Did humans cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene mammalian extinctions in South America in a context of shrinking open areas?

The last important –and possibly the most spectacular– turnover in South American mammal history occurred around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, when 100% of megamammal species and about 80% of large mammal species became extinct. In this paper, we consider as “megamammals” those with body mass o...

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Autores principales: Tonni, Eduardo Pedro, Cione, Alberto Luis, Soibelzon, Leopoldo Héctor, Haynes, Gary
Formato: Libro Capitulo de libro
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Springer 2008
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Acceso en línea:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/5370
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Sumario:The last important –and possibly the most spectacular– turnover in South American mammal history occurred around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, when 100% of megamammal species and about 80% of large mammal species became extinct. In this paper, we consider as “megamammals” those with body mass over 1,000 kg, and “large mammals” those over 44 kg. With the exception of a few smaller mammals, no other animal or plant disappeared. Consequently, this extinction event was distinct from mass extinctions.