Environmental Causes of the Extinction of the Pleistocene Megafauna in the Desert Southwest

Environmental Causes of the Extinction of the Pleistocene Megafauna in the Desert Southwest PDF Author: James C. Hartley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Adaptation (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Environmental Causes of the Extinction of the Pleistocene Megafauna in the Desert Southwest

Environmental Causes of the Extinction of the Pleistocene Megafauna in the Desert Southwest PDF Author: James C. Hartley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Adaptation (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Pleistocene Extinctions

Pleistocene Extinctions PDF Author: Paul S. Martin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Extinct animals
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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A bestiary for Pleistocene biologists / Paul S. Martin and John E. Guilday -- Introduction / Edward S. Deevey Jr. -- Prehistoric overkill / Paul S. Martin -- Differential extinction during late-Pleistocene and Recent times / John E. Guilday -- The late-Pleistocene extinction and diminution in size of many mammalian species / William Ellis Edwards -- Animal ranges as a clue to late-Pleistocene extinction / Bob H. Slaughter -- The agency of man in animal extinctions / James J. Hester -- Man's role in the extinction of Pleistocene faunas / Arthur J. Jelinek -- Late-Cenozoic patterns of plant extinction / Estella B. Leopold -- The environment of extinction of the late-Pleistocene megafauna in the arid southwestern United States / Peter J. Mehringer Jr. -- Carbon-14 dates and early man in the New World / C. Vance Haynes Jr. -- Late-Pleistocene and Holocene faunal history of central Texas / Ernest L. Lundelius Jr. -- Four superimposed late-Pleistocene vertebrate faunas from southwest Kansas / Gerald E. Schultz -- Associations of early man with horse, camel, and mastodon at Hueyatlaco, Valsequillo (Puebla, Mexico) / Cynthia Irwin-Williams -- The Pleistocene extinction of mammals in Europe / Kazimierz Kowalski -- Primitive hunters and Pleistocene extinction in the Soviet Union / N.K. Vereshchagin -- Pleistocene vertebrates of the Netherlands Antilles / D.A. Hooijer -- Ecologic changes in protohistoric Madagascar / R. Battistini and P. Verin -- Patterns of extinction among the subfossil Madagascan lemuroids / Alan Walker.

American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene

American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene PDF Author: Gary Haynes
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402087934
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
The volume contains summaries of facts, theories, and unsolved problems pertaining to the unexplained extinction of dozens of genera of mostly large terrestrial mammals, which occurred ca. 13,000 calendar years ago in North America and about 1,000 years later in South America. Another equally mysterious wave of extinctions affected large Caribbean islands around 5,000 years ago. The coupling of these extinctions with the earliest appearance of human beings has led to the suggestion that foraging humans are to blame, although major climatic shifts were also taking place in the Americas during some of the extinctions. The last published volume with similar (but not identical) themes -- Extinctions in Near Time -- appeared in 1999; since then a great deal of innovative, exciting new research has been done but has not yet been compiled and summarized. Different chapters in this volume provide in-depth resumés of the chronology of the extinctions in North and South America, the possible insights into animal ecology provided by studies of stable isotopes and anatomical/physiological characteristics such as growth increments in mammoth and mastodont tusks, the clues from taphonomic research about large-mammal biology, the applications of dating methods to the extinctions debate, and archeological controversies concerning human hunting of large mammals.

Quaternary Extinctions

Quaternary Extinctions PDF Author: Paul S. Martin
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816547440
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 903

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Book Description
"What caused the extinction of so many animals at or near the end of the Pleistocene? Was it overkill by human hunters, the result of a major climatic change or was it just a part of some massive evolutionary turnover? Questions such as these have plagued scientists for over one hundred years and are still being heatedly debated today. Quaternary Extinctions presents the latest and most comprehensive examination of these questions." —Geological Magazine "May be regarded as a kind of standard encyclopedia for Pleistocene vertebrate paleontology for years to come." —American Scientist "Should be read by paleobiologists, biologists, wildlife managers, ecologists, archeologists, and anyone concerned about the ongoing extinction of plants and animals." —Science "Uncommonly readable and varied for watchers of paleontology and the rise of humankind." —Scientific American "Represents a quantum leap in our knowledge of Pleistocene and Holocene palaeobiology. . . . Many volumes on our bookshelves are destined to gather dust rather than attention. But not this one." —Nature "Two strong impressions prevail when first looking into this epic compendium. One is the judicious balance of views that range over the whole continuum between monocausal, cultural, or environmental explanations. The second is that both the data base and theoretical sophistication of the protagonists in the debate have improved by a quantum leap since 1967." —American Anthropologist

Extinctions in Near Time

Extinctions in Near Time PDF Author: R. D. E. MacPhee
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780306460920
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
This book examines an important and growing issue among ecologists, conservation biologists, and archaeologists, namely recent extinction of species, and will focus on treatments of losses thought to have been caused by humans in some way over the past 40,000 years when Homo sapiens spread worldwide. There is an exemplary list of leading figures in this debate, and the book should have impact for the debate on current conservation issues and biodiversity.

Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinctions in South America

Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinctions in South America PDF Author: Natalia Andrea Villavicencio Figueroa
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Abstract Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinctions in South America: Chronology, environmental changes and human impacts at regional scales by Natalia Andrea Villavicencio Figueroa Doctor of Philosophy in Integrative Biology University of California, Berkeley Professor Anthony D. Barnosky, Chair By the end of the Pleistocene the world lost most of its species of large mammals in what is known as the Late Quaternary Extinction event. The debate about the possible causes of extinction revolves around the impacts caused by modern humans migrating around the world, the climate changes associated with the glacial-interglacial transition happening at the time of the extinction and combinations of both. South America was one of the most severely impacted continents losing over eighty percent of all its species of mammals with an average body weight exceeding forty four kilograms. In this continent, human arrival and late glacial climate changes were not far separated in time and previous analyses have shown interesting regional differences in the timing and pattern of extinction inside the continent. A critical step to understand the extinction event at regional and continental scales is the development of robust radiocarbon-based chronologies of megafaunal presence and extinction which can be compared to the timing of arrival of humans and of environmental changes. This dissertation addresses the Late Quaternary Extinction event debate in South America by developing analyses of the extinction at regional scales, and improving the chronology of extinction for some regions of the continent by radiocarbon dating bone specimens of extinct megafauna following high standard procedures for radiocarbon dating bone. Chapter one consists of a bestiary of the Pleistocene megafauna of South America. It describes each species and genera of megafauna giving details about their geographic distribution and general paleoecology. A final synthesis of the information shows regional differences in megafaunal diversity that can be explained by sampling bias. While regional differences in diversity persist in time when the Late Pleistocene is compared to the present, regions are today more similar than in the past, which suggests that a considerable amount of regional megafaunal endemism was lost during the Late Quaternary Extinction event. Chapter two is a regional scale analysis of the megafaunal extinction in Southern Patagonia. Using published information it was possible to build a robust chronology of magefaunal extinction and human arrival into this region. When comparing these chronologies with the timing of major environmental changes it seems that a combination of human impacts and vegetation changes were behind most of the megafaunal extinctions. Chapter three describes the process of radiocarbon dating bone specimens of extinct megafauna following high-standard procedures of bone treatment. It was possible to produce fifty four radiocarbon dates from which twenty seven are reported in this chapter. The new data improves the chronology of extinction for some areas, particularly for the Central Andes and for Southern Chile. These new chronologies of extinction showed that in the Central Andes extinct megafauna disappears at the time of human arrival while the megafauna present in Southern Chile coexisted with humans for thousands of years. In the second case the megafaunal extinction happens at a time of major environmental changes. These differences highlight the need of developing regional analyses, rather than continental-scale analyses, in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of the extinction event in South America.

An Overview of the Cultural Resources of the Western Mojave Desert

An Overview of the Cultural Resources of the Western Mojave Desert PDF Author: Edwin Gary Stickel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : California
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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The SAGE Handbook of Environmental Change

The SAGE Handbook of Environmental Change PDF Author: John A Matthews
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1473971772
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1060

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Book Description
The SAGE Handbook of Environmental Change is an extensive survey of the interdisciplinary science of environmental change, including recent debates on climate change and the full range of other natural and anthropogenic changes affecting the Earth-ocean-atmosphere system in the past, present and future. It examines the historic importance, present status and future prospects of the field over two volumes. With more than 40 chapters, the books situate the defining characteristics and key paradigms within a state-of-the-art review of the field, including its changing nature and diversity of approaches, evidence base, key theoretical arguments, resonances with other disciplines and relationships between theory, research and practice. Opening with a detailed, contextualizing essay by the editors, the work is arranged into six parts: Part One: Approaches to Understanding Environmental Change Part Two: Evidence of Environmental Change and the Geo-ecological Response Part Three: Causes, Mechanisms and Dynamics of Environmental Change Part Four: Key Issues of Human-induced Environmental Changes and Their Impacts Part Five: Patterns, Processes and Impacts of Environmental Change at the Regional Scale Part Six: Responses of People to Environmental Change and Implications for Society Global in its coverage, scientific and theoretical in its approach, the books bring together an international set of respected editors and contributors to provide an exciting, timely addition to the literature on climate change. With the subjects′ interdisciplinary framework, this book will appeal to academics, researchers, postgraduates and practitioners in a variety of disciplines including, geography, geology, ecology, environmental science, archaeology, anthropology, politics and sociology.

End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals

End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals PDF Author: Ross D E MacPhee
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393249301
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
The fascinating lives and puzzling demise of some of the largest animals on earth. Until a few thousand years ago, creatures that could have been from a sci-fi thriller—including gorilla-sized lemurs, 500-pound birds, and crocodiles that weighed a ton or more—roamed the earth. These great beasts, or “megafauna,” lived on every habitable continent and on many islands. With a handful of exceptions, all are now gone. What caused the disappearance of these prehistoric behemoths? No one event can be pinpointed as a specific cause, but several factors may have played a role. Paleomammalogist Ross D. E. MacPhee explores them all, examining the leading extinction theories, weighing the evidence, and presenting his own conclusions. He shows how theories of human overhunting and catastrophic climate change fail to account for critical features of these extinctions, and how new thinking is needed to elucidate these mysterious losses. Along the way, we learn how time is determined in earth history; how DNA is used to explain the genomics and phylogenetic history of megafauna—and how synthetic biology and genetic engineering may be able to reintroduce these giants of the past. Until then, gorgeous four-color illustrations by Peter Schouten re-create these megabeasts here in vivid detail.

Murray Springs

Murray Springs PDF Author: C. Vance Haynes
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816547696
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
The Murray Springs Site in the upper San Pedro River Valley of southeast Arizona is one of the most significant Clovis sites ever found. It contained a multiple bison kill, a mammoth kill, and possibly a horse kill in a deeply stratified sedimentary context. Scattered across the buried occupation surface with the bones of late Pleistocene animals were several thousand stone tools and waste flakes from their manufacture and repair. Because of the unique occurrence of an algal black mat that buried the Clovis-age surface immediately after abandonment, the distributional integrity of the artifacts and debitage clusters is exceptional for Paleoindian sites. Excavation of the Clovis hunters’ camp 50 to 150 meters south of the kills revealed artifactual evidence typical of hunting camp activity, including hide working and weapons repair. Impact flakes conjoining with Clovis points clearly tied the camp to the bison kill. The unique nature of the site and this comprehensive study of the excavated material constitute one of the most important contributions to our knowledge of Paleoindian hunters in the New World.