Definition Of Overkill Hypothesis
I also wonder if these species would have been hunted to extinction if the humans at this time knew how to domesticate crops animals and didn t have to rely so heavily on hunting for their food.
Definition of overkill hypothesis. As an alternative explanation to climate change martin 1958 1967a 1973 proposed the overkill hypothesis in which humans hunted the megafauna to extinction. The global blitzkrieg hypothesis explains differential rates of megafaunal extinction between the world s landmasses in the late quaternary based on a. Coincident with the human colonization of the western hemisphere dozens of genera of pleistocene megafauna were lost to extinction. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the.
Other articles where overkill hypothesis is discussed. The first theory the so called overkill hypothesis receives support from the coincidence in the timing of the mass extinction and the appearance of large numbers of human hunters as evidenced by the clovis complex an ancient culture centred in north america. The end of the pleistocene was marked by the extinction of many genera of large mammals including mammoths mastodons ground sloths and giant beavers. Much more of something than is needed resulting in less effectiveness.
These examples are from the cambridge english corpus and from sources on the web. Late quaternary and the global overkill hypothesis. The observation that extinctions follow the arrival of humans is consistent with the second order predation hypothesis. Following martin we argue that declines in the record of radiocarbon dates of extinct genera may be used as an independent means of detecting the first presence of humans in the new world.
The extinction event is most distinct in north america where 32 genera of large mammals vanished during an interval of about 2 000 years centred on 11 000 bp. Clovis archaeological sites. A definition of the term pleistocene overkill hypothesis is presented. Budyko relates the sudden demise of large mammal populations on different continents and at different times to the arrival of humans.
Our results based on analyses of radiocarbon dates from eastern beringia. It states that excessive hunting by early humans caused the mass extinctions of large mammals at the end of the pleistocene epoch that is 70 000 to 10 000 years ago. Researching the pleistocene overkill hypothesis was really interesting and it helped me understand a huge impact that the hunter gatherer culture had on its environment. Overkill hypothesis martin developed the theory known as overkill or the blitzkrieg model which based on the ideas of russian climatologist mikhail i.
Arguments against the second order predation hypothesis edit the model specifically assumes high extinction rates in grasslands but most extinct species ranged across numerous vegetation zones.