Synergistic roles of climate warming and human occupation in Patagonian megafaunal extinctions during the Last Deglaciation

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 2; no. 6; p. e1501682
• Main Authors: Metcalf, Jessica L, Turney, Chris, Barnett, Ross, Martin, Fabiana, Bray, Sarah C, Vilstrup, Julia T, Orlando, Ludovic, Salas-Gismondi, Rodolfo, Loponte, Daniel, Medina, Matías, De Nigris, Mariana, Civalero, Teresa, Fernández, Pablo Marcelo, Gasco, Alejandra, Duran, Victor, Seymour, Kevin L, Otaola, Clara, Gil, Adolfo, Paunero, Rafael, Prevosti, Francisco J, Bradshaw, Corey J A, Wheeler, Jane C, Borrero, Luis, Austin, Jeremy J, Cooper, Alan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 01.06.2016
• Subjects: Animals; Bone and Bones - chemistry; Bone and Bones - metabolism; Camelidae - classification; Camelidae - genetics; Climate Change; DNA, Mitochondrial - chemistry; DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics; DNA, Mitochondrial - metabolism; Ecology; Extinction, Biological; Felidae - classification; Felidae - genetics; Human Activities; Humans; Ice Cover; Radiometric Dating; SciAdv r-articles; Sequence Analysis, DNA; South America; Ursidae - classification; Ursidae - genetics; South America; PATAGONIA; extinction; megafauna; mitochondrial DNA; Antarctic Cold Reversal; radiocarbon; climate; Pleistocene; human occupation
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1501682

The causes of Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions (60,000 to 11,650 years ago, hereafter 60 to 11.65 ka) remain contentious, with major phases coinciding with both human arrival and climate change around the world. The Americas provide a unique opportunity to disentangle these factors as human colonization took place over a narrow time frame (~15 to 14.6 ka) but during contrasting temperature trends across each continent. Unfortunately, limited data sets in South America have so far precluded detailed comparison. We analyze genetic and radiocarbon data from 89 and 71 Patagonian megafaunal bones, respectively, more than doubling the high-quality Pleistocene megafaunal radiocarbon data sets from the region. We identify a narrow megafaunal extinction phase 12,280 ± 110 years ago, some 1 to 3 thousand years after initial human presence in the area. Although humans arrived immediately prior to a cold phase, the Antarctic Cold Reversal stadial, megafaunal extinctions did not occur until the stadial finished and the subsequent warming phase commenced some 1 to 3 thousand years later. The increased resolution provided by the Patagonian material reveals that the sequence of climate and extinction events in North and South America were temporally inverted, but in both cases, megafaunal extinctions did not occur until human presence and climate warming coincided. Overall, metapopulation processes involving subpopulation connectivity on a continental scale appear to have been critical for megafaunal species survival of both climate change and human impacts.