Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America
Abstract
As recently as 11,000 years ago "near time" to geologists mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres, ground sloths, giant armadillos, native camels and horses, the dire wolf, and many other large mammals roamed North America. In what has become one of science's greatest riddles, these large animals vanished in North and South America around the time humans arrived at the end of the last great ice age. Part paleontological adventure and part memoir, "Twilight of the Mammoths "presents in detail internationally renowned paleoecologist Paul Martin's widely discussed and debated "overkill" hypothesis to explain these mysterious megafauna extinctions. Taking us from Rampart Cave in the Grand Canyon, where he finds himself "chest deep in sloth dung," to other important fossil sites in Arizona and Chile, Martin's engaging book, written for a wide audience, uncovers our rich evolutionary legacy and shows why he has come to believe that the earliest Americans literally hunted these animals to death. As he discusses the discoveries that brought him to this hypothesis, Martin relates many colorful stories and gives a rich overview of the field of paleontology as well as his own fascinating career. He explores the ramifications of the overkill hypothesis for similar extinctions worldwide and examines other explanations for the extinctions, including climate change. Martin's visionary thinking about our missing megafauna offers inspiration and a challenge for today's conservation efforts as he speculates on what we might do to remedy this situation both in our thinking about what is "natural" and in the natural world itself."
... Utah Bechan Cave is a large shelter formed in the Lower Jurassic Navajo Sandstone and Kayenta Formation in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area . A large trampled coprolite was found near a pit dug by pothunters (Mead et al., , 1986bMartin, 2005). This and other large coprolites represent Mammuthocopros allenrorum produced by Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) and constitute the majority of a large latrinite with a volume of about 300 m 3 (Davis et al., , 1985Mead et al., 1984Mead et al., , 1986bMead, 1987, 1989;Santucci et al., 2001;Martin, 2005;Hunt and Lucas, 2020). ...
... A large trampled coprolite was found near a pit dug by pothunters (Mead et al., , 1986bMartin, 2005). This and other large coprolites represent Mammuthocopros allenrorum produced by Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) and constitute the majority of a large latrinite with a volume of about 300 m 3 (Davis et al., , 1985Mead et al., 1984Mead et al., , 1986bMead, 1987, 1989;Santucci et al., 2001;Martin, 2005;Hunt and Lucas, 2020). This identification was initially based on morphology and the size and taxonomy of the content (Mead et al., 1986b) and subsequently confirmed by DNA analysis (Karpinski et al., 2017). ...
... Rampart Cave contains the largest known accumulation of Pleistocene vertebrate coprolites, and it has been extensively excavated and studied (Laudermilk and Munz 1938;Martin et al., 1961;Hansen, 1978;Martin et al., 1985;Schmidt et al., 1992;Santucci et al., 2001;McDonald, 2003;Hunt et al., 2005;Martin, 2005). Hansen (1978) refined a broad stratigraphy of the bromalite record in the cave that had been initially developed by Long and coworkers Kenworthy et al., 2010). ...
An extensive record of desiccated coprolites of diverse Late Pleistocene taxa is preserved in caves of the American Southwest. These include 21 caves in Arizona, 12 in Utah, six in Texas, four in New Mexico and one in Nevada. The majority of the coprolites represent herbivores, which is extremely rare for coprofaunas. There are two distinct regions characterized by cave coprolites – a northern realm (northern Arizona and southeastern Utah) is characterized by diverse morphologies of coprolites, and a southern realm (southern New Mexico and West Texas) where caves usually yield only coprolites of ground sloths (Castrocopros martini) and coprolites of the packrat or woodrat Neotoma. The geographic distribution of the localities is governed by precipitation patterns and by the availability suitable cave-producing rock types. Desiccated coprolites can yield some of the highest quality radiocarbon dates, and these demonstrate extinctions of the megafauna between 11 and 12,000 yr B.P. in the terminal Pleistocene. Macro-botanical specimens and pollen provide important evidence of individual diet and the local ecosystem. Castrocopros martini and coprolites of Neotoma are widespread, whereas coprolites of bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis and the extinct mountain goat Oreamnos harringtoni are common in caves in Arizona and Utah, but they are absent from Nevada and New Mexico. Coprolites of a large ruminant (Suaviocopros harrisi igen. et isp. nov.) and mammoths (Mammuthocopros allenorum) are restricted to Utah, which likely relates to topography. We advocate the discontinuation of the term “dung” for the cave coprolites and the use of binomial ichnotaxonomy for Pleistocene coprolites.
... 1) It is estimated that when Clovis hunters arrived there were hundreds of millions of these large mammals on the landscape (1). Even so, there are only 16 occurrences in which humans killed or scavenged one of these animals (5,11). ...
... Despite this longer overlap between people and megafauna, there are no pre-Clovis age kill−scavenging sites (5). Overkill advocates either dismiss evidence of a pre-Clovis human presence or consider it irrelevant, assuming Clovis groups were the first biggame hunters (1,2). 5) In contrast to the dearth of kill−scavenging occurrences of the extinct genera, there are, from the same period overkill is said to have occurred, ∼90 kill−scavenging occurrences of six extant large herbivores, including bison, elk, moose, and deer (11). ...
... All of which raises a longstanding question: If extinctions were caused by climate changes at the end of the Pleistocene, then why did all those animals survive multiple previous glacial−interglacial transitions (1,3,9,72), only to vanish at the one transition when human hunters were on the landscape? The question, although often used by overkill advocates to criticize climate-based explanations, is a reasonable one. ...
The end of the Pleistocene in North America saw the extinction of 38 genera of mostly large mammals. As their disappearance seemingly coincided with the arrival of people in the Americas, their extinction is often attributed to human overkill, notwithstanding a dearth of archaeological evidence of human predation. Moreover, this period saw the extinction of other species, along with significant changes in many surviving taxa, suggesting a broader cause, notably, the ecological upheaval that occurred as Earth shifted from a glacial to an interglacial climate. But, overkill advocates ask, if extinctions were due to climate changes, why did these large mammals survive previous glacial−interglacial transitions, only to vanish at the one when human hunters were present? This question rests on two assumptions: that previous glacial−interglacial transitions were similar to the end of the Pleistocene, and that the large mammal genera survived unchanged over multiple such cycles. Neither is demonstrably correct. Resolving the cause of large mammal extinctions requires greater knowledge of individual species’ histories and their adaptive tolerances, a fuller understanding of how past climatic and ecological changes impacted those animals and their biotic communities, and what changes occurred at the Pleistocene−Holocene boundary that might have led to those genera going extinct at that time. Then we will be able to ascertain whether the sole ecologically significant difference between previous glacial−interglacial transitions and the very last one was a human presence.
... Si pensamos qué región del mundo se distingue por presentar una fauna notoria de mamíferos de talla grande, lo más seguro es que venga a nuestra mente el continente africano, con sus elefantes, rinocerontes y jirafas. Sin embargo, hasta hace unos cuantos miles de años, la cantidad de especies de mamíferos de gran talla presentes en el continente americano era igual o mayor a la que se encuentra actualmente en África (Martin, 2005). Existe evidencia fósil que demuestra que, durante el Cuaternario tardío, existían por lo menos 10 especies de megaherbívoros (> 10 000 kg) en Norteamérica, entre los que se incluían 3 proboscídeos, 4 perezosos gigantes, 2 armadillos gigantes y 1 camello, entre otros (figura 5). ...
... Este número de especies representa el doble de megaherbívoros que habitan actualmente en África. En el caso de Sudamérica esta diversidad de fauna de gran talla era aún más impresionante, ya que se ha registrado evidencia fósil de 25 especies de megaherbívoros (Martin, 2005). Lo anterior muestra que hasta hace unas cuantas decenas de miles de años, es decir, muy poco en la escala geológica, un paisaje "típico" en el continente americano incluía la presencia de una abundante variedad de mamíferos de talla similar o aún mayor que la de los tapires. ...
RESUMEN Junto con los caballos, asnos, cebras y rinocerontes, los tapires conforman el orden Perissodactyla, tristemente notorio porque una gran proporción de sus especies está en grave riesgo de desaparecer a consecuencia del impacto humano. El tapir centroamericano (Tapirus bairdii), única especie de este grupo que es nativa de México, se encuentra catalogada en peligro de ex-tinción debido al impacto humano. Un vistazo a la historia evolutiva de los tapires nos permite dimensionar lo que implicaría la desaparición de una especie como T. bairdii para la conservación de la biodiversidad en los niveles local y global.
ABSTRACT Tapirs constitute the Perissodactyla order together with horses, asses, zebras and rhinos. This order is sadly characterized by being on the top of the list of mammal groups having a greater proportion of their species threatened with extinction. Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii), the only representative of this order in the country, is currently threatened due the impact of human activities. An examination of the evolutionary history of tapirs provides the needed context for the comprehension of the severe consequences the loss of this species would have in terms of the conservation of biodiversity at the local and global level.
... Si pensamos qué región del mundo se distingue por presentar una fauna notoria de mamíferos de talla grande, lo más seguro es que venga a nuestra mente el continente africano, con sus elefantes, rinocerontes y jirafas. Sin embargo, hasta hace unos cuantos miles de años, la cantidad de especies de mamíferos de gran talla presentes en el continente americano era igual o mayor a la que se encuentra actualmente en África (Martin, 2005). Existe evidencia fósil que demuestra que, durante el Cuaternario tardío, existían por lo menos 10 especies de megaherbívoros (>10 000 kg) en Norteamérica, entre los que se incluían 3 proboscídeos, 4 perezosos gigantes, 2 armadillos gigantes y 1 camello, entre otros (figura 5). ...
... Este número de especies representa el doble de los megaherbívoros que habitan actualmente en África. En el 13 caso de Sudamérica esta diversidad de fauna de gran talla era aún más impresionante, ya que se ha registrado evidencia fósil de 25 especies de megaherbívoros (Martin, 2005). Lo anterior muestra que hasta hace unas cuantas decenas de miles de años, es decir, muy poco en la escala geológica, un paisaje "típico" en el continente americano incluía la presencia de una abundante variedad de mamíferos de talla similar o aún mayor que la de los tapires. ...
Importance of the conservation of Baird´s tapir from an evolutionary perspective
... However, there are exceptions to these negative scenarios for large mammals in many areas of Europe and North America. After a long period of decline, which started with the first appearance of our species, Homo sapiens, outside Africa (11), mostly as an effect of human hunting (12)(13)(14), there has been a dramatic recovery in wildlife in Europe and North America during the past 50 years [e.g., (15)(16)(17)(18)]. This recovery is largely a result of protection from hunting, limitations on toxic waste release, changes in land management, and an increase in protected areas/reserves. ...
... The concept of rewilding was first formulated by Soulé and Noss (60) and Barlow (61) as a positive trajectory for conservation and evolution that, in addition to protection of species, also included restoration of the degenerated ecosystem of other nonmarginal species. It emerged from the gradual realization that humans throughout time, i.e., not only in recent centuries or millennia, but over tens of thousands of years, have depressed and exterminated many large species of birds and mammals [e.g., (11,62,63)]. Rewilding aims to enhance wilderness through supplementary release of wildlife species already present and through reintroduction of species formerly present. ...
The recovery of many populations of large carnivores and herbivores in major parts of Europe and North America offers ecosystem services and opportunities for sustainable utilization of wildlife. Examples of services are hunting, meat, and skin, along with less invasive utilization such as ecotourism and wildlife spotting. An increasing number of studies also point out the ecosystem function, landscape engineering, and cascading effects of wildlife as values for human existence, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem resilience. Within this framework, the concept of rewilding has emerged as a means to add to the wilderness through either supplementary release of wildlife species already present or reintroduction of species formerly present in a certain area. The latter involves translocation of species from other geographical areas, releases from captivity, feralization, retro-breeding, or de-domestication of breeds for which the wild ancestor is extinct. While all these initiatives aim to reverse some of the negative human impacts on life on earth, some pose challenges such as conflicts of interest between humans and wildlife in, for example, forestry, agriculture, traffic, or disease dynamics (e.g., zoonosis). There are also welfare aspects when managing wildlife populations with the purpose to serve humans or act as tools in landscape engineering. These welfare aspects are particularly apparent when it comes to releases of animals handled by humans, either from captivity or translocated from other geographical areas. An ethical values clash is that translocation can involve suffering of the actual individual, while also contributing to reintroduction of species and reestablishment of ecological functions. This paper describes wildlife recovery in Europe and North America and elaborates on ethical considerations raised by the use of wildlife for different purposes, in order to find ways forward that are acceptable to both the animals and humans involved. The reintroduction ethics aspects raised are finally formulated in 10 guidelines suggested for management efforts aimed at translocating wildlife or reestablishing wilderness areas.
... ○ A large terrestrial animal described by Native Amazonian peoples called the 'mapinguari' or 'juma', suggested by some to be an extant ground sloth (Oren 1993(Oren , 2001, and by others to be misidentified anteaters (presumably myrmecophagids) and heresay (Martin 2005). ○ A supernatural flying animal described in the Sioux creation myth called the 'thunderbird' (Mayor 2013), suggested by some to be a surviving teratornithid (Coleman 1985), and by others to be purely mythological (Nez 2012;Senter 2019). ...
Cryptozoology seeks to study ‘hidden animals’ by separating ‘metaphors and similes’ from possible underlying insight. Variously described as a science, pseudoscience, or fringe field, cryptozoology may be viewed under the lenses of both heterodox science and orthodox science. Cryptozoology is heterodox in its unconventional methods and strategy; its ‘fuzzy’ data in the form of circumstantial and testimonial evidence; and its mostly amateur investigators. Cryptozoology also borrows from orthodox science, and in recent years may have influenced orthodox science: traditional ecological knowledge, pioneered in cryptozoology, is beginning to enter ‘mainstream’ scientific research, and these data have facilitated recent zoological (re)discoveries. Some contemporary cryptozoological studies have also applied more orthodox and rigorous statistical methodology. Controversial photographic taxonomy has been applied in both crypto- and conventional zoology, and cryptozoology has been investigated by qualified scientists at reputable institutions and in reputable academic journals. Cryptozoological methods, when applied more scrupulously, may have some unrealised scientific potential.
... Mida see praktikas võiks tähendada? Ameerika paleontoloog Paul Martin (2005) peab vajalikuks koostöös põllumajandusega taastada Põhja-Ameerika evolutsiooniline potentsiaal kohalike väljasurnud suurimetajate ökoloogiliste ekvivalentide (kaamelid, elevandid, gepardid, lõvid, hobused) abil. Ökoloog Allan Savory propageerib jõuliselt karjapidamist inimkonna ainsa ellujäämise võimalusena. ...
‘Progress’ means extravagant energy use, enabled by the burning of fossil fuels and colonial expansion. The peak in the extraction of oil and countless other key natural resources, the ‘peak everything’, is at hand or imminent. Renewable and nuclear energy depend on fossil fuel-based production and have a poor EROI (energy return on investment). At the same time, the industrial civilisation has triggered a series of irreversible chain reactions. For the last 10,000 years, a period known as the Holocene, the Earth has enjoyed an exceptionally stable climate, which is a prerequisite for agriculture and the functioning of civilisations. We are entering a hothouse Earth with an unstable climate. The author starts from a post-sustainable framework of deep adaptation, according to which the collapse of industrial societies due to climate chaos and limits to growth is likely, inevitable or already underway in our lifetime. The essential question of the post-sustainable world is how to live on a planet, on which humankind has never set foot in its entire evolution. In order to conceptualise this situation and to create an action plan, it is necessary to abandon the dogma of progressivism, the narrative that everything is going to get better, that all stories have a happy ending, and that there is no ‘going back to childhood’ (to a ‘Golden Age’, ‘traditional society’, etc.). The author takes a brief look at empirical and theoretical analyses that are in sharp contrast to the basic narratives of progress. The author also points out that no scientific-technical, Enlightenment-based culture or cultural situation in history can be shown to have been sustainable for even a single moment. At the same time, history is littered with examples of former state subjects, who have fled civilisation and gone native. Consequently, the achievement of an ecologically sustainable culture that breaks away from the doctrines of the Enlightenment and progress is an opportunity that is within reach at any moment. Since the mid-19th century (at the latest), Estonian culture has consisted of attempts to create European-style culture in Estonian. In order to reach an ecologically sustainable way of life that can be lived from generation to generation, it is necessary to search for and invent the “modes of creation” of Estonians as a countryside people (before the 19th century, Estonians called themselves “people of the land”), i.e., a local epistemology and ecological sensitivity of the local culture, rebuilding a photosynthesis-based food system. The author calls for the abandonment of modernist business as usual and for the actual care of the land, generation after generation, a regenerative economy. The task of the regenerative economy is to bind water, carbon, nutrients into the Estonian soil. Agriculture – to the extent that it is possible on a hothouse Earth – must move towards forest gardening and grazing, because carbon is better safeguarded in the soil than in vegetation in the event of wildfires and superstorms. Also, it will be harder for colonisers to seize crops. Regenerative economy can be summed up in three words: food, wood, fibre. Finally, the author proposes an extensive list of ideas for regenerative entrepreneurship. A regenerative entrepreneur is a practical environmental radical, whose everyday challenge is to find business models that are based on human or animal labour and photosynthesis as a source of energy and to create soil. Keywords: limits to growth, climate chaos, deep adaptation, going native, regenerative economics
... But in the 1990s, the bison again caught the imagination of conservationists who wanted to propose something big, bold and captivating for the newly hatched idea of 'rewilding' , which involved reintroducing animals to past habitats in order to reconstruct fragmented and depleted ecosystems. Strong calls for various rewilding projects have been made by Gary Snyder (1990), Paul Martin (2005), Dave Foreman (2004), Emma Marris (2011), George Monbiot (2014) and Marc Bekoff (2014), among others. Rewilding is not just about bringing the animals physically back, but also includes advocating for a spiritual and cultural reclamation associated with the return of specific regional species and ecosystems. ...
... La référence temporelle de cette acception du rewilding est ici explicitée, contrairement à celle du rewilding des grands carnivores. Cette vision du rewilding a surtout été développée en Amérique du Nord autour de Martin (2005) et de Donlan (2005), mais a également vu des applications en Russie (Zimov, 2005) et des propositions en Europe (Svenning et al., 2016). Le choix des espèces à restaurer n'y est plus fondé uniquement sur leur rôle dans l'écosystème mais sur leur présence antérieure aux grandes transformations anthropiques survenues à partir de la fin du Pléistocène : entre 13 000 et 10 000 ans avant notre ère, les êtres humains auraient fortement contribué à l'extinction de masse de la mégafaune connue (Koch et Barnosky, 2006). ...
Le rewilding est un terme récent mais déjà polysémique, ce qui donne lieu à des critiques relatives à la cohérence des projets s’en réclamant ainsi qu’à leur capacité à proposer une nouvelle direction pour l’action écologique. Sa définition la plus directe, comme principe d’action écologique visant à rendre un élément (espace, espèce, écosystème) à nouveau sauvage, pose elle-même question. Le recours à la notion d’autonomie plus qu’humaine permet de surmonter ces critiques : les initiatives de rewilding impliquent un décentrement des êtres humains de l’action écologique et sont à envisager comme des agencements humains/autres qu’humains sans but prédéfini. L’approche de géographie plus qu’humaine apporte une nouvelle perspective à l’étude de cet objet et plus largement à la réflexion sur les relations au sauvage et au vivant dans son ensemble.
... Studies have provided compelling evidence to show that it is, in fact, humans who are responsible for the wave of extinctions that have occurred since the Late Pleistocene, 126,000 years ago [55]. For example, toward the end of the Rancholabrean faunal age around 11,000 years ago, a substantial number of large mammals vanished from North America, which included woolly mammoths [56], giant armadillos [57], and three species of camel [58]. Similar extinctions were seen in New Zealand when the Dinornithiformes (Moa) became extinct about 600 years ago [59,60] and in Madagascar where the Archaeoindris fontoynontii (giant lemur) disappeared between 500 and 2000 years ago [61]. ...
The biodiversity of our planet is under threat, with approximately one million species expected to become extinct within decades. The reason: negative human actions, which include hunting, overfishing, pollution, and the conversion of land for urbanisation and agricultural purposes. Despite significant investment from charities and governments for activities that benefit nature, global wildlife populations continue to decline. Local wildlife guardians have historically played a critical role in global conservation efforts and have shown their ability to achieve sustainability at various levels. In 2021, COP26 recognised their contributions and pledged USD 1.7 billion per year; however this is a fraction of the global biodiversity budget available (between USD 124 billion and USD 143 billion annually) given they protect 80% of the planets biodiversity. This paper proposes a radical new solution based on “Interspecies Money”, where animals own their own money. Creating a digital twin for each species allows animals to dispense funds to their guardians for the services they provide. For example, a rhinoceros may release a payment to its guardian each time it is detected in a camera trap as long as it remains alive and well. To test the efficacy of this approach, 27 camera traps were deployed over a 400 km2 area in Welgevonden Game Reserve in Limpopo Province in South Africa. The motion-triggered camera traps were operational for ten months and, using deep learning, we managed to capture images of 12 distinct animal species. For each species, a makeshift bank account was set up and credited with GBP 100. Each time an animal was captured in a camera and successfully classified, 1 penny (an arbitrary amount—mechanisms still need to be developed to determine the real value of species) was transferred from the animal account to its associated guardian. The trial demonstrated that it is possible to achieve high animal detection accuracy across the 12 species with a sensitivity of 96.38%, specificity of 99.62%, precision of 87.14%, F1 score of 90.33%, and an accuracy of 99.31%. The successful detections facilitated the transfer of GBP 185.20 between animals and their associated guardians.
... Studies have provided compelling evidence to show that it is in fact humans who are responsible for the wave of extinctions that have occurred since the Late Pleistocene, 126,000 years ago [50]. For example, toward the end of the Rancholabrean faunal age around 11,000 years ago, a substantial number of large mammals vanished from North America, which included woolly mammoths [51], giant armadillos [52] and three species of camel [53]. Similar extinctions were seen in New Zealand when the Dinornithiformes (Moa) became extinct about 600 years ago [54], [55], and in Madagascar where the Archaeoindris fontoynontii (giant lemur) disappeared between 500 and 2000 years ago [56]. ...
The biodiversity of our planet is under threat, with approximately one million species expected to become extinct within decades. The reason; negative human actions, which include hunting, overfishing, pollution, and the conversion of land for urbanisation and agricultural purposes. Despite significant investment from charities and governments for activities that benefit nature, global wildlife populations continue to decline. Local wildlife guardians have historically played a critical role in global conservation efforts and have shown their ability to achieve sustainability at various levels. In 2021, COP26 recognised their contributions and pledged US$1.7 billion per year; however, this is a fraction of the global biodiversity budget available (between US$124 billion and US$143 billion annually) given they protect 80% of the planets biodiversity. This paper proposes a radical new solution based on "Interspecies Money," where animals own their own money. Creating a digital twin for each species allows animals to dispense funds to their guardians for the services they provide. For example, a rhinoceros may release a payment to its guardian each time it is detected in a camera trap as long as it remains alive and well. To test the efficacy of this approach 27 camera traps were deployed over a 400km2 area in Welgevonden Game Reserve in Limpopo Province in South Africa. The motion-triggered camera traps were operational for ten months and, using deep learning, we managed to capture images of 12 distinct animal species. For each species, a makeshift bank account was set up and credited with {\pounds}100. Each time an animal was captured in a camera and successfully classified, 1 penny (an arbitrary amount - mechanisms still need to be developed to determine the real value of species) was transferred from the animal account to its associated guardian.
... 48 Martin would defend the overkill hypothesis throughout his career. The work of Katherine Clisby and Paul Sears in New Mexico convinced Martin that the southwestern United States was a promising place to look for fossil pollen deposits disclosing changes in plant and animal ranges, and in 1957, he took a position at the University of Arizona's Geochronology Laboratories, where, for the next four decades, he expanded his work on the overkill hypothesis to other continents (Martin 2005). An article in The Arizona Daily Star explained that Martin had used "pollen study and the new Carbon 14 carbon dioxide gas counting technique" to demonstrate that humans, not climate, had caused the extinction of the giant ground sloth. ...
Beginning in the nineteenth century, scientists speculated that the Pleistocene megafauna—species such as the giant ground sloth, wooly mammoth, and saber-tooth cat—perished because of rapid climate change accompanying the end of the most recent Ice Age. In the 1950s, a small network of ecologists challenged this view in collaboration with archeologists who used the new tool of radiocarbon dating. The Pleistocene overkill hypothesis imagined human hunting, not climate change, to be the primary cause of megafaunal extinction. This article situates the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis in a broader history of the emergence of historical ecology as a distinct sub-discipline of paleoecology. Tracing the work of the Yale Geochronometric Laboratory and an interdisciplinary research network that included Paul Sears, Richard Foster Flint, Edward Deevey, Kathryn Clisby, and Paul S. Martin, it reveals how both the methods and the meaning of studying fossil pollen shifted between the 1910s and 1960s. First used as a tool for fossil fuel extraction, fossil pollen became a means of envisioning climatic history, and ultimately, a means of reimagining global ecological history. First through pollen stratigraphy and then through radiocarbon dating, ecologists reconstructed past biotic communities and rethought the role of humans in these communities. By the 1980s, the discipline of historical ecology would reshape physical environments through the practice of ecological restoration.
... When a moral agent harms a moral subject, the former owes the latter restitution. Humans harmed woolly mammoths for example by driving them extinct in combination with others factors like climate change (Martin, 2005). Thus, humans owe them restitution or compensation for that harm. ...
In this essay, we explore the philosophical and ethical issues concerning de-extinction. First, we will characterize what de-extinction is. This requires clarification of the process of extinction. Second, we consider whether de-extinction is even possible. There are a variety of arguments involving the nature of species that purport to show that once they have disappeared they cannot be resurrected. Third, we examine whether de-extinction is morally permissible. There are arguments that suggest we are obligated to do it based on restorative justice and biodiversity conservation. There are other arguments that conclude we are not permitted to do so based on considerations of animal welfare, hubris and the allocation of conservation resources.
... Notwithstanding recent work on de-extinction, to which I will turn in the next section, the Pleistocene megafauna appear to be gone for good. But as Josh Donlan and colleagues (2005;Sandom et al. 2013) pointed out, the extinct megafauna of the western hemisphere have relatively close evolutionary cousins in Africa and Asia (compare also Martin andBurney 1999, Galetti 2004). And some of those existing species are threatened by habitat loss and poaching. ...
... Such efforts have inspired similar approaches in the UK (Newton et al., 2009;Taylor, 2009), where the issue of re-wilding and its consequences is now recognised as having high policy relevance (Sutherland et al., 2006). Similarly, the concept of 'Pleistocene re-wilding' is currently being explored in both North and South America (Donlan et al., 2006;Galetti, 2004;Martin, 2005;Rubenstein et al., 2006). ...
... The term rewilding was coined during the 1990s in the context of a US vision for continental-scale conservation (Soule & Noss, 1998); it attracted wider scientific interest with the publication of three radical ecosystem science visions, namely: Paul Martin's (2005) Twilight of the Mammoths, Zimov's (2005) Pleistocene park experiment and Donlan et al.'s (2006) Pleistocene rewilding vision. The term was adopted by Dutch conservationists who (since 1986) had been pioneering radical new approaches to nature conservation involving the restoration 6. ...
The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration signifies the ambition to move beyond a defensive focus on biodiversity protection towards a proactive agenda of restoring ecosystems to generate value for people and nature.
The international nature regime, based on the linked concepts of biodiversity and sustainable development, has achieved much. However, its institutions are built on a ‘compositional’ approach to ecology that ‘locks in’ arbitrary ecological baselines and constrains an ambitious approach to ecosystem restoration.
Rewilding and the wider field of restoration ecology foreground the dynamic nature of ecosystems, the need to consider system function and the importance of trophic networks for ecosystem recovery. Rewilding science extends these new directions with a focus on restoring the functional effects of large megafauna and random biotic and abiotic disturbance.
I argue that historic processes of institutional reductionism, which enabled the construction of a strong protective biodiversity regime, have created institutions that lack the flexibility and innovation culture needed to create new policy and practice to support the recovery of ecosystem integrity and open‐ended restoration processes such as rewilding.
Given this, we need to initiate ordered and effective processes of institutional redesign. To this end, I have proposed five actions for discussion, namely: (a) adopt and embed a positive, hopeful and empowering narrative of nature recovery; (b) create ‘nature recovery innovation zones’, where existing policy and regulations are relaxed and new approaches are developed and tested; (c) develop functional classifications of nature to support the design of ‘new generation’ policy instruments; (d) create markets for ecosystem recovery based on units of ecosystem change to support the emergence of a nature recovery land economy; and (e) introduce programs of professional training in the science, principles and opportunities of ecosystem recovery at all levels in government and non‐government conservation agencies.
The world of 2050 will be very different from that of today. We have extremely well‐educated and skilled younger generations, with the motivation and ability to redesign nature institutions. It is time to act and empower them.
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... A disproportionate number of large mammals (32 out of 37) weighed ≥44 kg (Meltzer, 2015). Hypotheses that account for their extinction are various: degradation and changes in habitat, slow reproductive rates (Koch and Barnosky, 2006), ambush blitzkrieg by humans (Barnosky, 1989;Martin, 2005), the loss of keystone species (Brook and Bowman, 2004), reduced genetic diversity (Lorenzen et al., 2011), extraterrestrial impact (Firestone et al., 2007), lethal pathogens unknown to their immune system (e.g. canine distemper, rinderpest, and leptospirosis) (Stevens, 1997), and climate change (Barnosky, 1989;Clark et al, 2012). ...
The late Pleistocene of North America is characterized by vertebrate animals (mostly mammals weighing ≥ 44 kg) including Mammut americanum (American mastodon), Bison spp. (bison), Megalonyx jeffersonii, and Arctodus simus. Disarticulated skeletal elements of vertebrate fauna are frequently exposed on floodplain and gravel bar deposits after floodwaters retreat throughout the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. One unpublished vertebrate compilation, known as the Looper Collection, is stored at Delta State University. This collection consists of 546 vertebrate cranial and post-cranial elements from Mississippi River gravel bars that spanned 210.5 river km (130.8 miles) and 19 counties within three states (Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana) from Coahoma County Mississippi in the north to East Carroll Parish, Louisiana in the south. Mammals assigned to seven different orders are represented, as well as bone fragments of Aves, fin spines of Pylodictis olivaris, Ictiobus bubalus, and Teleostei, and shell fragments of Testudines (turtles and tortoises). This collection is significant because it contains remains of several species that have not been previously published from Mississippi: Canis dirus, Mammuthus columbi, and Paleolama mirifica. Other species including Trichechus manatus, Castor canadensis, Tapirus haysii, Tapirus veroensis, and Ursus americanuscontained in this collection represent rare Late Pleistocene occurrences within the southeastern United States. The abundance of assorted megafauna may be the result of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain serving as a migratory route and offering a variety of habitats.
... Island records have subsequently often been considered ideal models for understanding how Pleistocene extinctions unfolded on the continents (14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19), despite the acknowledged and significant differences that exist between island and continental ecosystems (3,20). Today, island extinctions are overwhelmingly interpreted ...
Significance
We provide global assessment of the possible link between Pleistocene hominin arrival and island extinction. The existing records on islands around the world do not support a significant and detrimental impact on island biotas following island colonization prior to the Holocene. This suggests that models using island extinctions as evidence in support of anthropogenic megafaunal overhunting, or as extensions of continental-level extinctions, need to be reconsidered.
... active rewilding) or follow a hands-off approach (i.e. passive rewilding (Martin, 2005;Svenning et al., 2016)). ...
Large and ecologically functioning steppe complexes have been lost historically across the globe, but recent land‐use changes may allow the reversal of this trend in some regions. We aimed to develop and map indicators of changing human influence using satellite imagery and historical maps, and to use these indicators to identify areas for broad‐scale steppe rewilding.
... Thus, the scenario and role of the first settlers in the continent may have been magnified as regards the excessive hunting of mega and large mammals, with the minimization of the small species hunting and recollection of animal and vegetable products (Sellards et al., 1947;Wormington, 1957). In this sense, and together with the progression of a programme of systematic archaeological excavations in sites of first Americans from the great North America plateaus, in the 1970s the main ideas about human-megafauna interactions were stemmed in three hypothesis lines: 1) That of an intensive human exploitation of the Pleistocene fauna which provoked the fast extinction by "Overkill or blitzkrieg" (Martin, 1973(Martin, , 2005, here the humans could have been the main cause of extinctions; 2) a scenario of scarce interaction of humans hunting those mega faunas, and where it is understood that the deep postglacial environmental changes were mainly responsible for the fauna extinctions (Bryan, 1978;Guthrie, 1984). Finally, 3) where the humans may have been another factor in the extinction process but not the main one. ...
This work presents an updated revision of the information about Pleistocene fauna records in archeological sites of the Pampa and Patagonian regions of South America. The purpose is to assess the role played by humans within the extinction process of Pleistocene mammals in the South Cone and the effects that the disappearance of Pleistocene large mammals had in human populations which colonized both regions. This is based on the theory of “Broken Zig-Zag”, which considers that the process was gradual in time and in different species, taking place between 15 Ka BP and 8.5 Ka BP in Patagonia and during a longer period, until ca. 7.5 Ka BP in Pampa. For this aim it was considered all those sites with accurate chronological and taxonomic information about the presence of extinct species of mega and large mammals of xenarthrans, camelids, equids and carnivores. Thus, the work is focused on three analytical lines: regional analysis of radiocarbon records of first and last taxonomic appearance, ecology and etiology of species with archeological record and variability of associations of the archaeofauna with material culture. We discuss how the first humans took possession of Pampa and Patagonian regions during and after the last part of the continental extinction process. Thus, there is a contribution with new hypotheses about the differential use of the extinct fauna in both regions. This interdisciplinary approach of social and environmental agency has not been considered in the specialized bibliography so far; therefore novel information is given for interpreting the way in which humans took possession of the fauna, not only as subsistence resources but also as other important agents in the socio-economic and symbolic relationship of humans with the landscape. On the whole, the final result is that the gregarious species of large herbivores (camelids) were the most important resources for hunter-gatherers from the beginning of human colonization. The extinct fauna influenced subsistence complementarily, though it played an important role in the social and symbolic spheres.
... The more moderate factions of rewilding disagree with each other regarding what consti tutes the "predisturbance" landscape. Is it, for example, The Columbian Curtain pre-1492 to which one should look for re creating species configurations (Martin 2005), or do we need to go further back in time to an anarcho-prirnitive landscape that was wholly devoid of human settlement? Others contend that such endorsements miss the point of rewilding, which is not to impose any single predetermined state on the ecosys tem, but rather to unleash its autonomy (Hobbs and Cramer 2008 Rewilding has triggered a lively discussion among environ mental ethicists and ecologists regarding the extent to which humans should interfere with the processes of rewilding. ...
... To this end, different interventions have been suggested to promote the sustainability of environments and economic systems. Eco-centric interventions may focus on reconstituting a physically material environment (Leonardi 2012), such as Pleistocene rewilding of ecological communities in North America (Martin 2005). At the other end of this range we can find centralized, eco-technic (Guy and Farmer 2001) policies designed to mitigate environmental degradation through the creation of sociomaterial organizations such as carbon markets, in which physical material (carbon) and the social are mutually constituted (Latour 2004, Orlikowski andScott 2008;Bansal and Knox-Hayes 2013). ...
Sustainable development and built heritage are oft-naturalized hegemonic discourses of the
dominant social class. However, under the lens of critical sociomateriality, these categories
destabilize – and in Brexit-era London, epicenter of a financial and technological capitalist
circulatory space, “all that is solid melts” into the scopal regime of London’s View Management Framework (LVMF). Analyzing media discourse of Southwark’s Strata SE1 - billed London’s first ‘sustainable tower’ - and adaptive reuse of the historically preserved Lambeth Water Tower, I argue that these structures constitute ‘interface objects’ in a broader relational geography imbricating physical material, social objects, gentrification and the naturalized epistemologies of hegemonic development within London’s skyline itself. I offer a reading of critical sociomateriality which illuminates rhythms of daily life within spatial-technological systems of energy provision, urban metabolic processes, as well as “hegemonic premiums,” what Richard Barras terms expected return on symbolic capital vis-à-vis the dominant panopticism of the LVMF. This paper contributes a theorization of critical sociomateriality, positing a third path between critical realism and agential realism examining strategies and tactics for inhabiting, maintaining, and interfacing through London’s skyline in an unequal capitalist system marked by dissensus over runaway development, social precarity, and inequality in lived experiences of the urban environment.
... In opposition to his previous characterization of African Pleistocene extinctions, Martin (1984:382-383) remarked that "the outstanding feature of the African Pleistocene is the astonishing number of large animals which survived." According to his revised thinking, this reflected long-term coevolution between hominin hunters and their prey (see also Martin, 2005). ...
A growing body of literature proposes that our ancestors contributed to large mammal extinctions in Africa long before the appearance of Homo sapiens, with some arguing that premodern hominins (e.g., Homo erectus) triggered the demise of Afri-ca's largest herbivores and the loss of carnivoran diversity. Though such arguments have been around for decades, they are now increasingly accepted by those concerned with biodiversity decline in the present-day, despite the near complete absence of critical discussion or debate. To facilitate that process, here we review ancient anthropogenic extinction hypotheses and critically examine the data underpinning them. Broadly speaking, we show that arguments made in favor of ancient anthro-pogenic extinctions are based on problematic data analysis and interpretation, and are substantially weakened when extinctions are considered in the context of long-term evolutionary, ecological, and environmental changes. Thus, at present, there is no compelling empirical evidence supporting a deep history of hominin impacts on Africa's faunal diversity.
... active rewilding) or follow a hands-off approach (i.e. passive rewilding (Martin, 2005;Svenning et al., 2016)). ...
Large and ecologically functioning steppe complexes have been lost historically across the globe, but recent land‐use changes may allow the reversal of this trend in some regions. We aimed to develop and map indicators of changing human influence using satellite imagery and historical maps, and to use these indicators to identify areas for broad‐scale steppe rewilding.
We mapped decreasing human influence indicated by cropland abandonment, declining grazing pressure and rural outmigration in the steppes of northern Kazakhstan. We did this by processing ~5,500 Landsat scenes to map changes in cropland between 1990 and 2015, and by digitizing Soviet topographic maps and examining recent high‐resolution satellite imagery to assess the degree of abandonment of >2,000 settlements and >1,300 livestock stations. We combined this information into a human influence index (HI), mapped changes in HI to highlight where rewilding might take place and assessed how this affected the connectivity of steppe habitat.
Across our study area, about 6.2 million ha of cropland were abandoned (30.5%), 14% of all settlements were fully and 81% partly abandoned, and 76% of livestock stations were completely dismantled between 1990 and 2015, suggesting substantially decreasing human pressure across vast areas. This resulted in increased connectivity of steppe habitat.
The steppes of Eurasia are experiencing massively declining human influence, suggesting large‐scale passive rewilding is taking place. Many of these areas are now important for the connectivity of the wider steppe landscape and can provide habitat for endangered megafauna such as the critically endangered saiga antelope. Yet, this window of opportunity may soon close, as recultivation of abandoned cropland is gaining momentum. Our aggregate human influence index captures key components of rewilding and can help to devise strategies for fostering large, connected networks of protected areas in the steppe.
... The end-Pleistocene events, including climatic perturbations (Younger Dryas cooling) [39][40][41] and megafaunal extinctions (disappearance of mammoths, ground sloths, etc.) [42,43] have attracted significant attention of geologists for decades because of their 'sudden' character and unclear causes. A new round of debates began at the end of the 2000s, when Firestone et al. [44] proposed a hypothesis of the end-Pleistocene extraterrestrial impact to explain a chain of the noted events. ...
Progress in science is significantly influenced by the treatment of information generated by the international research community. A relevant problem is the unawareness of scientists regarding more widely published works and ideas. This problem is illustrated with two examples from geological studies. In the first case, the citation analysis implies that many geologists still use outdated reconstructions regarding eustasy for the Mesozoic–Cenozoic, and important updates are missed. This erroneous practice leads to the accumulation of questionable regional interpretations. In the second case, it is found that studies in which the end-Pleistocene extraterrestrial impact hypothesis was first proposed are cited more prolifically than contrary studies using arguments against this hypothesis.A kind of 'abandonment' of this still debatable but potentially important hypothesis also is found. The root cause behind such a patterns of unawareness by the research community is explained by insufficient attention being paid by today’s geologists to critical literature reviewing, the rare use of bibliometric approaches, and, more generally, limited theorizing (especially in comparison to social sciences). A shift to full-scale theoretical geology is proposed, which would also help to minimize any negative consequences brought on by unawareness of a more global information base.
... The overkill hypothesis is widely embraced in popular science writing and some sectors of the scientific community, especially among ecologists (see Nagaoka et al., 2018). Moreover, a series of specific proposals for restoring or "rewilding" current landscapes are founded on the presumption that humans alone were responsible for the late Pleistocene extinctions (e.g., Donlan et al., 2006;Martin, 2005). However, many archaeologists and Quaternary scientists (e.g., paleontologists) tend to favor multi-causal arguments where climate change is often afforded the most significant role (reviewed in Grayson and Meltzer, 2002;Nagaoka et al., 2018). ...
... Without belaboring the details further, evolution produced human performers who optimized their abilities to such a remarkable degree that they quickly spread from their origin point on the East African savannahs to every corner of the world. Not only did they sweep across the globe, but they also hunted some of the most powerful megafauna of the late Pleistocene period into extinction (MacPhee, 2018;Martin, 2005). In the blink of an evolutionary eye, from the perspective of geological and biological time, Heinrich's (2002) "super endurance predators" clambered to the apex of the food chain. ...
Since the origins of Homo sapiens 300,000 years ago, the quest to optimize human performance has shaped historical development. A macrohistorical perspective reveals that for 290,000 years the necessities of survival pushed hunter-forager cultures toward mass improvement of endurance capabilities and weapons skills. The agricultural revolution that began about 10,000 years ago changed those dynamics, focusing on enhancement for elite warriors while simultaneously diminishing the necessity of mass optimization. The multiple revolutions of modernity that began 500 years ago reanimated mass optimization while paradoxically removing physical enhancement from the realm of necessity through the increasing power of human-made motors rather than human locomotion. Microhistorical perspectives reveal that beyond the general patterns that shaped human cultures across time and place, the historical particularities vastly complicated optimization strategies. Employing macro- and microhistorical perspectives can enhance scientific understandings of optimal performance.
... Indeed, it is the (re)introduction of fauna, especially of megafauna, that represents the more active form of management of ecological succession in which the goal is often the reconstruction of ecosystems and the replacement of the original keystone species where these are now extinct (Donlan et al., 2006;Kintisch, 2015;Monbiot, 2014). For example, proposals to use Indian elephants as a substitute for the mammoths of Pleistocene North America (Martin, 2005). Nevertheless, as Svenning et al. (2016) highlight while there is some evidence to suggest that trophic cascades may be restored via species reintroductions and ecological replacements, the effects of the introduction of megafauna are also affected by trophic complexity and interactions with landscape settings and human activities. ...
Rewilding is an increasingly significant normative concept in biological conservation, environmental planning and urban greenspace studies. Originally developed in relation to ecological restoration theory and practice the term has developed over time and has come to be used in a range of environmental discourses. Along with other ecosystem services tourism provides a major economic justification for rewilding, although specific studies on rewilding and tourism are limited. In introducing this special issue of Journal of Ecotourism on tourism and rewilding attention is given to the main definitions and approaches to rewilding, their application, and some of the issues that emerge, including contestation over not only how rewilding is framed but also the implications of the (re)introduction of wild animals. Rewilding therefore provides new opportunities to examine the nature-culture relationship and the ethics, management and policies associated with tourism's embeddedness in ecological restoration practices and the framing of the wild.
... Indeed, quantitative analysis of the existing radiocarbon chronology are consistent with a more or less synchronous loss of all genera at this time (Faith and Surovell, 2009). The timing of the extinctions shortly follows (at least over geological timescales) the arrival of the earliest Homo sapiens in North America, a temporal correspondence that played a key role Paul Martin's (1967Martin's ( , 1984Martin's ( , 2005 formulation of the overkill hypothesis, which proposes that human hunting was directly responsible for extinctions in North America. Similar parallels between the timing of extinctions and human arrival elsewhere led him to extend this hypothesis to account for the demise of the planet's large mammals across the globe. ...
As recently as ~50,000 years ago, a great diversity of large-bodied mammalian herbivores (species >44 kg) occupied nearly all of Earth’s terrestrial realms. Outside of sub-Saharan Africa, the vast majority of these species had disappeared by the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary ~11,700 years ago, either from human impacts, climate change, or some combination of both. Though research has focused on the causes of the late Quaternary extinctions since the nineteenth century, only recently has attention shifted to understanding their downstream consequences for the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. In this Chapter, we synthesize the available paleoecological datasets bearing on late Quaternary extinctions and corresponding ecosystem change in Australia, North America, and northern Eurasia. We show that across these regions, the disappearance of large herbivorous mammals had far-reaching impacts, including enhanced fire regimes and vegetation state shifts, reductions in seed dispersal and near-extinction of large fruiting plants, downsizing and diversity loss in invertebrate communities relying on herbivore dung, and the collapse of predator guilds relying on large mammal prey. Collectively, these late Quaternary paleoecological lessons emphasize that large herbivores are cornerstones of ecosystems and play major roles in both maintaining stability and driving state shifts. We conclude our Chapter by discussing how these lessons feed into conservation biology today and efforts to mitigate the effects of continued range contraction and extinction of large mammals over the next century.
The significant extinctions in Earth history have largely been unpredictable in terms of what species perish and what traits make species susceptible. The extinctions occurring during the late Pleistocene are unusual in this regard, because they were strongly size-selective and targeted exclusively large-bodied animals (i.e., megafauna, >1 ton) and disproportionately, large-bodied herbivores. Because these animals are also at particular risk today, the aftermath of the late Pleistocene extinctions can provide insights into how the loss or decline of contemporary large-bodied animals may influence ecosystems. Here, we review the ecological consequences of the late Pleistocene extinctions on major aspects of the environment, on communities and ecosystems, as well as on the diet, distribution and behavior of surviving mammals. We find the consequences of the loss of megafauna were pervasive and left legacies detectable in all parts of the Earth system. Furthermore, we find that the ecological roles that extinct and modern megafauna play in the Earth system are not replicated by smaller-bodied animals. Our review highlights the important perspectives that paleoecology can provide for modern conservation efforts.
Decisions by individuals, organisations, and nations shape the well-being of humans and other species, the environment, and sustainability. Decisions for Sustainability examines how we can make better decisions concerning our future. It incorporates sociological, psychological, and economic perspectives to highlight our strengths and weaknesses in decision-making, and suggest strategies to influence both individual and societal decisions. Sustainability challenges – from local land use and toxic contamination to climate change and biodiversity loss – illustrate how we can improve decision making and what factors lead to conflict. How we use science in the face of uncertainty is also examined, and a range of ethical criteria for good decisions are proposed. Emphasizing the need for diversity in decision making and clarifying the relationship between reform and societal transformation, this book provides a comprehensive view of what we know about decision-making, and how we can do better in the face of sustainability challenges.
Entre 1873 et 1884, Florentino Ameghino consacre tous ses efforts à documenter et prouver la coexistence des hommes etde la mégafaune pampéenne dans la valle de Luján. Il identifie ainsi une dizaine des sites en contexte de plaine alluvial desvallées incisés dans le lœss pampéen. Ce sites, caractérises par l’abondance des os modifies de mégafaune et quelquelithiques, ne seront jamais réétudies. L’objectif principal de cette étude est leur réévaluation et validation geoarchéologique.L’analyse séquentielle, et l’étude de l'architecture des séquences fluviolacustres et des facies loessoides associées, et lesdatations par AMS et OSL entre 13 000 AP et 50 000 AP, permettent d’attribuer un âge pléistocène supérieur aux niveauxdécrits au XIX siècle comme porteurs des évidences culturelles. Ces dépôts sont scellés par une couche noire, riche enmatière organique (Terres Noires), qui se corrèlent avec des niveaux similaires des sites Clovis et Monte Verde, signalant unchangement climatique abrupt comme déclencheur du processus d'extinction. Une attention particulière a été donne àl’étude des évidences taphonomiques et à l’expérimentation sur les traces de découpe et percussion. Ainsi sont présentées lesrésultats de ces expériences et des nombreux exemples d’os de mégafaune pampéenne striés et incisés. Ces premièresdécouvertes emmènent à considérer l’'utilisation de technologie osseuse expéditive et à reconsidérer la l’hypothèse d’unpeuplement pampéen antérieur au dernier maximum glaciaire (OIS 2 - OIS 3).
What causes Ice Ages? How did we learn about them? What were their affects on the social history of humanity? Allan Mazur's book tells the appealing history of the scientific 'discovery' of Ice Ages. How we learned that much of the Earth was repeatedly covered by huge ice sheets, why that occurred, and how the waning of the last Ice Age paved the way for agrarian civilization and, ultimately, our present social structures. The book discusses implications for the current 'controversies' over anthropogenic climate change, public understanding of science, and (lack of) 'trust in experts'. In parallel to the history and science of Ice Ages, sociologist Mazur highlights why this is especially relevant right now for humanity. Ice Ages: Their Social and Natural History is an engrossing combination of natural science and social history: glaciology and sociology writ large.
The most basic and important resources in the Northwest Coast are aquatic, especially sea mammals, marine fish, and sea-running (anadromous) fish. The several species of salmon and sea-running trout are the most famous of these, defining the region in many views. Many less-known resources were highly important and are described here, since they tend to be neglected in much of the literature.
The settler-society myth of the “wasteful” Native Americans, who exterminated the Pleistocene megafauna and drove millions of buffalo over cliffs, persists in spite of criticism. The present book must include some debunking of this myth. Native American stories make it clear that overhunting did occur and was recognized; it was also stopped when it did appear. Wise use remained the rule.
The present contribution offers a descriptive account of two recent books concerning shamanism, Homayun Sidky’s The Origins of Shamanism, Spirit Beliefs, and Religiosity: A Cognitive Anthropological Perspective (2017) and Sergio Botta’s Dagli sciamani allo sciamanesimo. Discorsi, credenze, pratiche (2018). The commentary starts by supplying a brief historical contextualization of the subfield of shamanic studies in both Anthropology and the History of Religions, highlighting the main trends and widespread approaches. Sidky’s neurocognitive account and Botta’s poststructural historiographical walk-through are then taken into consideration and reviewed. The conclusions under-score the need for an integration between these two perspectives and urge cognitive historians to collaborate with like-minded anthropologists in order to further the study of shamanism and prevent the subfield from becoming de novo monopolized by paranormal and postmodern anthropology.
The article offers an extended review, counterpointed by a critical commentary, of two recent and outstanding volumes, Turner et al.’s The Emergence and Evolution of Religion (2018) and Sanderson’s Religious Evolution and the Axial Age (2018). Both books are eminently interdisciplinary in their scope: the first displays a distinctive deep-historical and neurosociological attention to the evolution of negative emotions and inter-group competition, while the latter focuses on the contribution of world transcendent religions to help human beings cope with new and challenging biosocial conditions derived from ultrasociality. While the two volumes gain unprecedented multidisciplinary width, they also tend to lose intra-disciplinary depth. However, and for all their differences, they both represent the vanguard of a renewed qualitative, scientific, and interdisciplinary study of the history of religion(s) through cognitive historiography. This contribution presents the main theses of both books, highlights their strengths, and provides a comprehensive discussion of their epistemological and methodological shortcomings.
Birds and mammals can give us clues about
our own behavior, and studying them can
answer interesting questions, such as why
is the World green, and why are plants the
biggest organisms on land, but animals the
largest in the oceans? Nevertheless the most
compelling reason to study them is because it
is fun, which is possibly the main message in
this book.
Printed copies can be obtained from the publisher (cheaper from October 2021 to 2024).
Digital copies can be obtained from the publisher´s site or by contacting me.
Ecosystems are under tremendous pressure due to the expansion of human population and urbanization. This is clearly evidenced by the extinction of many important plants and animals and the presence of others on endangered or threatened lists. Many ecosystems have been so transformed by human activities that they have become new altered systems such as urban ecosystems. Many unique ecosystems, including wetlands, coral reefs, tropical rainforests, and permafrost environments, are under extreme threats due to human-induced climate change, pollution, and overdevelopment. Simple, hard and/or expensive, and innovative and/or life-changing approaches that individuals can take to protect and preserve ecosystems are presented.
This study examines pre-eminent Turkish cartoonist Fırat Yaşa’s graphic novel Tepe (The Hill), first published in 2016. Set in the prehistoric period in what is now the Göbeklitepe archaeological site in Turkey, the graphic novel revolves around a friendship between a man and a deer. This study offers examples of Turkish graphic novel literature and varied illustrated books as frames of reference to better understand the symbols and cultural practices concerning man/animal relationships that influence the story. It also explores the role that Göbeklitepe plays as a place, period, and architectural style in man/animal encounters, illustrating how the pillars/columns and the carving found there are reinterpreted as motifs for death of all life forms. The novel’s illustrations depicting the entanglement of humans and nature emphasise that no one, not man, animals, or animalistic man, is above being vulnerable. The novel disrupts the visually and verbally human-centred perspective, both by portraying various experiences of different species and by emphasising the uncanny ritualistic performances set in one of the oldest sanctuaries ever to be discovered. As such, this graphic novel is an illustrative example of ecological inquiry via cultural heritage with an emphasis on the evolving relations between man and animals.
Studies on domestication reveal the parallel evolution of dogs and humans. While free-ranging dogs may represent a window to the early stage of domestication, pet-companion dogs can reflect some essential consequences. The multiple debates, different perspectives, and difficulty of conjugating science to good practices has resulted in some critical confusion on the perception of dogs, and adversely impacted approaches to dog parenting, dog training, and dog behaviour assessment.
While many features of the dog domestication are still in a grey zone, we need to invest more resources in helping people and the community to understand their relationship with dogs from an evolutionary perspective, to support them reframing the value of dogs for human societies. Obviously, more efforts in conjugating knowledge on the parallel evolution of dogs and humans to good practices are required. Additionally, the recent Covid-19 pandemic and the massive lockdown have tremendously impacted the lives of people and animals worldwide, including companion dogs and free-ranging dogs.
Changes in the ecology and behaviour of free-ranging and wild animals have been observed, and notable gain for the environment occurred. The significant event re-directs the attention on the need to reframe and leverage the dog-human alliance, recalls the concept of rewilding, and fosters reconsiderations on the impact humans have on other species, the ecosystem, and the climate as well.
Keywords: Domestication; Dogs; COVID-19; Rewilding; Anthropocene.
This paper reviews the history of human economic activity from the time Homo sapiens appeared to the present. The first aim is to provide a coherent narrative of the economic history of this period. The second aim is to quantify economic activities where time series data is available and to use economic theory to explain the trends and turning points. It examines the history of three central time series – the aggregate human population, output per capita and human‐induced species extinctions. It concludes with some brief observations on the contribution of Big Economic History to Big Human History.
The Extinction of Late Pleistocene Large Mammals from North Eurasian Perspective – Review of Ross D.E. MacPhee (with illustrations by Peter Schouten). End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals. 2019. W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN: 978-0-39324-929-3; xii + 236 pages, with 83 illustrations and 1 table. List price $35 US (hardback). Photo courtesy of W. W. Norton & Co. - Yaroslav V Kuzmin
Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars and observers have averred promote or hinder proenvironmental behaviors. We found that those who hold anthropocentric and monotheistic religious views, and express low levels of environmental, religious, and cosmic humility, are less likely to engage in proenvironmental behaviors than those who maintain views, or express affinity with affective traits, values, and spiritual understandings, that are ecocentric, Organicist/Gaian, pantheistic, animistic, and that in general reflect humility about the human place in the world.
Large mammalian herbivores and the ecosystems in which they live are intimately connected through the food choices the animals make. Herbivores eat plants and plants have evolved mechanisms to defend themselves from being eaten. This arms race between plants and vertebrate herbivores continues to this day. The outcomes of this arms race are seen in the morphological, physiological and behavioural adaptations of large mammalian herbivores. The ways in which herbivores exploit plants affect not only plants, and the assemblages in which they exist but also the “dynamics” of whole ecosystems. The paleoecological work demonstrates that the consequences of large herbivore community and population dynamics at some point in history ripples through time and can be seen in the dynamics of ecosystems today. The Quaternary extinctions of many species of large mammalian herbivores changed systems as fire became the major consumer of vegetation in the absence of ungulates. Fundamental to the understanding of the role of herbivores in ecosystem dynamics is the concept of “niche”, however, “browsing” and “grazing” species of large mammalian herbivore are extremely flexible in their diet composition depending on the circumstances in which they find themselves. Whilst body size has also been used as an explanatory variable in understanding large mammalian herbivore ecology (including feeding and vital rates in population studies), there are many “exceptions to the rule”, which, as with the browser vs. grazer dichotomy, deserves further investigation and potentially also changes in ecological theory. There are rich seams of information and data from historical studies and literature that should be made freely available for such analyses, much more often than is presently the norm. Whilst ungulate ecologists should look to the literature on livestock for insights into, particularly digestive physiology and the increasing understanding of the important of the fermentation microbiome, studies on the various species of wild large mammalian herbivore (including those that are not foregut or hindgut fermenters) are needed to provide insights into dietary adaptations. So, what of the future? Climate change looms large in the picture for large mammalian herbivores; they may have flexibility in order to cope with variation but movement, to take advantage of nutritional opportunities, is key, and populations in, for example, semi-arid areas are increasingly unable to exploit spatial variation because of the massive impact of humans on land use. Let us not forget that currently about 37% of the total land area of the globe is agricultural land and 60% of this is grazing land for livestock. These proportions will only increase as the world’s human population grows in size and wealth. The foregoing Chapters in the Ecology of Browsing and Grazing II provide a wealth of information on the past and current ecology of large mammalian herbivores, but the book is also a call for future generations of researchers to seek to better understand the whats, whys and the wherefores of the interactions between herbivores and the ecosystems in which they live. Given the vital importance of mammalian herbivores to those ecosystems, and also the role they play in providing ecosystem services to humanity, researchers must seek partnership with policy and management practitioners in delivering evidence-based solutions for the future management and conservation of these amazing creatures, in a world that is changing before our eyes. But researchers should not forget that these ungulates are made of flesh and blood, that they graze and browse in real landscapes, and that there is a profound need for hard-core ungulate ecologists with a broad set of skills and deep understanding of ‘their’ animals. As a bonus, we, and all other ungulate ecologists, get to see, feel and understand some of the most beautiful creatures that share our planet.
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