Extinction Of Woolly Mammoth, Saber-Toothed Cat May Have Been Caused By Human Predators

[Nicholas]

ScienceDaily (July 1, 2010) — A new analysis of the extinction of woolly mammoths and other large mammals more than 10,000 years ago suggests that they may have fallen victim to the same type of "trophic cascade" of ecosystem disruption that scientists say is being caused today by the global decline of predators such as wolves, cougars, and sharks.

Find the article HERE!

I thought this was old news and an old idea, but I thought it would make a nice discussion piece.

[JimB88]

I never did agree with that theory. Humankind had co-existed with mammoths in Europe and Asia for over 100,000 years without forcing them to extinction. Plus the continent of Africa had no large scale extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene despite having the largest human population at the time! I wrote a paper on this when I was in a physical anthropology class back in college; my instructor agreed 100% with me.

[ashcraft]

I think I can paraphrase this story into fewer lines; It's man's fault, we know its man's fault, and if the original reasons are largely disproven, we'll find other reasons why that it's man's fault.

It reminds me of the endocrine disruptor scare of the late 80's and early 90's. For those of you too young to remember, it went like this. Man is polluting, the pollutants are mimicing the bodies natural chemicals, and this is leading to cancers, abnormal growths, etc.

The pushers of the rubbish thought they had it proven when frogs in Wisconsin or Michigan started showing up with extra legs. "Look" they said "this is the results of the endocrine system being disrupted".

It actually turned out to be the death nell of the "theory" as the frogs abnormalities were shown to be a result of a naturally occuring parasite.

Not to fade away graciously, the chant became "the parasite numbers are abnormally high because of global warming".

I say again- It's man's fault, we know its man's fault, regardless of the facts.

Brent Ashcraft

[Nicholas]

I'm definitely with you folks, I feel that this has been beaten to death by a certain fringe of science while all the other authorities point out alternative theories which are usually disregarded. In my physical anthropology literature this idea comes and goes, some years it is all Man's fault and other years it is the fault of climate change/other factors. I'm sure this idea will die out again soon enough.

[SharkTeethCollecter]

While I'm not surprised that another article like this has come out recently, but I'm going to say this. The reason man could coexist with such creatures for so long was because 1) man's population grew and grew, requiring more meat for tribes, and 2)while there is no real proof for this opinion, but I suspect that even back so long ago, there were large tribes that were sort-of trophy hunters that are just as wasteful as today.

But you're right, it should die off in a few days.

Edited July 3, 2010 by SharkTeethCollecter