[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The extinction list is way too long and diverse (including birds and reptiles) to simply tack it onto the butcher's bill of humans. Correlation is not causation.

Extend the argument to it logical absurd conclusion. If man could wipe out mega-fauna as soon as they arrived, then why are there any animals in Africa where man was present many many years before in the Americas.

[Flag_This]

"If man could wipe out mega-fauna as soon as they arrived, then why are there any animals in Africa where man was present many many years before in the Americas."

I think Africa is a great counter-argument to the over-kill hypothesis; especially when you consider the survival of large animals in Africa, like the elephant (similar is size to the mammoth and mastodon), despite facing constant hunting pressure from humans for tens of thousands of years longer than the mega-fauna did in the New World.

I know that one of the theories is that animals in the New World didn't recognize humans as a threat and pretty much allowed themselves to be easily wiped out, but it seems to me that the devastation was too wide-spread and included too many species. The species that didn't go extinct figured out that humans were a threat quickly enough.

[qam1]

Extend the argument to it logical absurd conclusion. If man could wipe out mega-fauna as soon as they arrived, then why are there any animals in Africa where man was present many many years before in the Americas.

Extend your argument out to its logical conclusion and the Brown Tree snake couldn't be responsible for driving all those birds extinct on Guam because why are there any birds on the mainline where it was present for many, many years before it arrived on Guam.

And guess what, many large animals were in fact driven extinct by man in Africa earlier. There were larger species of giraffe, hippopotamuses, Hyenas, warthogs and several other large pachyderms living in Africa for millions of years, then Homo Erectus learned to sharpen sticks and build fires.

There were also large saber tooth cats living in Africa, they also went extinct at the rise of Homo Erectus. Why did they vanished in Africa while doing fine in the rest of the then people free world for 900,000+ more years, until man started his migration out?

Let me guess, these African extinctions were caused by asteroids also?

Sorry I know Asteroids and Comets falling out of the sky and killing all these beast sounds weally, weally cool and Asteroids/Comets means that ancient "at one with nature" man didn't drive all these animals extinct which keeps your Avatar fantasies intact, but sorry there is no evidence for them.

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

The theory is that the American animals had no fear of man. The animals in Africa and Eurasia evolved alongside humans and developed a natural fear of the predators.