<ref name="uoe"/> The researchers found correlations of human spread and species extinction indicating that the human impact was the main cause of the extinction, while climate change exacerbated the frequency of extinctions.<ref name="uoe"/><ref name="eco">{{cite journal |authors=Lewis J. Bartlett, David R. Williams, Graham W. Prescott, Andrew Balmford, Rhys E. Green, Anders Eriksson, Paul J. Valdes, Joy S. Singarayer, Andrea Manica |title=Robustness despite uncertainty: regional climate data reveal the dominant role of humans in explaining global extinctions of Late Quaternary megafauna |journal=Ecography |doi=10.1111/ecog.01566 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=152–161|year=2016 |url=https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/publications/robustness-despite-uncertainty(94b9d1da-e339-47d9-803e-fa5a64cff28c).html |doi-access=free }}</ref> The study, however, found an apparently low extinction rate in the fossil record of mainland Asia.<ref name="eco"/>

===Overkill hypothesis===
[[File:Extinctions Africa Austrailia NAmerica Madagascar.gif|thumb|upright=1.2|The timing of extinctions follows the "March of Man"]]
The overkill hypothesis, a variant of the hunting hypothesis, was proposed in 1966 by [[Biography:Paul S. Martin|Paul S. Martin]], Professor of Geosciences Emeritus at the Desert Laboratory of the [[Organization:University of Arizona|University of Arizona]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Martin |first=Paul S. |date=1966 |title=Africa and Pleistocene overkill |journal=Nature |volume=212 |issue=5060 |pages=339–342 |url=http://max2.ese.u-psud.fr/epc/conservation/PDFs/HIPE/Martin1966.pdf |doi=10.1038/212339a0 |bibcode=1966Natur.212..339M |s2cid=27013299 }}</ref>

===Objections to the hunting hypothesis===
The major objections to the theory are as follows:
* In predator-prey models it is unlikely that predators could over-hunt their prey, since predators need their prey as food to sustain life and to reproduce.<ref name="May2001">{{cite book | author = May, R. M. | year = 2001 | title = Stability and complexity in model ecosystems | journal = Monographs in Population Biology | volume = 6 | pages = 1–235 | location = Princeton | publisher = Princeton Univ. Press | isbn = 978-0-691-08861-7| pmid = 4723571 }}</ref>  This assumes that all food sources die out simultaneously, but humans could have made the mammoth extinct while subsisting on elk, for example. Human hunting is known to have exterminated megafauna on several islands, switching to other food sources with time or dying out themselves. Additionally it is common knowledge among ornithologists that introduced predators have easily made several species extinct on islands, and this is a foremost cause of island extinctions today.
* There is no archeological evidence that in North America megafauna other than mammoths, mastodons, [[Biology:Gomphothere|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| 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>Fiedel, S., Haynes, G., 2004. A premature burial: comments on Grayson and Meltzer’s ''Requiem for overkill'' Journal of Archaeological Science 31, 121–131.</ref> Additionally, biochemical analyses have shown that Clovis tools were used in butchering horses and camels.<ref name="ClovisToolCache">{{cite web
 |last        = Scott
 |first       = J.
 |title       = Camel-butchering in Boulder, 13,000 years ago
 |website        = Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine
 |publisher   = University of Colorado at Boulder
 |date        = 2009-02-26
 |url         = http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/2009/02/camel-butchering-in-boulder-13000-years-ago/
 |access-date  = 2009-05-01
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100610052715/http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/2009/02/camel-butchering-in-boulder-13000-years-ago/
 |archive-date = 2010-06-10
}}</ref> A study by Surovell and Grund<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 | url = https://semanticscholar.org/paper/825e7bae0435ecedd10e93826db025be1ba8822a }}</ref> 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."
* A small number of animals that were hunted, such as a single species of [[Biology:Bison|bison]], did not go extinct. This cannot be explained by proposing that surviving bison in North America were recent Eurasian immigrants that were familiar with human hunting practices, since ''Bison'' first appeared in North America approximately 240,000 years ago<ref name="Belletal.200422"/><ref name="ScottandCox200822"/><ref name="Sandersetal.200922"/> and then evolved into living bison.<ref name="Shapiro, B., et al. 2004 1561–156522"/><ref>{{cite journal |author=Wilsom, M.C., L.V. Hills, and B. Shapiro |title=Late Pleistocene northward-dispersing ''Bison 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 |year=2008 |doi = 10.1139/E08-027 |bibcode = 2008CaJES..45..827W |s2cid=129131047 |url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/b466a6d5391345bf6966a57bd326c8f433c7a59f }}</ref> Bison at the end of the Pleistocene were thus likely to have been almost as naive as their native North American [[Biology:Megafauna|megafauna]]l companions.
* The dwarfing of animals is not explained by overkill. Numerous authors{{Who|date=April 2011}}, however, have pointed out that dwarfing of animals is perfectly well explained by humans selectively harvesting the largest animals, and have provided proof that even within the 20th century numerous animal populations have reduced in average size due to human hunting.
* Eurasian Pleistocene megafauna became extinct in roughly same time period despite having a much longer time to adapt to hunting pressure by humans. However, the extinction of the Eurasian megafauna can be viewed as a result of a different process than that of the American megafauna. This makes the theory less parsimonious since another mechanism is required. The latter case occurred after the sudden appearance of modern human hunters on a land mass they had never previously inhabited, while the former case was the culmination of the gradual northward movement of human hunters over thousands of years as their technology for enduring extreme cold and bringing down big game improved. Thus, while the hunting hypothesis does not necessarily predict the rough simultaneity of the north Eurasian and American megafaunal extinctions, this simultaneity cannot be regarded as evidence against it.
* Eugene S. Hunn points out 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 |url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/36e690791be0a600e1041dc508fbf13a21ea456f }}</ref> It is possible that those who advocate the overkill hypothesis simply have not considered the differences in outlook between typical forager (hunter-gatherer) cultures and the present-day industrial cultures which exist in modernized human societies; waste may be tolerated in the latter, but is not so much in the former. Conversely, "[[Earth:Buffalo jump|buffalo jump]]s"<ref>"[[Earth:Buffalo jump|Buffalo Jump]]." Wikipedia.</ref> featured indiscriminate killing of a herd. However, Hunn's comments are in reference to the now largely discredited theory of [[Philosophy:Balance of nature|hunter-prey equilibrium]] reached after thousands of years of coexistence. It is not relevant to hunters newly arrived on a virgin land mass full of easily taken big game. The well-established practice of industrial-scale [[Biology:Moa|moa]] butchering by the early Maori, involving enormous wastage of less choice portions of the meat, indicates that these arguments are incorrect.<ref name = "Eaters">{{cite book
 | title = The future eaters: an ecological history of the Australasian lands and people
 | publisher = Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
 | date = 2002-10-16
 | location = New York
 | url = http://google.com/books?id=eIW5aktgo0IC&printsec=frontcover
 | isbn = 978-0-8021-3943-6 | oclc = 32745413}}</ref>
* The hypothesis that the Clovis culture represented the first humans to arrive in the New World has been disputed recently. (See Settlement of the Americas.) However, Clovis artifacts are currently the earliest-known evidence of widespread settlement in the Americas.

==Climate change hypothesis==

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, when scientists first realized that there had been glacial and [[Earth:Interglacial|interglacial]] ages, and that they were somehow associated with the prevalence or disappearance of certain animals, they surmised that the termination of the Pleistocene [[Earth:Ice age|ice age]] might be an explanation for the extinctions.

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. However, this criticism is rejected by a recent study indicating that terminal Pleistocene megafaunal community composition may have differed markedly from faunas present during earlier interglacials, particularly with respect to the great abundance and geographic extent of Pleistocene ''Bison'' at the end of the epoch.<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 = Quat. Int. | doi = 10.1016/j.quaint.2009.11.003 | volume = 217 | issue = 1–2 | pages = 225–239 |bibcode = 2010QuInt.217..225S }}</ref> This suggests that the survival of megafaunal populations during earlier interglacials is essentially irrelevant to the terminal Pleistocene extinction event, because bison were not present in similar abundance during any of the earlier interglacials.

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=Willis, Paul; Bryce, Clay; Searle, Mike |network=Australian Broadcasting Commission |airdate=17 August 2006 |transcript-url=http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1717424.htm }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Prideaux GJ, Long JA, Ayliffe LK, etal |title=An arid-adapted middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from south-central Australia |journal=Nature |volume=445 |issue=7126 |pages=422–5 |date=January 2007 |pmid=17251978 |doi=10.1038/nature05471 |bibcode = 2007Natur.445..422P |s2cid=4429899 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Roberts RG, Flannery TF, Ayliffe LK, etal |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 |date=June 2001 |pmid=11397939 |doi=10.1126/science.1060264 |bibcode = 2001Sci...292.1888R |s2cid=45643228 |url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/7284ed470065c2c53db88a3bddd7de6f945a8595 }}</ref>

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. |title=Characteristics of Pleistocene megafauna extinctions in Southeast Asia |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |date=2007 |volume=243 |issue=1–2 |pages=152–173 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.07.011}}</ref>

Some evidence obtained from analysis of the tusks of mastodons from the 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
 | first = Daniel C. | last = Fisher
 | editor-last = Haynes | editor-first = Gary
 | contribution = Paleobiology and Extinction of Proboscideans in the Great Lakes Region of North America
 | title = American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene
 | year = 2009 | pages = 55–75
 | publisher = [[Company:Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]
 | doi = 10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_4
 | isbn = 978-1-4020-8792-9 | series = Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology
 | s2cid = 21544285
 | url = https://semanticscholar.org/paper/375bc6559355a9bdae547a6ab8556d4dbecd2b4f
 }}</ref>

=== Increased temperature ===
The most obvious change associated with the termination of an ice age is the increase in temperature. Between 15,000 [[Earth: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 [[Earth: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, 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 [[Biology:Refugium (population biology)|refugia]] and long distance dispersals, which may have been disrupted by human hunters.<ref name=cooper2015/>

=== Arguments against the temperature hypothesis ===
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 some of the same large mammals survived similar temperature increases. Therefore, warmer temperatures alone may not be a sufficient explanation.<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 14<span style="font-size:100%;"><sup>th</sup></span>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 }}</ref><ref name="Birks1973">{{cite conference | author = Birks, H.H. | year = 1973 | title = Modern macrofossil assemblages in lake sediments in Minnesota |book-title=Quaternary plant ecology: the 14<span style="font-size:100%;"><sup>th</sup></span>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="Birks & Birks1980">{{cite book | author = Birks, H.J.B., Birks, H.H. | year = 1980 | title = Quaternary paleoecology | location = Baltimore | publisher = Univ. Park Press | isbn = 978-1-930665-56-9}}</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><ref name="Davis1976">{{cite book | author = Davis, M. B. | year = 1976 |chapter=Pleistocene biogeography of temperate deciduous forests |title= Geoscience and man: Ecology of the Pleistocene |volume=13 | location = Baton Rouge | publisher = School of Geoscience, Louisiana State Univ.}}</ref>

In addition, numerous species such as mammoths on Wrangel Island<ref name="Vartanyan1995">{{cite journal | author = Vartanyan, S.L., Arslanov, K.A., Tertychnaya, T.V. & Chernov, S.B. | year = 1995 | title = Radiocarbon dating evidence for mammoths on Wrangel Island, Arctic Ocean, until 2000 BC | journal = Radiocarbon | volume = 37 | pages = 1–6 | url = https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/viewFile/1640/1644| doi = 10.1017/S0033822200014703 | doi-access = free }}</ref> and [[Earth:Saint Paul Island (Alaska)|St. Paul Island]] survived in human-free [[Biology:Refugium (population biology)|refugia]] despite changes in climate. 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 requested|reason=who is saying this?|date=February 2021}}

=== Increased continentality affects vegetation in time or space ===
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. The various hypotheses are outlined below.

====Vegetation changes: geographic====
It has been shown that vegetation changed from mixed [[Biology:Woodland|woodland]]-parkland to separate prairie and woodland.<ref name="Birks1973"/><ref name="Birks & Birks1980"/><ref name="Davis1976"/> 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 [[Biology:Ruminant|ruminant]]s would have fared better than horses, elephants and other [[Biology:Monogastric|monogastric]]s, because ruminants are able to extract more nutrition from limited quantities of high-fiber food and better able to deal with anti-herbivory toxins.<ref name="Guthrie1988">{{cite book | author = Guthrie, R. D. | year = 1988 | title = Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe | publisher = University Of Chicago Press | isbn = 978-0-226-31122-7}}</ref><ref name="Guthrie1989">{{cite book | author = Guthrie, R. D. | year =1989 |chapter=Mosaics, allochemics, and nutrients: an ecological theory of Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions |title=Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution |editor= Martin, P.S. |editor2=Klein, R.G. | pages = 259–99 | location = Tucson, AZ | publisher = Univ. Arizona Press | isbn = 978-0-8165-1100-6}}</ref><ref name="Hoppe1978">{{Cite conference | author = Hoppe, P.P. | year = 1978 | title = Rumen fermentation in African ruminants |book-title=Proceedings of the 13<span style="font-size:100%;"><sup>th</sup></span> Annual Congress of Game Biologists | location = Atlanta}}</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.

====Rainfall changes: time====
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., Baerreis, D.A., Wendland, W.M. |year=1970 |chapter=The character of late-glacial and post-glacial climatic changes |title=Pleistocene and recent environments of the central Great Plains |editor=Dort Jr., W. |editor2=Jones, Jr. J.K. |id=Univ. Kan. Spec. Pub. 3 |location=Lawrence |publisher=Univ. Press Kan |isbn=978-0-7006-0063-2 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/pleistocenerecen0000symp }}</ref><ref name="Graham and Lundelius1988">{{cite book | author = Graham, R.W., Lundelius, E.L. | year = 1989 | chapter = Coevolutionary disequilibrium and Pleistocene 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><ref name="King and Saunders1988">{{cite book | author = King, J.E., Saunders, J.J. | year = 1989 |chapter=Environmental insularity and the extinction of the American mastodont |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> Axelrod<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> and Slaughter<ref name="Slaughter1967">{{cite book | author = Slaughter, B. H. | year = 1967 |chapter=Animal ranges as a clue to late-Pleistocene extinction |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> have suggested that this change in rainfall restricted the amount of time favorable for reproduction. 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 [[Biology:Biological life cycle|life cycles]], shorter reproductive cycles, 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. | year = 1988 |chapter=Seasonality, gestation time, and large mammal 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>

In 2017 a study looked at the environmental conditions across Europe, Siberia and the Americas from 25,000–10,000 YBP. The study 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>{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/s41559-017-0125|pmid=28812683|title=Megafaunal isotopes reveal role of increased moisture on rangeland during late Pleistocene extinctions|journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution|volume=1|issue=5|page=0125|year=2017|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|s2cid=4473573}}</ref>

=== Arguments against the continentality hypotheses ===
Critics have 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., West, R.G. | title = A Symposium of the British Ecological Society | year = 1973 | book-title = Quaternary plant ecology: the 14<span style="font-size:100%;"><sup>th</sup></span> 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. Of course, this criticism ignores the obvious 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 [[Place:Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean Sea]]<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> and on Wrangel Island in the Siberian Arctic<ref name="Vartanyan1993">{{cite journal | author = Vartanyan, S.L., Garutt, V. E. and 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> until 4,000 to 7,000 years ago.
* 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 [[Astronomy:Equator|equator]], herbivores could have found areas with growing seasons more favorable for finding food and breeding successfully. Modern-day [[Biology:African elephant|African elephant]]s migrate during periods of [[Earth:Drought|drought]] to places where there is apt to be water.<ref name="Wing & Buss1970">{{cite journal | author = Wing, L.D., Buss, I.O. | year = 1970 | title = Elephants and Forests | journal = Wildl. Mong. | issue = 19}}</ref>
* Large animals store more fat in their bodies than do medium-sized animals<ref name="Owen-Smith1992">{{cite book | author = Owen-Smith, R.N. | year = 1992 | title = Megaherbivores: The influence of very large body size on ecology. Cambridge studies in ecology | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge Univ. Press | isbn = 978-0-521-42637-4}}</ref> and this should have allowed them to compensate for extreme seasonal fluctuations in food availability.

The extinction of the megafauna could have caused the disappearance of the [[Earth:Mammoth steppe|mammoth steppe]]. 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. |chapter=Tundra plant communities of the Mackenzie mountains, Northwest Territories; floristic characteristics of long term surface disturbances |editor=Olson, R. |editor2=Hastings, R. |editor3=Geddes, F. |title=Northern Ecology and Resource Management: Memorial Essays honoring Don Gill |publisher=Univ. Alberta Press |location=Edmonton, Canada |year=1984 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/northernecologyr0000unse/page/239 239–311] |isbn=978-0-88864-047-5 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/northernecologyr0000unse/page/239 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Webber, P.J., Miller, P.C., Chapin, F.S. III, MacCown, B.H. |chapter=The vegetation: pattern and succession |editor=Brown, J. |editor2=Miller, P.C. |editor3=Tieszen, L.L. |editor4=Bunnell, F.L. |title=An Arctic ecosystem: the coastal tundra at Barrow, Alaska |publisher=Dowden Hutchinson & Ross |location=Stroudsburg, PA |year=1980 |pages=186–219 |series=US/IBP Synthesis |id=12 }}</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.

== Arguments against both climate change and overkill ==
It may be observed that neither the overkill nor the climate change hypotheses can fully explain events: 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=9781620810644}}</ref> or anthropogenic fire preferentially selects against browse species.{{Citation needed|date=June 2010}}

==Hyperdisease hypothesis==

=== Theory ===

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 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}}</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> 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"/>

Diseases imported by people have been responsible for extinctions in the recent past; for example, bringing avian [[Medicine:Malaria|malaria]] to Hawaii has had a major impact on the isolated birds of the island.

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 [[Biology:Pathogen|pathogen]] must have a stable [[Medicine: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 [[Biology:Host|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 [[Medicine:Epidemic|epidemic]].{{citation needed|reason=Where did this list of criteria come from?|date=February 2021}}

One suggestion is that pathogens were transmitted by the expanding [[Biology:Human|human]]s via the domesticated [[Biology:Dog|dog]]s they brought with them,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fiedel |first=S. |title=Man's best friend: mammoth's worst enemy? |journal=World Archaeology |volume=37 |pages=11–35 |date=2005 |doi=10.1080/0043824042000329540|s2cid=161477134 |url= https://zenodo.org/record/895416}}</ref> though this does not fit the timeline of extinctions in the Americas and Australia in particular.

===Arguments against the hyperdisease hypothesis===
* Generally speaking, disease has to be very virulent to kill off all the individuals in a [[Biology:Genus|genus]] or [[Biology:Species|species]]. Even such a virulent disease as [[Medicine:West Nile fever|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}}</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, [[Biology:Marsupial|marsupial]]s, placentals, testudines, and crocodilians. 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 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}}

==Second-order predation hypothesis==
[[File:CombinedHypothesisPleistoceneExtinction.gif|upright=0.8|thumb|Combination Hypotheses: Climate Change, Overkill + Climate Change, Second-Order Predation + Climate Change]]
[[File:SingleHypothesisPleistoceneExtinctions.gif|upright=0.8|thumb|left|Overkill Hypothesis and Second-Order Predation]]

=== Scenario ===
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 balance of the continent, causing 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.

=== Support ===
This 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. | year = 2004 |chapter= Late Pleistocene extinctions through second-order predation |title=Settlement of the American Continents: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human Biogeography |editor= Barton, C.M. |editor2=Clark, G.A. |editor3=Yesner, D.R. | location = Tucson, AZ | publisher = University of Arizona Press | isbn = 978-0-8165-2323-8}}</ref><ref name="WhitneySmith2009">{{cite book | author = Whitney-Smith, E. | year = 2009 | title = The Second-Order Predation Hypothesis of Pleistocene Extinctions: A System Dynamics Model | location = Saarbruken, Germany | publisher = VDM Verlag | isbn = 978-3-639-11579-6}}</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. | year = 2006 | title = Clovis and Extinctions – Overkill, Second Order Predation, Environmental Degradation in a Non-equilibrium Ecosystem "Clovis Age Continent" | publisher = University of New Mexico Press}}</ref> (results graph at right).

The second-order predation hypothesis is 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>

=== Second-order predation and other theories ===
* '''Climate change''': Second-order predation accounts for the changes in vegetation, which in turn may account for the increase in continentality. Since the extinction is due to destruction of habitat it accounts for the loss of animals not hunted by humans. Second-order predation accounts for the dwarfing of animals as well as extinctions since animals that could survive and reproduce on less food would be selectively favored.
* '''Hyperdisease''': The reduction of carnivores could have been from distemper or other carnivore disease carried by domestic dogs.
* '''Overkill''': The observation that extinctions follow the arrival of humans is consistent with the second-order predation hypothesis.

=== Arguments against the second-order predation hypothesis ===
* The model specifically assumes high extinction rates in grasslands, but most [[Biology:Extinction|extinct]] [[Biology:Species|species]] ranged across numerous vegetation zones. Historical population densities of ungulates were very high in the Great Plains; savanna environments support high ungulate diversity throughout Africa, and extinction intensity was equally severe in forested environments.
* It is unable to explain why large herbivore populations were not regulated by surviving carnivores such as grizzly bears, wolves, pumas, and jaguars whose populations would have increased rapidly in response to the loss of competitors.
* It does not explain why almost all extinct carnivores were large herbivore specialists such as sabre toothed cats and short faced bears, but most hypocarnivores and generalized carnivores survived.
* There is no historical evidence of boom and bust cycles causing even local extinctions in regions where large mammal predators have been driven extinct by hunting. The recent hunting out of remaining predators throughout most of the United States has not caused massive vegetational change or dramatic boom and bust cycles in ungulates.
* It is not spatially explicit and does not track predator and prey species separately, whereas the multispecies overkill model does both.
* 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.
* Everything explained by the Pleistocene extinction model also is explained by the multispecies model, but with fewer assumptions, so the Pleistocene extinction model appears less parsimonious. However, the multispecies model does not explain shifts in vegetation, nor is it able to simulate alternative hypotheses. The multispecies model therefore necessitates additional assumptions and hence is less parsimonious.

=== Arguments against the second-order predation plus climate hypothesis ===
* It 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.

==Younger Dryas impact hypothesis==
{{Main|Earth:Younger Dryas impact hypothesis}}
First publicly presented at the Spring 2007 joint assembly of the [[Organization:American Geophysical Union|American Geophysical Union]] in Acapulco, Mexico, the [[Earth:Younger Dryas impact hypothesis|Younger Dryas impact hypothesis]] suggests that the mass extinction was caused by fragments of a disintegrating asteroid or comet 12,900 years ago. Using photomicrograph analysis, research published in January 2009 has found evidence of nanodiamonds in the soil from six sites across North America including Arizona, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and two Canadian sites. Similar research found nanodiamonds in the [[Earth:Greenland ice sheet|Greenland ice sheet]].<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-01-01-mammothimpact_N.htm Study links mammoth extinction, comets], [[Software:USA Today|USA Today]], Updated 1/2/2009. Retrieved 4 April 2009</ref><ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/clovis/debate.html The Extinction Debate], by Evan Hadingham, ''NOVA'', Retrieved 4 April 2009.</ref><ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/clovis/about.html Last Extinction], ''NOVA'', TV Program Description, Original PBS Broadcast Date: March 31, 2009,  Retrieved 4 April 2009.</ref>

===Arguments against/for the impact hypothesis===
Debate around this hypothesis has included, among other things, the lack of an impact crater, relatively small increased level of [[Chemistry:Iridium|iridium]] in the soil, and the relative probability of such an event. That said, it took 10 years after publication of the Alvarez theory before scientists found the [[Earth:Chicxulub crater|Chicxulub crater]]. If the bolide struck the Laurentide ice sheet as hypothesized by Firestone et al. (2007), a typical impact crater would not be visible.

A spike in platinum was found in the Greenland ice cores by Petaev et al. (2013), which they view as a global signal.<ref name="pnas.org">{{cite journal|title=Large Pt anomaly in the Greenland ice core points to a cataclysm at the onset of Younger Dryas |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=110 |issue=32 |pages=12917–12920 |publisher=PNAS |date=2013-08-06 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1303924110 |pmid=23878232 |pmc=3740870 |last1=Petaev |first1=M. I. |last2=Huang |first2=S. |last3=Jacobsen |first3=S. B. |last4=Zindler |first4=A. |bibcode=2013PNAS..11012917P |doi-access=free }}</ref>  Confirmation came in 2017 with the report that the Pt spike had been found at "11 widely separated archaeological bulk sedimentary sequences."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Moore|first1=Christopher R.|last2=West|first2=Allen|last3=LeCompte|first3=Malcolm A.|last4=Brooks|first4=Mark J.|last5=Daniel|first5=I. Randolph|last6=Goodyear|first6=Albert C.|last7=Ferguson|first7=Terry A.|last8=Ivester|first8=Andrew H.|last9=Feathers|first9=James K.|date=2017-03-09|title=Widespread platinum anomaly documented at the Younger Dryas onset in North American sedimentary sequences|journal=Scientific Reports|volume=7|issue=1|pages=44031|doi=10.1038/srep44031|issn=2045-2322|pmc=5343653|pmid=28276513|bibcode=2017NatSR...744031M}}</ref> Wolbach et al. reported in 2018 that "YDB peaks in Pt were observed at 28 sites" in total, including the 11 reported earlier and the one from Greenland.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wolbach|first1=Wendy S.|last2=Ballard|first2=Joanne P.|last3=Mayewski|first3=Paul A.|last4=Parnell|first4=Andrew C.|last5=Cahill|first5=Niamh|last6=Adedeji|first6=Victor|last7=Bunch|first7=Ted E.|last8=Domínguez-Vázquez|first8=Gabriela|last9=Erlandson|first9=Jon M.|date=March 2018|title=Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ∼12,800 Years Ago. 2. Lake, Marine, and Terrestrial Sediments|journal=The Journal of Geology|volume=126|issue=2|pages=185–205|doi=10.1086/695704|issn=0022-1376|bibcode=2018JG....126..185W|s2cid=53494648|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/95973f135b3919130883692b8e50466c9d5d0417}}</ref>

* Some have reported a lack of evidence for a population decline among the Paleoindians at 12,900 ± 100 calBP.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1179/2055556314Z.00000000012 | volume=1 | title=Pleistocene Human Settlement in the Southeastern United States: Current Evidence and Future Directions | year=2015 | journal=PaleoAmerica | pages=7–51 | last1 = Anderson | first1 = David G. | last2 = Smallwood | first2 = Ashley M. | last3 = Miller | first3 = D. Shane| s2cid=129709232 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Buchanan B, Collard M, Edinborough K|title=Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis|journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.|volume=105|issue=33|pages=11651–4|date=19 August 2008|doi=10.1073/pnas.0803762105|pmid=18697936|pmc=2575318|bibcode=2008PNAS..10511651B|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Haynes, Gary|title=American megafaunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iq6qZXUkWo0C&pg=PA125|year=2009|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4020-8792-9|page=125}}</ref> However, others have reported finding such evidence.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Anderson|first1=David G.|last2=Goodyear|first2=Albert C.|last3=Kennett|first3=James|last4=West|first4=Allen|date=2011|title=Multiple lines of evidence for possible Human population decline/settlement reorganization during the early Younger Dryas|journal=Quaternary International|volume=242|issue=2|pages=570–583|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2011.04.020|issn=1040-6182|bibcode=2011QuInt.242..570A}}</ref>
* There is evidence that the megafaunal extinctions that occurred across northern Eurasia, North America and South America at the end of the [[Earth:Pleistocene|Pleistocene]] were not synchronous as the bolide theory would predict. The extinctions in South America appear to have occurred at least 400 years after those in North America.<ref name="Haynes">{{cite book|first=Gary|last=Haynes|editor-last=Haynes|editor-first=Gary|contribution=Introduction to the Volume|title=American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene|year=2009|pages=1–20|publisher=[[Company:Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]|doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_1|isbn=978-1-4020-8792-9|series=Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology|s2cid=126697935|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/dbe0d2a8dcb6e3c2174a718684a64cf7ffb97491}}</ref><ref name="Fiedel">{{cite book|first=Stuart|last=Fiedel|editor-last=Haynes|editor-first=Gary|contribution=Sudden Deaths: The Chronology of Terminal Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction|title=American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene|year=2009|pages=21–37|publisher=[[Company:Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]|doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_2|isbn=978-1-4020-8792-9|series=Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology}}</ref><ref name="Fiedel2">{{cite web|last=Vergano|first=Dan|title=Study links mammoth extinction, comets|website=[[Software:USA Today|USA Today]]|publisher=[[Company:Gannett Company|Gannett Company]]|date=2009-01-02|url=https://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-01-01-mammothimpact_N.htm|access-date=2009-05-10}}</ref>
* Additionally, some island megafaunal populations survived thousands of years longer than populations of the same or related species on nearby continents; examples include the survival of woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island until 3700 BP,<ref name="Haynes" /><ref name="Fiedel" /> and the survival of [[Biology:Megalocnus|ground sloths]] in the Antilles until 4700 cal BP.<ref name="Haynes" /><ref name="Fiedel" /><ref name="Fiedel2" />
* Several markers for the proposed impact event are disputed. Opponents have asserted that the carbon spherules originated as fungal structures and/or insect fecal pellets,<ref name="spherules">{{cite web|last=Roach|first=John|title=Fungi, Feces Show Comet Didn't Kill Ice Age Mammals?|website=National Geographic Daily News|publisher=[[Organization:National Geographic Society|National Geographic Society]]|date=2010-06-22|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100622-science-environment-wildfires-cooling-ice-age-extinctions/|access-date=2010-06-25}}</ref> and that the claimed nanodiamonds are actually misidentified [[Physics:Graphene|graphene]] and graphene/[[Chemistry:Graphane|graphane]] oxide aggregates.<ref name="Daulton">{{cite journal|last=Daulton|first=T. L.|author2=Pinter, N.|author3=Scott, A. C.|title=No evidence of nanodiamonds in Younger–Dryas sediments to support an impact event|journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.|volume=107|issue=37|pages=16043–7|date=2010-08-30|doi=10.1073/pnas.1003904107|pmc=2941276|pmid=20805511|bibcode=2010PNAS..10716043D|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Kerr2">{{cite web|last=Kerr|first=Richard A.|title=Mammoth-Killer Impact Rejected|website=Science NOW|publisher=AAAS|date=2010-10-30|url=http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/08/mammoth-killer-impact-rejected.html|access-date=2010-08-31}}</ref> An analysis of a similar Younger Dryas boundary layer in Belgium also did not show evidence of a bolide impact.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Tian H, Schryvers D, Claeys P|title=Nanodiamonds do not provide unique evidence for a Younger Dryas impact|journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.|volume=108|issue=1|pages=40–4|date=January 2011|pmid=21173270|pmc=3017148|doi=10.1073/pnas.1007695108|bibcode=2011PNAS..108...40T|doi-access=free}}</ref>
*However, proponents of the hypothesis have responded to defend their results, disputing the accusation of irreproducibility and/or replicating their findings.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bement|first1=Leland C.|last2=Madden|first2=Andrew S.|last3=Carter|first3=Brian J.|last4=Simms|first4=Alexander R.|last5=Swindle|first5=Andrew L.|last6=Alexander|first6=Hanna M.|last7=Fine|first7=Scott|last8=Benamara|first8=Mourad|date=2014-02-04|title=Quantifying the distribution of nanodiamonds in pre-Younger Dryas to recent age deposits along Bull Creek, Oklahoma Panhandle, USA|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=111|issue=5|pages=1726–1731|doi=10.1073/pnas.1309734111|issn=0027-8424|pmc=3918833|pmid=24449875|bibcode=2014PNAS..111.1726B|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Israde-Alcántara|first1=Isabel|last2=Bischoff|first2=James L.|last3=DeCarli|first3=Paul S.|last4=Domínguez-Vázquez|first4=Gabriela|last5=Bunch|first5=Ted E.|last6=Firestone|first6=Richard B.|last7=Kennett|first7=James P.|last8=West|first8=Allen|date=2012-08-21|title=Reply to Blaauw et al., Boslough, Daulton, Gill et al., and Hardiman et al.: Younger Dryas impact proxies in Lake Cuitzeo, Mexico|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=109|issue=34|pages=E2245–E2247|doi=10.1073/pnas.1209463109|issn=0027-8424|pmc=3427057|bibcode=2012PNAS..109E2245I|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=LeCompte|first1=Malcolm A.|last2=Batchelor|first2=Dale|last3=Demitroff|first3=Mark N.|last4=Vogel|first4=Edward K.|last5=Mooney|first5=Charles|last6=Rock|first6=Barrett N.|last7=Seidel|first7=Alfred W.|date=2013-04-30|title=Reply to Boslough: Prior studies validating research are ignored|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=110|issue=18|pages=E1652|doi=10.1073/pnas.1300425110|issn=0027-8424|pmc=3645571|pmid=23762911|bibcode=2013PNAS..110E1652L|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kennett|first1=James P.|last2=Kennett|first2=Douglas J.|last3=Culleton|first3=Brendan J.|last4=Tortosa|first4=J. Emili Aura|last5=Bunch|first5=Ted E.|last6=Erlandson|first6=Jon M.|last7=Johnson|first7=John R.|last8=Pardo|first8=Jesús F. Jordá|last9=LeCompte|first9=Malcome A.|date=2015-12-08|title=Reply to Holliday and Boslough et al.: Synchroneity of widespread Bayesian-modeled ages supports Younger Dryas impact hypothesis|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=112|issue=49|pages=E6723–E6724|doi=10.1073/pnas.1520411112|issn=0027-8424|pmc=4679043|pmid=26604309|bibcode=2015PNAS..112E6723K|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=LeCompte|first1=Malcolm A.|last2=Goodyear|first2=Albert C.|last3=Demitroff|first3=Mark N.|last4=Batchelor|first4=Dale|last5=Vogel|first5=Edward K.|last6=Mooney|first6=Charles|last7=Rock|first7=Barrett N.|last8=Seidel|first8=Alfred W.|date=2012-10-30|title=Independent evaluation of conflicting microspherule results from different investigations of the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=109|issue=44|pages=E2960–E2969|doi=10.1073/pnas.1208603109|issn=0027-8424|pmc=3497834|pmid=22988071|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Napier|first1=William M.|last2=Bunch|first2=Ted E.|last3=Kennett|first3=James P.|last4=Wittke|first4=James H.|last5=Tankersley|first5=Kenneth B.|last6=Kletetschka|first6=Gunther|last7=Howard|first7=George A.|last8=West|first8=Allen|date=2013-11-05|title=Reply to Boslough et al.: Decades of comet research counter their claims|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=110|issue=45|pages=E4171|doi=10.1073/pnas.1315467110|issn=0027-8424|pmc=3831498|pmid=24350338|bibcode=2013PNAS..110E4171N|doi-access=free}}</ref> Prior to finding of a widespread Pt spike on the continents, Pleistocene expert Wallace Broecker had already changed his mind about the YDIH: "The Greenland platinum peak makes clear that an extraterrestrial impact occurred close to the onset of the YD."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~broecker/Home.html|title=Broecker Briefs|last=Broecker|first=Wallace|date=September 13, 2018}}</ref>

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Earth:Holocene extinction}}
* {{annotated link|Biology:List of quaternary mammalian fauna of China}}
* {{annotated link|Biology:Megafauna}}
* {{annotated link|Biology:Pleistocene megafauna}}
* {{annotated link|Biology:Pleistocene rewilding}}
* {{annotated link|Earth:Toba catastrophe theory}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==

===Hyperdisease hypothesis===
* {{cite web|url=http://www.amnh.biz/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/bytes/MacPheePres.html|title=American Museum of Natural History|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903232653/http://www.amnh.biz/science/biodiversity/extinction/Day1/bytes/MacPheePres.html|archive-date=2011-09-03}}
* {{cite web|url=http://biology.unm.edu/JHBrown/Published/WasAHyperdiseaseResponsible.x.pdf|title=Was a hyperdisease responsible?|author=J.H. Brown (University of New Mexico)|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060527220000/http://biology.unm.edu/JHBrown/Published/WasAHyperdiseaseResponsible.x.pdf|archive-date=2006-05-27}}

===Second-order predation===
* {{cite web|url=http://quaternary.net|title=Quaternary.Net|author=Elin Whitney-Smith}}

===Other links===
* {{cite web|url=http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/ice-age-bay-area2|title=Ice Age Bay Area|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226005001/http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/ice-age-bay-area2|archive-date=2008-12-26}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/mega-list.html|title=The Extinct Late Pleistocene Mammals of North America}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/beta/evolution/end-big-beasts.html|author=Peter Tyson|title=End of the Big Beasts}}
* {{cite journal|url=http://biology.unm.edu/fasmith/Web_Page_PDFs/Lyons_et_al_2004_EER.pdf|title=Of mice, mastodons and men: human-mediated extinctions on four continents|author=S. Kathleen Lyons |author2=Felisa A. Smith |author3=James H. Brown |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-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6159e4kKs?url=http://www.tarpits.org/education/guide/index.html|archive-date=2011-08-20}}

{{Quaternary Footer}}
{{Geological history}}
{{Extinction}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quaternary Extinction Event}}
[[Category:Extinction events]]
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