Pleistocene-Holocene megafauna extinctions: overkill, overchill, overgrill or overill?

Level: Master
Start: Any time
Project duration: 6 months
Project form: database construction and analysis
Supervision: Rob Lenders
Mail addresses: r.lenders@science.ru.nl

Description of the project:

The transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, approximately 12,000 years ago, is associated with
the extinction of megafauna species in especially North- and South-America and large parts of Eurasia.
In other parts of the world the extinction seems to have happened earlier (Australia) or later
(Madagaskar) or to a much lesser extent (Africa and South Asia). Now extinct species like American
mastodon (Mammut americanum), Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), woolly mammoth
(Mammuthus primigenius), Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastense), woolly rhinoceros
(Coelodonta antiquitatis) and Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus) – to mention a few – are considered to
have been keystone species in Holocene ecosystems. They are believed to have created and maintained
vegetation openness in otherwise closed forest canopy covers and (thus) to have played a pivotal role in
ecosystem structure and functioning. Introducing extant megafauna species (for example European
bison, Bison bonasus) is therefore a key issue in rewilding as a conservation strategy; the most extreme
form of which, i.e. Pleistocene rewilding, aims for instance at the introduction of African elephants in
North-America to substitute the extinct Columbian mammoth. Between different schools of scientists a
fierce debate is going on for decades as to which phenomenon or phenomena is/are responsible for the
observed extinction of megafauna. Possible explanatory phenomena come in four main categories: 1.
Overkill, extinction due to overhunting by humans, 2. Overchill, extinction due to suddenly worsening
climatic conditions, 3. Overgrill, due to fires resulting from cometh impacts and 4. Overill, due to a
worldwide occurring disease. Combinations of causal phenomena are also argued, especially overkill and
overchill. Of all hypotheses, the overkill hypothesis (which comes in several variants) is the most
“popular” among scientists to explain extinctions. To support either hypothesis, synchronicity in
megafauna extinction and possibly causal events has to be demonstrated. An accurate dating of both
megafauna extinctions and possible causations (especially human colonization) is therefore crucial.
Surprisingly, a worldwide temporal analysis (based on 14C-dating) of available data on megafauna
extinctions has only taken place to a limited extent.

The aim of the present project is to systematically explore and review existing scientific literature on
Pleistocene-Holocene extinctions and to create a comprehensive worldwide database on
archaeozoological and palaeontological finds of megafauna species and to analyse the data across data
on palaeoclimate, occurrence of cometh impacts, occurring diseases and, especially, human
colonisations.