The overkill hypothesis as a plausible explanation for the extinctions of Late Wisconsin megafauna

Auteur :
SPAULDING, W. G.

Description :
The pulse of large mammal extinctions at the close of the last ice age was a pronounced ecological catastrophe in the Western Hemisphere. Available paleoenvironmental, paleontological, and archeological data are largely concordant with the overkill hypothesis proposing that human predation was the cause of these extinctions. Climatic explanations fail to postulate specific mechanisms accounting for the event's timing, differential impact, geographic extent, and stratigraphic singularity. Lack of provisional acceptance of the overkill hypothesis, when no viable alternatives exist. may be in part because this unconventional hypothesis violates a stong sociocultural bias, the image of prehistoric man as the noble savage.


Type de document :
Article de périodique

Source :
Quaternary research New York, 1983, vol. 20, n°. 1, p. 110-112, Références bibliographiques : 18 réf.

Date :
1983