Lecture 81a What Killed the Mega Mammals? Update!

This is an update video on what we understand about the extinction of the large mammals near the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary.

Here is a link to the new article:

Link to recent dates of oldest human remains in North America:

Link to recent dates of youngest meg-mammal extinction dates:

Interested in supporting my YouTube Channel:

[harrisoncoleman]

This was an amazing video! Thanks for all of the useful information!

[MsJet]

Thank you for putting these events into an order.

[joehermanartist]

Hello, just discovered your channel. very interesting! Cheers from New York!

[oVanillao]

Very, very interesting! Thanks for the update!

[cacodaemonia]

Good stuff! Thanks for another great video. :) Have you ever done one on the Basin and Range of NV? I live in Vegas and love studying the geology near here.

[amphicyon]

I think a new update is in order, as the Greenland crater has been dated to about 58 mya in the Paleocene. Right now the consensus seems to be that human technology and populations constantly improving and growing caused constantly increasing hunting pressure. This really affected the ability for larger mammals to handle small climactic changes that their populations would usually recover from. Or maybe we just haven't found the right crater yet

[fullup]

Nice seeing you on Aron Ra's channel

[brianclever]

Fantastic video Benjamin! It made me start thinking of some other cool video topics for you... maybe some deep dives on fossil localities such as the Snowmastodon site in Colorado, or Mammoth Site in South Dakota or even older ones such as the Cleveland-Llyod Quarry. In regards to Snowmastodon, there was conjecture from Kirk Johnson that one of the mammoth/mastodon skeletons might show evidence for human occupation of North America around 40, 000 yrs ago.

[dwightehowell]

They have since located an equally large impact crater adjacent to it. It is if I recall correctly about 70, 000 BP. so much older.

[wirehead]

Charcoal layers: Fire drives and buffalo jumps are great mass killers. Paleolithic man used deliberate wildfire to reduce woodlands and encourage more grass for grazing.

[dwightehowell]

When Homo first made it into North America is a fight and most likely will be for some time. As an old man I can state firmly that most North American Scientists have screamed like wounded damthings every time the date got shoved back and said it aint so! They also have absolutely closed minds on the topic. Being skeptical is one thing but these people are something else. Some interesting finds have been made by various people that strongly suggest Homo in some form may have been in North America for some time before the accepted dates.

[FrontierLegacy]

When folks talk about the magafauna extinction, I always bring up Africa and southern Asia More specifically the Elephants and rhinos since they survived well into present day even with human hunting and not to mention that megafauna in Europe by this time were already mostly extinct. I think neither hypothesis answers the question of the Great Ice Age Dying.

[rursus]

[Kurt k-Jar]? No, the correct pronunciation is like [Koort Kiere], [Kurt Kiere] may also be near enough.
Calendar date etc. BP (before present) should properly be replaced by BPP (before pretty present) or BAA (before atomic age).

[MrDerpherder]

Have you heard of Randal Carlson and his views on this topic, and if you have, what is your opinion on this? He has been talking about this for some time now and he has talked about this on The Joe Rogan experience more than once.

[dwightehowell]

I concur that this impact most likely caused some pretty hard times for critters, human and otherwise. If you check the dates of extinctions for various species scattered across the Northern hemisphere you are going to get some wildly divergent answers. I read that the last known smilodons died in middle TN about 9, 000 yrs ago. Mammoth and mastodons died out much more recently in the North America than in Europe as by many thousands of yrs. Check the facts and draw your own conclusions. I'm also personally concerned about the very low CO2 levels that have occured in the past. Not enough CO2 seriously stunts plant growth and is doing so today.

[rocksandoil]

Seems strange that the elegant Clovis Technology is replaced by much cruder, newer spear points. Hydrogen bomb, 1950...year I was born, explains why I don't need a night light 🤔🤩

[barrel]

Overkill hypothesis is complete bullshit. Humans didn't cause a Mammoths to be practically broken apart and frozen in permafrost, still with food in its mouth and stomach undigested with indications of asphyxiation. Not only THAT, but ALL the sabertooths, Giant Cave Bears, American Lions, Giant Armadillos...the list is too long to mention. Suffice it to say that the "Overkill Hypothesis" is a convenient lie to go along with thinking that we have more to fear from human-caused climate change than the next cosmic impact. That's the bare truth of it.

[derrickbonsell]

Haven't listened far yet but I'm still convinced by the last video. If we could do so much in a century and a half our ancestors could have done with a few thousand. Especially if a rapidly changing climate made certain species less well-suited for a warmer world.