Comments on: Mammoths, Spears, and Marty Stouffer http://science.kqed.org/quest/2007/03/01/mammoths-spears-and-marty-stouffer/ Explore science, nature and environment stories from Northern California and beyond with KQED’s multimedia series Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:38:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Robert http://science.kqed.org/quest/2007/03/01/mammoths-spears-and-marty-stouffer/#comment-10490 Robert Sun, 01 Apr 2007 23:28:55 +0000 http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2007/03/01/mammoths-spears-and-marty-stouffer/#comment-10490 Just want to express gratitude for information. Just want to express gratitude for information.

]]> By: Kyle Dawson http://science.kqed.org/quest/2007/03/01/mammoths-spears-and-marty-stouffer/#comment-10489 Kyle Dawson Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:34:51 +0000 http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2007/03/01/mammoths-spears-and-marty-stouffer/#comment-10489 All puns intended, it seems to me that human hunting must have been the straw that broke the camel's back. There had been a series of ice ages followed by warming periods (interglacials) during the million or so years that preceded human colonization of North America. The camels, horses, and mammoths survived. The fundamental difference between the end of the last ice age and all of the previous interglacials is the injection of humans into the equation. That said, I'd like to ask a slew of questions. First, was there mass extinction of megafauna during the previous interglacials in North America? Is it possible that all of the less flexible megafauna had already died off and humans encountered the remainder of large mammals as they entered their stressed interglacial state? Second, your post conjures the obvious analogies to the effects of global warming. There are megafauna that survived the end of the Pleistocene, the polar bear being the token example. These megafauna not only survived the end of the last ice age, but also the warm period around 1000 AD when Vikings farmed Greenland. What is it about these mammals that allowed them to survive both the onslaught of humans and the warm periods? How legitimate is the assignment of endangered species to these mammals due to the effects of global warming considering their survival? All puns intended, it seems to me that human hunting must have been the straw that broke the camel's back. There had been a series of ice ages followed by warming periods (interglacials) during the million or so years that preceded human colonization of North America. The camels, horses, and mammoths survived. The fundamental difference between the end of the last ice age and all of the previous interglacials is the injection of humans into the equation.

That said, I'd like to ask a slew of questions.

First, was there mass extinction of megafauna during the previous interglacials in North America? Is it possible that all of the less flexible megafauna had already died off and humans encountered the remainder of large mammals as they entered their stressed interglacial state?

Second, your post conjures the obvious analogies to the effects of global warming. There are megafauna that survived the end of the Pleistocene, the polar bear being the token example. These megafauna not only survived the end of the last ice age, but also the warm period around 1000 AD when Vikings farmed Greenland. What is it about these mammals that allowed them to survive both the onslaught of humans and the warm periods? How legitimate is the assignment of endangered species to these mammals due to the effects of global warming considering their survival?

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