Quaternary extinctions: a prehistoric revolution / Paul S. Martin, Richard G. Klein, editors

Incluye bibliografía e índice: páginas 867-892

A Word From the Editors.. Historical Background and the Beasts Themselves.. 1. Nineteenth-Century Explanations of Pleistocene Extinctions: A Review and Analysis.. 2. Who's Who in the Pleistocene: A Mammalian Bestiary.. 3. New World Mammoth Distribution.. A Close Look at Significant Sites.. 4. Hot Springs, South Dakota: Entrapment and Taphonomy of Columbian Mammoth.. 5. The Record of Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions at Taima-taima, Northern Venezuela.. 6. Late Pleistocene Fossils of Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming, and the Climatic Model of Extinction.. 7. Shasta Ground Sloth Extinction: Fossil Packrat Midden Evidence From the Western Grand Canyon.. 8. The Significance of Radiocarbon Dates for Rancho La Brea.. The Theoretical Marketplace: Geologic-Climatic Models.. 9. Ten Million Years of Mammal Extinctions in North America.. 10. Pleistocene Extinctions in the Context of Origination-Extinction Equilibria in Cenozoic Mammals.. 11. Coevolutionary Disequilibrium and Pleistocene Extinctions.. 12. Pleistocene Extinction and Environmental Change: Case Study of the Appalachians.. 13. Mosaics, Allelochemics, and Nutrients: An Ecological Theory of Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions.. 14. Seasonality, Gestation Time, and Large Mammal Extinctions.. 15. Environmental Insularity and the Extinction of the American Mastodont.. The Theoretical Marketplace: Cultural Models.. 16. Stratigraphy and Late Pleistocene Extinction in the United States.. 17. Prehistoric Overkill: The Global Model.. 18. The Reordered North American Selection Regime and Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinctions.. 19. North American Late Quaternary Extinctions and the Radiocarbon Record.. 20. Simulating Overkill: Experiments with the Mosimann and Martin Model.. 21. Extinction of Birds in the Late Pleistocene of North America.. Asia and Africa: Modest Losses.. 22. Quaternary Mammalian Extinctions in Northern Eurasia.. 23. Mammoths in China

24. Fauna! Turnover and Extinction Rate in the Levant.. 25. Mammalian Extinctions and Stone Age People in Africa.. 26. Extinctions in Madagascar: The Loss of the Subfossil Fauna.. Australia, New Zealand, and the Island Pacific: Severe Losses.. 27. Extinctions Downunder: A Bestiary of Extinct Australian Late Pleistocene Monotremes and Marsupials.. 28. Comings and Goings of Late Quaternary Mammals Near Perth in Extreme Southwestern Australia.. 29. Red Kangaroos: Last of the Australian Megafauna.. 30. Australian Environmental Change: Timing, Directions, Magnitudes, and Rates.. 31. Late Cenozoic Plant Extinctions in Australia.. 32. Moas, Men, and Middens.. 33. The Extinction of Moa in Southern New Zealand.. 34. Faunal Extinction and Prehistoric Man in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.. 35. The Role of Polynesians in the Extinction of the Avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands.. An Overview.. 36. Who Killed Cock Robin? An Investigation of the Extinction Controversy.. 37. Explaining Pleistocene Extinctions: Thoughts on the Structure of a Debate.. 38. Historic Extinction: A Rosetta Stone for Understanding Prehistoric Extinctions.. Index

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. eng