American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene

Gary Haynes, archeologist and author of two related books, Mammoths, Mastodonts, and Elephants (Cambridge University Press, 1993) and The Early Settlement of North America: The Clovis Era (Cambridge University Press, 2002). He has spent nearly 30 years working in actualistic studies of large-mammal bones in Africa, Australia, and North America, and has also been deeply involved in Paleoindian research for even longer.

to the Volume.- Sudden Deaths: The Chronology of Terminal Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction.- Estimates of Clovis-Era Megafaunal Populations and Their Extinction Risks.- Paleobiology and Extinction of Proboscideans in the Great Lakes Region of North America.- Human Prey Choice in the Late Pleistocene and Its Relation to Megafaunal Extinctions.- Ancient DNA and the Genetic Consequences of Late Pleistocene Extinctions.- Did Humans Cause the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mammalian Extinctions in South America in a Context of Shrinking Open Areas?.- The Elusive Evidence: The Archeological Record of the South American Extinct Megafauna.- Insulae infortunatae: Establishing a Chronology for Late Quaternary Mammal Extinctions in the West Indies.- Afterword, and Thoughts About the Future Literature.

From the reviews:"This excellent volume is an antidote to the rhetorical bombast. Haynes … thoroughly, fairly, and at times humorously frames the debate and puts the present studies in context. Eleven contributors present methodologically sound approaches that result in data-rich research. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Academic and professional libraries, upper-division undergraduate and above." W. L. Cressler III, Choice, Vol. 46 (11), August, 2009." Provides a very valuable overview of the current state of the extinction literature, referencing not just publications but also numerous conference presentations. Provide the broadest (and, in many respects, the most helpful) perspective by considering North and South America in conjunction rather than in isolation. Jeffrey V. Yule, Evolutionary Anthropology 18:159-160, 2009.“Addresses one of the most controversial issues of the last glacial period, which affected ecosystems around the world: American megafaunal extinctions. … discusses the extinction of genera across North and South America, with a single chapter focusing on the West Indies. … the book appears smartly presented, a slim hardback book that is well laid out, with clear black-and-white images scattered throughout the chapters. … a book designed for hardcore specialists focusing on the minutiae of extinction events specifically in the Americas … .” (Alexander J. E. Pryor, Archaeological Review from Cambridge, Vol. 25 (1))