Demise of early large animals caused by both humans and climate change

Research provides new insights about what caused the extinction of many of the world's big animals over the last 100,000 years.

Past waves of extinctions which removed some of the world's largest animals were caused by both people and climate change, according to new research from the University of Cambridge. Their findings were reported March 5, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

By examining extinctions during the late Quaternary period (from 700,000 year ago until present day), but primarily focusing on the last 100,000 years, scientists have been able to assess the relative importance of different factors in causing the extinctions of many of the world's terrestrial megafauna, animals 44 kg or larger. These extinctions included mammoths in North America and Eurasia as well as mastodons and giant sloths in the Americas, the woolly rhino in Europe, giant kangaroos and wombats in Australia, and the moas (giant flightless birds) in New Zealand.

The researchers used data from an Antarctic ice core, which gives one of the longest running records of changes in Earth's climate, covering the last several hundred thousand years. They also compiled information on the arrival of modern humans from Africa on five different landmasses (North America, South America, most of Eurasia, Australia and New Zealand) ... ScienceDaily

Link 2: Ya hace cien mil años el Hombre era causa de la extinción de especies

Cambridge.- Las olas de extinciones que se produjeron hace 100.000 años, que eliminaron a algunos de los animales más grandes del mundo, fueron causadas por el ser humano y el cambio climático, según una nueva investigación de la Universidad de Cambridge, publicada en la revista 'PNAS'.

Mediante el examen de la extinción ocurrida durante el Cuaternario tardío (hace 700.000 años), pero centrándose principalmente en los últimos 100.000 años, los científicos han sido capaces de evaluar la importancia relativa de los diferentes factores que causaron la extinción de gran parte de la megafauna terrestre del mundo -los animales de 44 kg, o más. Estas extinciones incluyen a los mamuts de Norteamérica y Eurasia, los mastodontes y los perezosos gigantes de las Américas, el rinoceronte lanudo de Europa, los canguros y wombats gigantes de Australia, y las moas gigantes (aves no voladoras) de Nueva Zelanda...