Giant Creatures Wiped Out by Hunters, Not Climate

[tocqueville]

Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Thu Aug 4, 9:21 AM ET

Weapon-wielding humans, and not warming temperatures, killed off the sloth and other giant mammals that roamed North America during the last Ice Age, a new study suggests.

The arrival of humans onto the American continent and the great thaw that occurred near the end of the last Ice Age both occurred at roughly the same time, about 11,000 years ago. Until now, scientists were unable to tease apart the two events.

To get around this problem, David Steadman, a researcher at the University of Florida, used radiocarbon to date fossils from the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola, where humans didn't set foot until more than 6,000 years after their arrival on the American continent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20050804/sc_space/giantcreatureswipedoutbyhuntersnotclimate;_ylt=AiSEBhVhIJMY5Z3IOrHobF_637YB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[On the Road]

1. This is Really Strange,

but last night I dreamed about seeing a ground sloth. How often does that happen?

BTW, I figure that the end of the Ice Age gave humans more mobility. That might be the link connecting it to the extinctions. It's too bad -- some of those megafauna would be wonderful to have around nowdays.

[winter999]

2. Reminds me of Voltaire

where he wrote:

"Do you think," said Candide, "that mankind always massacred one another as they do now? Were they always guilty of lies, fraud, treachery, ingratitude, inconstancy, envy, ambition, and cruelty? Were they always thieves, fools, cowards, gluttons, drunkards, misers, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, and hypocrites?"

"Do you believe," said Martin, "that hawks have always been accustomed to eat pigeons when they came in their way?"

"Doubtless," said Candide.

"Well then," replied Martin, "if hawks have always had the same nature, why should you pretend that mankind change theirs?"

[tocqueville]

11. the only difference is that hawks do it to eat

and humans for fun

[greyl]

3. Here's a working link

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/050803_iceage_extinct.html

edit:well, it's a different link anyhow. :)

[formerrepuke]

4. The "overkill" hypothesis- we've been driving species to extinction

for millenia.

[greyl]

6. But weren't humans made to conquer and rule the earth?

Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing? Our destiny? Didn't evolution end when man made the scene born as farmers and city builders?
/sarc
It's a "divinely granted" policy of our culture to destroy our competitors.

[salvorhardin]

7. Right......

We've got to get the ice sloths before they get us. Anybody who thinks otherwise must be a commie.

[Boomer]

8. Yup, it's not just Western Europeans

I'm not defending our record as agents of mass extinction, but articles like this underscore my belief that humans as a species are a risk factor for nature, not just one ethnic group.

[greyl]

9. It's not about ethnicity at all.

It's a leap of logic to conclude that Homo-* have been a risk factor for nature. Homo-* are inextricably part of nature and are no more a risk factor for nature than leopards and sharks.

[Kraklen]

5. I always thought that was the case.

and I wonder if it's the source of native oral traditions warning about the dangers of overhunting.

[wli]

10. known for a while, it was the original holocene extinction event

The ongoing holocene extinction event is a mass extinction subsuming the extinction of the megafauna.