Mass Extinction At The End Of The Last Ice Age

The proponents of the “Kill” theory contend that over-hunting directly caused the mass extinction of the large Pleistocene mammals in North America or that perhaps over-hunting eliminated a "keystone species" and this ultimately led to extinction. This theory proposes that humans migrated into North America across the Bering Land Bridge where they encountered favorable conditions (space and game) that allowed the human population to increase exponentially. Paul McNeil, a Ph.D. candidate in paleontology at the University of Calgary and

supporter of this theory, said: “Environment and climate change were definitely factors in the extinction event, but there had been numerous instances of glaciers advancing and retreating during the Pleistocene, and this is the only time we see a megafaunal extinction. The arrival of humans is the only real new factor" (Mayell, Hillary. “Remains Show Ancient Horses Were Hunted for Their Meat”). David Burney, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Fordham University in New York, “New World animals had never seen a human before, and probably, like the penguins of Antarctica or the tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, had no fear of this new, unlikely-looking predator. That made the human hunter's job much easier” (BBC Evolution Weekend).

Proponents of the “Chill” theory hold that the climate change may have been more abrupt than previously thought, perhaps occurring in 10-20 years. These abrupt ecosystem changes then led to the

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