Fifty thousand years of extinction

The Late Quaternary extinction of megafauna has been a “hot topic” of research and debate since at least the time of Darwin (who discussed it in the Origin), but especially since the 1960s when Paul Martin ignited the debate with his theory of prehistoric overkill. The topic has had increasing exposure over the past ten years because of the relevance of this, the most recent palaeontological extinction event, to modern concerns about biodiversity loss. Although sometimes described as a “mass extinction”, the Late Quaternary event, by itself, does not compare with the major extinctions of the distant past...