Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions

"Megafauna" (large animals weighing over 45 kg) play extremely important roles in shaping their ecosystems. For hundreds of millions of years, including through multiple glacial–interglacial transitions, megafauna have been abundant across all landscapes and seascapes on Earth. The last 50,000 years, however, have been marked by a dramatic decline in megafaunal abundance and diversity. Leading up to the end of the Pleistocene era 12,000 years ago, co-incident waves of human arrival and overhunti