TY - JOUR
T1 - Fifty millennia of catastrophic extinctions after human contact
AU - Burney, David A.
AU - Flannery, Timothy F.
PY - 2005/7
Y1 - 2005/7
N2 - Debate continues to rage between enthusiasts for climate change versus humans as a cause of the catastrophic faunal extinctions that have occurred in the wake of human arrival in previously uninhabited regions of the world. A global pattern of human arrival to such landmasses, followed by faunal collapse and other ecological changes, appears without known exception. This strongly suggests to some investigators that a more interesting extinction debate lies within the realm of potential human-caused explanations and how climate might exacerbate human impacts. New observations emerging from refined dating techniques, paleoecology and modeling suggest that the megafaunal collapses of the Americas and Australia, as well as most prehistoric island biotic losses, trace to a variety of human impacts, including rapid overharvesting, biological invasions, habitat transformation and disease.
AB - Debate continues to rage between enthusiasts for climate change versus humans as a cause of the catastrophic faunal extinctions that have occurred in the wake of human arrival in previously uninhabited regions of the world. A global pattern of human arrival to such landmasses, followed by faunal collapse and other ecological changes, appears without known exception. This strongly suggests to some investigators that a more interesting extinction debate lies within the realm of potential human-caused explanations and how climate might exacerbate human impacts. New observations emerging from refined dating techniques, paleoecology and modeling suggest that the megafaunal collapses of the Americas and Australia, as well as most prehistoric island biotic losses, trace to a variety of human impacts, including rapid overharvesting, biological invasions, habitat transformation and disease.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=20444479464&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tree.2005.04.022
DO - 10.1016/j.tree.2005.04.022
M3 - Review article
C2 - 16701402
AN - SCOPUS:20444479464
SN - 0169-5347
VL - 20
SP - 395
EP - 401
JO - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
JF - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
IS - 7
ER -