The Journey Begins

This is my first ever blogging assignment, and I would like to take this opportunity to look at the various factors that could have caused the collapse of megafauna during the late Pleistocene (60,000-11,000 years ago). This topic is particularly fascinating as I have always wanted to understand whether man, climate or another factor  was responsible for the death and eventual extinction of these great beasts. My curiosity was first sparked when I watched 10,000 BC (many of you have probably seen it), whereby I was intrigued as to whether the colonial expansion of Homo Sapiens could cause the complete extinction of such large animals.  Even well-loved children animated films such as Ice-Age arouse much debate around this topic. Megafauna can be defined by archaeologists and palaeontologists as 'large bodied mammals weighing more than 100 pounds'.  Many of the megafauna that died between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago (Pleistocene mega fauna) weighed approximately 4,500kg, that’s three times heavier than your average car!!

My blogs will specifically question whether it was a coincidence that megafauna became extinct just as humans left Africa and Southern Asia and began to colonize the rest of the world.  I will also address  other hypothesis that have been given for these extinctions, including climatic change, disease, fire and the impact from an asteroid/comet.
                                                                                                                         

Eurasia: wooly mammoth

Australia: Diprotodon (giant wombat)

South America: Smilodon (Sabertooth)

I will also discuss whether its possible that these forces worked together, subsequently causing extinctions. As this journey of discovery progresses, we will uncover various reasons for the extinction of megafauna in the continents of Australia, Asia and Africa. Evidence has shown that when the planet became colder some animals did not adapt quickly enough and consequently died out.  Changes in climate could have induced human migration or the spread of disease.

With the use of dating, modelling, and genetic analysis there has been a large degree of research conducted as to the reasons behind megafauna extinction. However, the conclusions of of these studies have been controversial. By the end of this blog, I  hope to shed some light on one of the greatest mysteries that to this day, has no accepted answer. 

The youtube video below provides a brief background as to what I will be discussing in my later blogs.