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The Overkill Hypothesis as a Plausible Explanation for the Extinctions of Late Wisconsin Megafauna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

W. Geoffrey Spaulding
W. Geoffrey Spaulding*
Affiliation:
Department of Botany and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195 USA
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Abstract

The pulse of large mammal extinctions at the close of the last ice age was a pronounced ecological catastrophe in the Western Hemisphere. Available paleoenvironmental, paleontological, and archeological data are largely concordant with the “overkill” hypothesis proposing that human predation was the cause of these extinctions. Climatic explanations fail to postulate specific mechanisms accounting for the event's timing, differential impact, geographic extent, and stratigraphic singularity. Lack of provisional acceptance of the overkill hypothesis, when no viable alternatives exist, may be in part because this unconventional hypothesis violates a strong sociocultural bias, the image of prehistoric man as the “noble savage”.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , July 1983 , pp. 110 - 112
Copyright
University of Washington

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