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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2001

The debate over the mass extinction of dozens of species of large mammals about 10,000 years ago has centered on three competing theories.

Perhaps the most controversial is that ancestors to today's Indians were responsible for the "mass murder" of the species. Proponents say Paleo-Indians, as the first Americans are called by scientists, managed to kill huge bison, mammoths, saber-tooted tigers and other large creatures within a few hundred years.

Critics of this theory say where is the evidence? There should be bones, or something, they say. And why weren't smaller species terminated, they add.

A second theory focuses on climate. Proponents point to a changing landscape that lead to demise of the megafauna.

Critics, however, say climate change was occuring all around the world around 10,000 years ago but the scenario wasn't repeated elsewhere.

A third links it back to the first Americans, but in a different way. Paleo-Indians unwittingly brought germs from the Old World, sickening all the big brutes.

Get the Story:
Mammoth Extinction Mystery Draws 3 Theories (The Washington Post 11/12)

Recommended Reading:
Red Earth, White Lies (Vine DeLoria 1997)

Relevant Links:
Pleistocene Extinctions, the Death of an Ecosystem - http://www.well.com/user/elin/extinct.htm
Prehistoric Animals - http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Earth_Sciences/Paleontology/
Prehistoric_Animals/Pleistocene_Megafauna/

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