Except the numbers don't really stack up. 10-15k years ago the entire global population of humans was, at best, a few million. And a single megafauna kill would produce enough meat to feed an entire community for weeks. Humans would have had to have been extremely bloodthirsty and systematic in their slaughter, and must have been wasting enormous quantities of meat.
Also, the regions where some megafauna species survive into modern times (ie: Africa and South Asia) were where most of the humans lived. Wouldn't we expect those species to have gone extinct too?
It's certainly possible that humans helped finish off megafauna populations that were already scattered, distressed, and in decline. But it's unlikely that we were the primary or only cause.
> "We lost the biggest animals because those were the ones we hunted."
There's plenty of evidence that ancient humans hunted animals of all sizes. Why would we only go after megafauna as they became rarer and rarer? Instead of smaller species that were far more numerous and accessible?
> And a single megafauna kill would produce enough meat to feed an entire community for weeks.
Meat spoils in warm weather within days. Weeks would be assuming they had refrigeration. We're not sure when the practice of curing and drying meat started, and if they had not been practicing that... then it would be a megafauna every few days.
Except the numbers don't really stack up. 10-15k years ago the entire global population of humans was, at best, a few million. And a single megafauna kill would produce enough meat to feed an entire community for weeks. Humans would have had to have been extremely bloodthirsty and systematic in their slaughter, and must have been wasting enormous quantities of meat.
Also, the regions where some megafauna species survive into modern times (ie: Africa and South Asia) were where most of the humans lived. Wouldn't we expect those species to have gone extinct too?
It's certainly possible that humans helped finish off megafauna populations that were already scattered, distressed, and in decline. But it's unlikely that we were the primary or only cause.
> "We lost the biggest animals because those were the ones we hunted."
There's plenty of evidence that ancient humans hunted animals of all sizes. Why would we only go after megafauna as they became rarer and rarer? Instead of smaller species that were far more numerous and accessible?