Summary and Critique
First Assignment - Summary and Critique
Paul S. Martin, Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, University of California Press, 2005, Prologue and Chapter 2
Summary
The overkill hypothesis stresses the fact that people were the main technicians behind the late pleistocene extinction of fauna in Northern Eurasia and North and South America. Paul Martin of the University of Arizona and others see a subsequent and spontaneous connection between the presence of people and the vanishing of numerous species of large mammals. According to the overkill hypothesis, the spread of humanity correlates to the extinction of mammals at the same precise location they migrated to. The humans got to be big game hunters focusing on mammoths, giant bison, ground sloths, and other species of large size. They supposedly chased many species to the point of extinction, and indirectly brought about the elimination of numerous little species as an outcome of ecological disturbance. In time, many new theories came about to explain these unfortunate chain of events, new technologies burst forth and made life easier for scientist and gave light to new evidence in the process. The introduction of radio-carbon dating gave light to new data that allowed for precise estimation of extinction dates, ranging within a few hundred years of sudden or gradual extinction. The data collected from this technology further strengthened the idea that extinctions did really correlate with the spread of humanity.
“To me the core piece of evidence for human involvement is that when viewed globally, near-time extinction took place episodically, in a patter not correlating with climatic change or any known factor other than the spread of our species. There is radiocarbon and other geochemical evidence that the earliest human arrivals on various landmasses were contemporaneous with the last days of the extinct species. Simply stated, as human moved into different parts of
Paul S. Martin, Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, University of California Press, 2005, Prologue and Chapter 2
Summary
The overkill hypothesis stresses the fact that people were the main technicians behind the late pleistocene extinction of fauna in Northern Eurasia and North and South America. Paul Martin of the University of Arizona and others see a subsequent and spontaneous connection between the presence of people and the vanishing of numerous species of large mammals. According to the overkill hypothesis, the spread of humanity correlates to the extinction of mammals at the same precise location they migrated to. The humans got to be big game hunters focusing on mammoths, giant bison, ground sloths, and other species of large size. They supposedly chased many species to the point of extinction, and indirectly brought about the elimination of numerous little species as an outcome of ecological disturbance. In time, many new theories came about to explain these unfortunate chain of events, new technologies burst forth and made life easier for scientist and gave light to new evidence in the process. The introduction of radio-carbon dating gave light to new data that allowed for precise estimation of extinction dates, ranging within a few hundred years of sudden or gradual extinction. The data collected from this technology further strengthened the idea that extinctions did really correlate with the spread of humanity.
“To me the core piece of evidence for human involvement is that when viewed globally, near-time extinction took place episodically, in a patter not correlating with climatic change or any known factor other than the spread of our species. There is radiocarbon and other geochemical evidence that the earliest human arrivals on various landmasses were contemporaneous with the last days of the extinct species. Simply stated, as human moved into different parts of
Cited: Paul S. Martin, Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, University of California Press, 2005, Prologue and Chapter 2 Gibbons, Robin. "Examining the Extinction of the Pleistocene Megafauna." Archaeology of Ancient Australia (2007): 63-81. Anthropological Sciences. Web. http://web.stanford.edu/group/journal/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Gibbons_NatSci_2004.pdf John Frederick Walker. "Did Humans Kill the Mammoth?" John Frederick Walker. Conservation News, Elephant and Ivory News, Ivory News, 21 Sept. 2013. Web. 15 June 2015. http://johnfrederickwalker.com/tag/mammoth-ivory/