What Killed the Great Beasts of North America? 214
sciencehabit writes "Until about 11,000 years ago, mammoths, giant beavers, and other massive mammals roamed North America. Many researchers have blamed their demise on incoming Paleoindians, the first Americans, who allegedly hunted them to extinction. But a new study points to climate and environmental changes instead. The findings could have implications for conservation strategies, including controversial proposals for 'rewilding' lions and elephants into North America."
Re:It's the orbit, stupid (Score:5, Informative)
If so, TFS is wrong (Score:5, Informative)
Seems likely that this is the article. If so, I've only read the abstract so far, but TFS seems to misrepresent the authors' conclusion.
TFS claims:
whereas the abstract says:
In other words, the authors are not saying humans were not involved in the extinctions. They are saying human predation cannot be the *sole* cause.
Re:It's the orbit, stupid (Score:3, Informative)
The truth is, the earth, as a whole, is currently at about the lowest average temperature [imageshack.us] that can be inferred from the all sources of ancient data. Normally, we should be about 2-3 C higher, globally, given the historical record.
"Global Warming" is just a return to trend and should be expected whether humans are walking around or not.