Climate - Extinctions

The oxygen isotope data from glacial ice cores and deep sea cores provide the most accurate records of Quaternary climate change. Both local and global processes are reflected in these records, which show changes in ice volume and temperature. They have a relationship to sedimentary communities along land and seashores and can quantify the speed of change and the timing of cycles. Lake levels, pollen records, ice core dust, and computer modeling can all be used to infer moisture and drying cycles.

Ice Age extinctions were not a democratic process. Both herbivores and carnivores were affected by the extinction of large animals at the end of the Pleistocene. In the Americas and Australia, this is especially true. There are a number of theories as to why this is the case, but the "prehistoric overkill hypothesis" holds that human hunting, which dates back between the last 40,000 and 13,000 years, is to blame for the extinction of large animals.

Not all species went extinct during the Ice Age. Both herbivores and carnivores were affected by the end of the Pleistocene extinction of large animals, which affected both groups. In Australia and the Americas, this is especially true. There are many theories as to why this is the case, but the "prehistoric overkill hypothesis" contends that human hunting, which dates back between 40,000 and 13,000 years, is to blame for the extinction of large animals.