It was just within the short span of perhaps 400 years, North American mammoths, ancient horses, and many other large mammals disappeared. This happened some 12,000 years ago. But, what led to their non-discriminatory death? Though the scientists cannot spot the right clue on it, they did not put humans off the hook yet. A new study suggests this.
It was during the same period when many large animals, or megafauna, disappeared from the world map, a large number of animals disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene era (50,000 to 10,000 years ago). The saber-toothed cat and the diprotodon are the ones that fell victim to this mysterious extinction phenomenon.
Experts are still pondering on what exactly to blame or this mass extinction.
* Was the climate change simply too much for the animals to withstand?
* Did the ancient mammals succumb to human hunting pressure?
* Is a combination of these factors and perhaps disease or other factors?