[neverdem]

Never made much sense to me.

From the link:

In the second report, John Alroy of the University of California at Santa Barbara describes a computer simulation of the end-Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in North America showing that even low levels of human hunting would have driven the Ice Age behemoths out of existence. Importantly, the simulation, which assumes a slow human population growth rate and low maximum hunting efforts, correctly predicts the fate of 32 out of 41 megafaunal species. These findings, Alroy argues, show that in fact anthropogenic extinction was unavoidable. "The overkill model thus serves as a parable of resource exploitation," he concludes, "providing a clear mechanism for a geologically instantaneous ecological catastrophe that was too gradual to be perceived by the people who unleashed it."

I never heard of it before either. Never get surprised by a Malthusian with a computer model.

[Sherman Logan]

The problem with this theory is that many of the same species survived just fine in Asia. Why would humans exterminate megafauna in N. America but not in Asia?

[blueplum]

the author's counterparts claim that mammoths were still around until just a few thousand years ago. The author's claim mammoths were overhunted to extinction may also be exaggerated, in light of the numerous animals that co-existed with mammoths, i.e., horses, camels, lions, tigers and bears.

http://packrat.aml.arizona.edu/Journal/v37n1/vartanyan.html
Last upper molar from the bed of the lower Mamontovaya River (N-MAM-6) BC 2574-2464
Tusk (8 cm diameter (d)) from the bed of the lower Neozhydannaya River BC 2192-2038

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_/ai_n24977637
Fossils of mammoths, bison, cave bears and horses all seem to disappear from parts of Alaska and Siberia around

35,000 years ago.

“And then they show up again around 10,000 years later,” he said. “So they came in from elsewhere.”

http://www.blm.gov/education/feature/2000/ut/

Gillette believes that present-day vegetation in the area is similar to what was here 11,500 years ago. Mammoth remains are most often found in areas that were covered by grasslands during the last Ice Age; in this area, there were likely both conifers and grasses, probably fed by a good water source. The mammoths co-existed with other now-extinct species, such as saber tooth tigers, giant ground sloths, musk oxen, camels, horses, tapirs, and lions.