Overview

The volume contains summaries of facts, theories, and unsolved problems pertaining to the unexplained extinction of dozens of genera of mostly large terrestrial mammals, which occurred ca. 13,000 calendar years ago in North America and about 1,000 years later in South America. Another equally mysterious wave of extinctions affected large Caribbean islands around 5,000 years ago. The coupling of these extinctions with the earliest appearance of human beings has led to the suggestion that foraging humans are to blame, although major climatic shifts were also taking place in the Americas during some of the extinctions. The last published volume with similar (but not identical) themes -- Extinctions in Near Time -- appeared in 1999; since then a great deal of innovative, exciting new research has been done but has not yet been compiled and summarized. Different chapters in this volume provide in-depth resumés of the chronology of the extinctions in North and South America, the possible insights into animal ecology provided by studies of stable isotopes and anatomical/physiological characteristics such as growth increments in mammoth and mastodont tusks, the clues from taphonomic research about large-mammal biology, the applications of dating methods to the extinctions debate, and archeological controversies concerning human hunting of large mammals.

Full Product Details

Author:   Gary Haynes
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Imprint:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Edition:   2009 ed.
Dimensions:   Width: 21.00cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 27.90cm
Weight:   0.784kg
ISBN:  

9781402087929

ISBN 10:   1402087926
Pages:   201
Publication Date:   29 January 2009
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

to the Volume.- Sudden Deaths: The Chronology of Terminal Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction.- Estimates of Clovis-Era Megafaunal Populations and Their Extinction Risks.- Paleobiology and Extinction of Proboscideans in the Great Lakes Region of North America.- Human Prey Choice in the Late Pleistocene and Its Relation to Megafaunal Extinctions.- Ancient DNA and the Genetic Consequences of Late Pleistocene Extinctions.- Did Humans Cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mammalian Extinctions in South America in a Context of Shrinking Open Areas?.- The Elusive Evidence: The Archeological Record of the South American Extinct Megafauna.- Insulae infortunatae: Establishing a Chronology for Late Quaternary Mammal Extinctions in the West Indies.- Afterword, and Thoughts About the Future Literature.

Reviews

(1) The Early Settlement of North America: The Clovis Era (Cambridge U. Press, 2002) <p>a ~I found The Early Settlement of North America most impressive. Haynes presents a wide-ranging, lively, detailed discussion of his ideas and supporting data. He provides a rich supply of interpretations and testable hypotheses, which will generate continued debate on a host of seemingly intractable topics centered on the peopling of the New World.a (TM) Vance Holliday in Science. <p>Customer Reviews From Amazon.com: <br> <p>Clovis Tradition, first Americans?, April 11, 2004 <p>By <p>Dale Guthrie (Fairbanks, AK United States) - <p>This book is a gem. There is no other book about the first Americans that has such an even handed thoughtful analysis of the complex array of data involved in the controversy. Haynes is one of the key players in this controversy and his research has cleared up much of the confusion around what can be considered reliable archaeological evidence of human presence. His work with African elephants throws considerable light on how bones can be broken or otherwise altered by natural processes and appear as pseudoartifacts. The book provides a rich background and is written in a readable style for most scientically literate readers. It should be on the shelf of any anthropologist, archaeologist, geologist, ecologist, or enthusiast interested in the peopling of the Americas at the end of the Pleistocene <p>Human Behavior Ecology in Clovis, March 25, 2003 <p>By A Customer <p>This book was a thoughtful reinterpretation of the existing data pertaining to the nature of Clovis lifeways and settlement in the New World. Rather than concerning himself with the nature ortiming of the first Americans, Haynes introduces an ecological perspective to the study of Clovis, a population movement model in which adopting a very specialized adaptive strategy would enable a 'fugitive' culture such as Clovis to spread rapidly throughout the New World. <p>(2) Mammoths, Mastodonts, and Elephants: Biology, Behavior, and the Fossil Record (Cambridge U. Press, 1991) <p> The book is well written, with illustrations and tables provided to support important conclusions.a (TM) Science <p>a ~Of greatest value for paleontologists and archaeologists, but advanced undergraduates interested in the techniques of historical sciences could read it profitably.a (TM) Choice <p>a ~ a ] an enthralling book which anyone interested in elephants or mammoths will enjoy.a (TM) Times Higher Education Supplement <p>a ~The scholarly title obscures the real topic. In fact, this volume is a brilliant murder mystery.a (TM) Scientific American

Author Information

Gary Haynes, archeologist and author of two related books, Mammoths, Mastodonts, and Elephants (Cambridge University Press, 1993) and The Early Settlement of North America: The Clovis Era (Cambridge University Press, 2002). He has spent nearly 30 years working in actualistic studies of large-mammal bones in Africa, Australia, and North America, and has also been deeply involved in Paleoindian research for even longer.

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