The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America
- Autores
- Tonni, Eduardo Pedro; Cione, Alberto Luis; Soibelzon, Leopoldo Héctor
- Año de publicación
- 2003
- Idioma
- inglés
- Tipo de recurso
- artículo
- Estado
- versión publicada
- Descripción
- During the latest Pleistocene-earliest Holocene, South American terrestrial vertebrate faunas suffered one of the largest (and probably the youngest) extinction in the world for this lapse. Megamammals, most of the large mammals and a giant terrestrial tortoise became extinct in the continent, and several complete ecological guilds and their predators disappeared. This mammal extinction had been attributed mainly to overkill, climatic change or a combination of both. We agree with the idea that human overhunting was the main cause of the extinction in South America. However, according to our interpretation, the slaughtering of mammals was accom- plished in a particular climatic, ecological and biogeographical frame. During most of the middle and late Pleis- tocene, dry and cold climate and open areas predominated in South America. Nearly all of those megamammals and large mammals that became extinct were adapted to this kind of environments. The periodic, though rela- tively short, interglacial increases in temperature and humidity may have provoked the dramatic shrinking of open areas and extreme reduction of the biomass (albeit not in diversity) of mammals adapted to open habitats. Many populations were surely close to a minimum level of population viability. During the longer glacial periods, mammals populations recovered. This alternation of low and high biomass of mammals from open and closed areas is what we refer to as the Zig-Zag. During the present interglacial, humans entered South America and broke the Zig-Zag when killed all the megamammals and almost all the large mammals during their less favourable periodic lapse.
Museo de La Plata - Materia
-
Paleontología
Ciencias Naturales
Extinción Biológica
climate; extinction; holocene; mammalia; man; pleistocene; south america
Tortugas
Biología
Mamíferos - Nivel de accesibilidad
- acceso abierto
- Condiciones de uso
- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
- Repositorio
- Institución
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata
- OAI Identificador
- oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/5371
Ver los metadatos del registro completo
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The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South AmericaTonni, Eduardo PedroCione, Alberto LuisSoibelzon, Leopoldo HéctorPaleontologíaCiencias NaturalesExtinción Biológicaclimate; extinction; holocene; mammalia; man; pleistocene; south americaTortugasBiologíaMamíferosDuring the latest Pleistocene-earliest Holocene, South American terrestrial vertebrate faunas suffered one of the largest (and probably the youngest) extinction in the world for this lapse. Megamammals, most of the large mammals and a giant terrestrial tortoise became extinct in the continent, and several complete ecological guilds and their predators disappeared. This mammal extinction had been attributed mainly to overkill, climatic change or a combination of both. We agree with the idea that human overhunting was the main cause of the extinction in South America. However, according to our interpretation, the slaughtering of mammals was accom- plished in a particular climatic, ecological and biogeographical frame. During most of the middle and late Pleis- tocene, dry and cold climate and open areas predominated in South America. Nearly all of those megamammals and large mammals that became extinct were adapted to this kind of environments. The periodic, though rela- tively short, interglacial increases in temperature and humidity may have provoked the dramatic shrinking of open areas and extreme reduction of the biomass (albeit not in diversity) of mammals adapted to open habitats. Many populations were surely close to a minimum level of population viability. During the longer glacial periods, mammals populations recovered. This alternation of low and high biomass of mammals from open and closed areas is what we refer to as the Zig-Zag. During the present interglacial, humans entered South America and broke the Zig-Zag when killed all the megamammals and almost all the large mammals during their less favourable periodic lapse.Museo de La Plata2003info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionArticulohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/5371enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T10:49:36Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/5371Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 10:49:37.127SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America |
title |
The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America |
spellingShingle |
The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America Tonni, Eduardo Pedro Paleontología Ciencias Naturales Extinción Biológica climate; extinction; holocene; mammalia; man; pleistocene; south america Tortugas Biología Mamíferos |
title_short |
The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America |
title_full |
The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America |
title_fullStr |
The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America |
title_sort |
The Broken Zig-Zag: Late Cenozoic large mammal and tortoise extintion in South America |
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv |
Tonni, Eduardo Pedro Cione, Alberto Luis Soibelzon, Leopoldo Héctor |
author |
Tonni, Eduardo Pedro |
author_facet |
Tonni, Eduardo Pedro Cione, Alberto Luis Soibelzon, Leopoldo Héctor |
author_role |
author |
author2 |
Cione, Alberto Luis Soibelzon, Leopoldo Héctor |
author2_role |
author author |
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv |
Paleontología Ciencias Naturales Extinción Biológica climate; extinction; holocene; mammalia; man; pleistocene; south america Tortugas Biología Mamíferos |
topic |
Paleontología Ciencias Naturales Extinción Biológica climate; extinction; holocene; mammalia; man; pleistocene; south america Tortugas Biología Mamíferos |
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv |
During the latest Pleistocene-earliest Holocene, South American terrestrial vertebrate faunas suffered one of the largest (and probably the youngest) extinction in the world for this lapse. Megamammals, most of the large mammals and a giant terrestrial tortoise became extinct in the continent, and several complete ecological guilds and their predators disappeared. This mammal extinction had been attributed mainly to overkill, climatic change or a combination of both. We agree with the idea that human overhunting was the main cause of the extinction in South America. However, according to our interpretation, the slaughtering of mammals was accom- plished in a particular climatic, ecological and biogeographical frame. During most of the middle and late Pleis- tocene, dry and cold climate and open areas predominated in South America. Nearly all of those megamammals and large mammals that became extinct were adapted to this kind of environments. The periodic, though rela- tively short, interglacial increases in temperature and humidity may have provoked the dramatic shrinking of open areas and extreme reduction of the biomass (albeit not in diversity) of mammals adapted to open habitats. Many populations were surely close to a minimum level of population viability. During the longer glacial periods, mammals populations recovered. This alternation of low and high biomass of mammals from open and closed areas is what we refer to as the Zig-Zag. During the present interglacial, humans entered South America and broke the Zig-Zag when killed all the megamammals and almost all the large mammals during their less favourable periodic lapse. Museo de La Plata |
description |
During the latest Pleistocene-earliest Holocene, South American terrestrial vertebrate faunas suffered one of the largest (and probably the youngest) extinction in the world for this lapse. Megamammals, most of the large mammals and a giant terrestrial tortoise became extinct in the continent, and several complete ecological guilds and their predators disappeared. This mammal extinction had been attributed mainly to overkill, climatic change or a combination of both. We agree with the idea that human overhunting was the main cause of the extinction in South America. However, according to our interpretation, the slaughtering of mammals was accom- plished in a particular climatic, ecological and biogeographical frame. During most of the middle and late Pleis- tocene, dry and cold climate and open areas predominated in South America. Nearly all of those megamammals and large mammals that became extinct were adapted to this kind of environments. The periodic, though rela- tively short, interglacial increases in temperature and humidity may have provoked the dramatic shrinking of open areas and extreme reduction of the biomass (albeit not in diversity) of mammals adapted to open habitats. Many populations were surely close to a minimum level of population viability. During the longer glacial periods, mammals populations recovered. This alternation of low and high biomass of mammals from open and closed areas is what we refer to as the Zig-Zag. During the present interglacial, humans entered South America and broke the Zig-Zag when killed all the megamammals and almost all the large mammals during their less favourable periodic lapse. |
publishDate |
2003 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2003 |
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Articulo http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 info:ar-repo/semantics/articulo |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
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http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/5371 |
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http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/5371 |
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv |
eng |
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eng |
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openAccess |
rights_invalid_str_mv |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) |
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