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

Abstract

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