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130,000 years of giants and people

Mammoths, giant sloths, giant kangaroos: the animals that vanished after people arrived

Without the extinctions of the last 130,000 years, 329 species of land mammal heavier than 44 kg would be alive today. 175 are gone. Scroll, and watch where they disappear and when: on every continent but Africa, most of the losses come after the first modern humans.

Scroll to run time forward

130,000 years ago

A planet of giants

The ochre shows how many kinds of large land mammal, over 44 kg, would live in each place today if none had died out since this moment. The brightest land holds around 45. Worldwide there are 329 species.

The firelight is people. Here it burns only in Africa, where our species began. The faint embers in Europe and Asia are Neanderthals and other human species.

Africa

Where people have always been

Africa lost 16 of its 82 giant species. Elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes and buffalo still live there, and nowhere else do so many giant species still live side by side.

Humans and their ancestors lived alongside these animals for over two million years. One explanation is that the animals had time to learn to fear them. Not everyone agrees: Tyler Faith (2014) finds Africa’s losses driven by grasslands changing, with “little reason” to blame people.

Australia and New Guinea · 48,000 years ago

The first new continent

People were in Australia by about 48,000 years ago, most researchers agree; tools at Madjedbebe have been dated to 65,000, a date others reject. A model of the fossil dates puts a peak of extinctions at 42,100 years ago.

Of the 26 giant mammals that lived here, 25 are gone: Diprotodon, a 2.7-tonne marsupial, kangaroos two metres tall, a marsupial lion. A flightless bird taller than a person, kin to ducks and geese, and a lizard several metres long went too; the ochre counts only mammals.

How soon is soon? In south-west Australia, dung fungus that thrives on big herbivores collapses between 45,000 and 43,100 years ago, “within 4,000 years” of people. In north-east Queensland some giants lasted until after 40,000 years ago, and some researchers think most species were gone before people came.

Eurasia · 45,000 years ago

Eurasia: a slow fade

Our species was in Bulgaria before 45,000 years ago. In Romania, the jaw from Peștera cu Oase is 37,000 to 42,000 years old. By about 40,000 years ago the Neanderthals were gone: they were large mammals too, though they are not counted here.

Then the giants went one by one, over tens of thousands of years: the cave bear around 30,000 years ago, the cave lion and the woolly rhinoceros around 14,000, the woolly mammoth on the mainland around 10,700, the giant deer after 7,700. Eurasia lost 66 of 147 species (45%).

Here the warming at the end of the Ice Age clearly mattered. Forest replaced the mammoth steppe, and each species’ range shrank on its own schedule. People were one more pressure; how much is still argued.

The Americas · 16,000 years ago

The Americas: a few thousand years

People were at Cooper’s Ferry in Idaho by about 16,000 years ago and at Monte Verde in Chile by 14,200. Footprints at White Sands, New Mexico, are 21,000 to 23,000 years old.

The last dated fossils of 16 large North American genera fall between 13,800 and 11,400 years ago; in South America the record collapses between 12,900 and 11,600. North America lost 50 of 70 giant species, South America 50 of 65: mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths as heavy as elephants, armoured glyptodonts, horses, camels, sabre-toothed cats.

If the White Sands footprints are right, people and these animals shared the continent for several thousand years before the collapse. That fits “after people arrived”, and argues against a sudden slaughter.

The Caribbean

The Caribbean: a test that wobbles

Ground sloths outlived their mainland cousins on Cuba and Hispaniola by thousands of years, which is what you would expect if people were the threat: no people, no extinction.

The newest dating of the first settlements, though, puts people on Cuba 5,400 to 4,700 years ago and on Hispaniola later still. On that timeline most of the last dated sloth bones are older than the first people. With so few dated bones this cannot settle it, and the page does not count it as a clean case.

Two exceptions

Where mammoths died without people

On St Paul Island in the Bering Sea, mammoths lived until 5,600 years ago and died as the island shrank and its fresh water ran out. No person set foot there until 1787.

On Wrangel Island, the last mammoths in the world died about 4,000 years ago. The only dated human camp on the island is about a thousand years younger. Giants can vanish without anyone hunting them: these two islands show that it can happen.

Madagascar

Madagascar, a thousand years ago

People were certainly living on Madagascar 1,350 to 1,100 years ago. Earlier arrivals are argued for: cut marks on elephant-bird bones 10,500 years old, and other evidence from about 4,000 years ago.

Whenever they came, the collapse is dated: elephant birds and pygmy hippos disappeared between about 1,200 and 900 years ago, and some giant lemurs and a hippo lasted a few centuries longer. All seven of the island’s giant mammals are gone, among them a lemur of 160 kg.

New Zealand · about 1280 CE

New Zealand: within two centuries

Polynesians reached New Zealand around 1280. Moa, giant flightless birds up to two metres tall at the back, were gone from the South Island by about 1400–1450, on the dates of 270 bones.

One study estimates there were never more than about 0.01 people per square kilometre. On the globe New Zealand is hatched: its lost giants were birds, and the ochre counts mammals only.

Today

And the giants that survived?

This last picture swaps the possible ranges for the real ones. 154 of the giant species are still alive, but most live in a fraction of the land they could: lions gone from Europe and almost all of India, elephants from most of Africa, bison from most of North America.

The story did not stop. It only slowed down when there were fewer giants left to lose.

Where you live

The giants that would live here

Click the globe or type a town. You get every giant mammal species whose natural range covers that place, drawn to scale beside a person, with when each one was last seen.

Line the continents up on the day people arrived

Each dot is one extinct giant species, placed at its youngest dated fossil (Andermann et al. 2020). For New Zealand, Mauritius and Madagascar the birds are added from the island studies. The fire band runs from the earliest serious claim of people to the date most researchers accept.

In calendar time the dots are scattered over a hundred thousand years. Slide every row so that zero is the day people arrived, and most of them fall to the right of zero. In the Americas about half fall within 5,000 years of arrival, and on the islands within a few centuries; in Australia and Eurasia they spread over tens of thousands.

Each extinct giant species as a dot at its last dated fossil, one row per landmass, either in calendar time or in years since people arrived.100,000 yrs ago10,000 yrs ago1,000 yrs ago100 yrs ago10,000 yrs before1,000 yrs before1,000 yrs after10,000 yrs afterpeople arriveAustralia and New GuineaSahulMacropus pearsoni: last dated fossil 132,000–92,000 years agoSimosthenurus maddocki: last dated fossil 82,000–70,000 years agoSthenurus stirlingi: last dated fossil 84,000–66,000 years agoProcoptodon gilli: last dated fossil 76,000–64,000 years agoMetasthenurus newtonae: last dated fossil 60,000–52,000 years agoMacropus ferragus: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoProtemnodon brehus: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoSthenurus andersoni: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoSthenurus atlas: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoSthenurus tindalei: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoDiprotodon optatum: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoPhascolonus gigas: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoProcoptodon goliah: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoProtemnodon roechus: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoThylacoleo carnifex: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoSimosthenurus pales: last dated fossil 46,200–43,600 years agoProtemnodon anak: last dated fossil 40,590–39,370 years agoZygomaturus trilobus: last dated fossil 36,700–31,900 years agoProcoptodon browneorum: last dated fossil 35,200–32,000 years agoSimosthenurus occidentalis: last dated fossil 35,200–32,000 years agoPalorchestes azeal: last dated fossil 29,000–25,000 years agoProtemnodon tumbuna: last dated fossil 24,000–14,000 years agoMaokopia ronaldi: last dated fossil 18,000–14,000 years agoProcoptodon rapha: last dated fossil 16,190–13,710 years agoProcoptodon oreas: last dated fossil 12,690–11,110 years agoEurasiaNeanderthals, then usHemitragus cedrensis: last dated fossil 139,000–103,000 years agoMegalovis guangxiensis: last dated fossil 132,000–109,000 years agoTapirus augustus: last dated fossil 132,000–109,000 years agoHaploidoceros mediterraneus: last dated fossil 100,000–86,000 years agoSivacobus sankaliai: last dated fossil 100,000–50,000 years agoElasmotherium sibiricum: last dated fossil 50,000 years agoElephas antiquus: last dated fossil 37,790–37,130 years agoSinomegaceros ordosianus: last dated fossil 37,240–33,440 years agoSpirocerus kiakhtensis: last dated fossil 40,000–30,000 years agoStephanorhinus kirchbergensis: last dated fossil 37,000–28,000 years agoElephas mnaidriensis: last dated fossil 36,000–28,000 years agoStephanorhinus hemitoechus: last dated fossil 28,000 years agoHomotherium latidens: last dated fossil 26,940–26,460 years agoEquus ovodovi: last dated fossil 25,950–25,480 years agoSoergelia minor: last dated fossil 25,950–25,480 years agoUrsus spelaeus: last dated fossil 23,900–23,660 years agoElephas namadicus: last dated fossil 16,000 years agoCoelodonta antiquitatis: last dated fossil 14,000 years agoPanthera spelaea: last dated fossil 11,995–11,855 years agoElephas cypriotes: last dated fossil 12,649–9,249 years agoPhanourios minutes: last dated fossil 12,649–9,249 years agoCandiacervus cretensis: last dated fossil 8,000 years agoCandiacervus dorothensis: last dated fossil 8,000 years agoCandiacervus major: last dated fossil 8,000 years agoCandiacervus rethymnensis: last dated fossil 8,000 years agoStegodon orientalis: last dated fossil 8,200–7,430 years agoMegaloceros giganteus: last dated fossil 7,725–7,585 years agoPraemegaceros cazioti: last dated fossil 7,650–7,530 years agoMammuthus primigenius: last dated fossil 4,141–3,987 years agoEquus hydruntinus: last seen 1293Bos primigenius: last seen 1627Sus bucculentus: last seen 1892Rucervus schomburgki: last seen 1938Gazella bilkis: last seen 1951North AmericaTetrameryx shuleri: last dated fossil 23,720–22,740 years agoHomotherium serum: last dated fossil 22,380–22,120 years agoParamylodon harlani: last dated fossil 20,910–19,990 years agoGlyptotherium floridanum: last dated fossil 23,230–10,000 years agoMixotoxodon larensis: last dated fossil 20,000–10,000 years agoBootherium bombifrons: last dated fossil 15,000–11,400 years agoEquus francisci: last dated fossil 13,125–13,015 years agoMammuthus exilis: last dated fossil 13,250–12,430 years agoTapirus veroensis: last dated fossil 15,560–9,440 years agoHolmesina septentrionalis: last dated fossil 14,000–10,000 years agoMylohyus nasutus: last dated fossil 11,900–11,820 years agoTapirus merriami: last dated fossil 12,000–10,800 years agoPanthera atrox: last dated fossil 11,410–11,300 years agoSmilodon fatalis: last dated fossil 11,955–10,305 years agoNavahoceros fricki: last dated fossil 11,300–10,900 years agoCamelops hesternus: last dated fossil 11,840–10,310 years agoMiracinonyx trumani: last dated fossil 12,096–10,000 years agoHemiauchenia macrocephala: last dated fossil 13,000–9,000 years agoPalaeolama mirifica: last dated fossil 11,020–10,760 years agoTremarctos floridanus: last dated fossil 11,150–10,000 years agoMammuthus columbi: last dated fossil 11,500–9,500 years agoCastoroides ohioensis: last dated fossil 11,030–9,570 years agoMammut americanum: last dated fossil 10,370–10,030 years agoStockoceros conklingi: last dated fossil 12,600–7,500 years agoNothrotheriops shastensis: last dated fossil 10,785–9,285 years agoOreamnos harringtoni: last dated fossil 11,470–8,310 years agoArctodus simus: last dated fossil 9,690–9,570 years agoSangamona fugitiva: last dated fossil 10,200–8,680 years agoCervalces scotti: last dated fossil 9,130–6,592 years agoCanis dirus: last dated fossil 9,450–3,500 years agoPlatygonus compressus: last dated fossil 4,740–3,840 years agoSouth AmericaMorenelaphus brachyceros: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoMorenelaphus lujanensis: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoNeolicaphrium recens: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoNeuryurus trabeculatus: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoPampatherium humboldti: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoPanochthus tuberculatus: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoParaceros fragilis: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoXenorhinotherium bahiense: last dated fossil 48,000–30,000 years agoDiabolotherium nordenskioldi: last dated fossil 29,400–28,880 years agoHolmesina paulacoutoi: last dated fossil 27,510–27,110 years agoTapirus rondoniensis: last dated fossil 27,510–27,110 years agoTrigonodops lopesi: last dated fossil 27,510–27,110 years agoMegatherium tarijense: last dated fossil 28,060–26,300 years agoHolmesina occidentalis: last dated fossil 28,350–24,900 years agoHippidion devillei: last dated fossil 23,510–22,990 years agoPalaeolama weddeli: last dated fossil 20,940–20,740 years agoNotiomastodon platensis: last dated fossil 18,809–18,561 years agoPampatherium typum: last dated fossil 21,000–10,000 years agoAntifer ultra: last dated fossil 20,000–10,000 years agoLestodon armatus: last dated fossil 20,000–10,000 years agoNeochoerus aesopi: last dated fossil 20,000–10,000 years agoCuvieronius hyodon: last dated fossil 14,574–13,389 years agoEremotherium laurillardi: last dated fossil 13,302–13,116 years agoGlyptotherium cylindricum: last dated fossil 13,520–12,430 years agoValgipes bucklandi: last dated fossil 13,060–12,870 years agoHippidion principale: last dated fossil 12,640–12,570 years agoHemiauchenia paradoxa: last dated fossil 12,640–11,780 years agoNothrotherium maquinense: last dated fossil 12,320–12,080 years agoArctotherium wingei: last dated fossil 12,000 years agoArctotherium tarijense: last dated fossil 11,260–11,160 years agoEutatus seguini: last dated fossil 10,460–9,950 years agoMylodon darwinii: last dated fossil 10,600–9,800 years agoMacrauchenia patachonica: last dated fossil 9,940–9,840 years agoCatonyx cuvieri: last dated fossil 9,780–9,380 years agoSmilodon populator: last dated fossil 9,280–8,980 years agoScelidodon chiliensis: last dated fossil 9,110–8,710 years agoGlossotherium robustum: last dated fossil 8,760–8,600 years agoAgalmaceros blicki: last dated fossil 10,000–7,000 years agoNeosclerocalyptus paskoenis: last dated fossil 9,700–6,700 years agoGlyptodon clavipes: last dated fossil 8,610–6,830 years agoHoplophorus euphractus: last dated fossil 8,610–6,830 years agoPalaeolama major: last dated fossil 8,610–6,830 years agoMegatherium americanum: last dated fossil 7,370–7,270 years agoScelidotherium leptocephalum: last dated fossil 8,000–6,000 years agoDoedicurus clavicaudatus: last dated fossil 6,715–6,395 years agoToxodon platensis: last dated fossil 8,000–3,400 years agoCaribbeanGreater AntillesAmblyrhiza inundata: last dated fossil 100,000 years agoMegalocnus zile: last dated fossil 18,305–16,505 years agoParocnus serus: last dated fossil 8,336–7,904 years agoParocnus browni: last dated fossil 6,350–4,950 years agoMegalocnus rodens: last dated fossil 4,840–4,580 years agoMadagascarArchaeoindris fontoynonti: last dated fossil 2,362–2,149 years agoPalaeopropithecus maximus: last dated fossil 2,352–2,157 years agoMegaladapis madagascariensis: last dated fossil 2,320–1,990 years agoHippopotamus lemerlei: last dated fossil 1,795–1,535 years agoElephant birds: collapse about 1,200–900 years agoMegaladapis grandidieri: last dated fossil 1,050–910 years agoMegaladapis edwardsi: last dated fossil 670–530 years agoHippopotamus madagascariensis: last dated fossil 311 years agoNew Zealandmoa (birds)Moa (all species): 1406–1446 CE (Holdaway et al. 2014)Mauritiusdodo (bird)Dodo: last accepted sighting, 1662
Each extinct giant species as a dot at its last dated fossil, one row per landmass, either in calendar time or in years since people arrived.100,000 yrs ago1,000 yrs ago10,000 yrs before1,000 yrs after10,000 yrs afterpeople arriveAustralia and New GuineaMacropus pearsoni: last dated fossil 132,000–92,000 years agoSimosthenurus maddocki: last dated fossil 82,000–70,000 years agoSthenurus stirlingi: last dated fossil 84,000–66,000 years agoProcoptodon gilli: last dated fossil 76,000–64,000 years agoMetasthenurus newtonae: last dated fossil 60,000–52,000 years agoMacropus ferragus: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoProtemnodon brehus: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoSthenurus andersoni: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoSthenurus atlas: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoSthenurus tindalei: last dated fossil 60,000–44,000 years agoDiprotodon optatum: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoPhascolonus gigas: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoProcoptodon goliah: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoProtemnodon roechus: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoThylacoleo carnifex: last dated fossil 52,000–40,000 years agoSimosthenurus pales: last dated fossil 46,200–43,600 years agoProtemnodon anak: last dated fossil 40,590–39,370 years agoZygomaturus trilobus: last dated fossil 36,700–31,900 years agoProcoptodon browneorum: last dated fossil 35,200–32,000 years agoSimosthenurus occidentalis: last dated fossil 35,200–32,000 years agoPalorchestes azeal: last dated fossil 29,000–25,000 years agoProtemnodon tumbuna: last dated fossil 24,000–14,000 years agoMaokopia ronaldi: last dated fossil 18,000–14,000 years agoProcoptodon rapha: last dated fossil 16,190–13,710 years agoProcoptodon oreas: last dated fossil 12,690–11,110 years agoEurasiaHemitragus cedrensis: last dated fossil 139,000–103,000 years agoMegalovis guangxiensis: last dated fossil 132,000–109,000 years agoTapirus augustus: last dated fossil 132,000–109,000 years agoHaploidoceros mediterraneus: last dated fossil 100,000–86,000 years agoSivacobus sankaliai: last dated fossil 100,000–50,000 years agoElasmotherium sibiricum: last dated fossil 50,000 years agoElephas antiquus: last dated fossil 37,790–37,130 years agoSinomegaceros ordosianus: last dated fossil 37,240–33,440 years agoSpirocerus kiakhtensis: last dated fossil 40,000–30,000 years agoStephanorhinus kirchbergensis: last dated fossil 37,000–28,000 years agoElephas mnaidriensis: last dated fossil 36,000–28,000 years agoStephanorhinus hemitoechus: last dated fossil 28,000 years agoHomotherium latidens: last dated fossil 26,940–26,460 years agoEquus ovodovi: last dated fossil 25,950–25,480 years agoSoergelia minor: last dated fossil 25,950–25,480 years agoUrsus spelaeus: last dated fossil 23,900–23,660 years agoElephas namadicus: last dated fossil 16,000 years agoCoelodonta antiquitatis: last dated fossil 14,000 years agoPanthera spelaea: last dated fossil 11,995–11,855 years agoElephas cypriotes: last dated fossil 12,649–9,249 years agoPhanourios minutes: last dated fossil 12,649–9,249 years agoCandiacervus cretensis: last dated fossil 8,000 years agoCandiacervus dorothensis: last dated fossil 8,000 years agoCandiacervus major: last dated fossil 8,000 years agoCandiacervus rethymnensis: last dated fossil 8,000 years agoStegodon orientalis: last dated fossil 8,200–7,430 years agoMegaloceros giganteus: last dated fossil 7,725–7,585 years agoPraemegaceros cazioti: last dated fossil 7,650–7,530 years agoMammuthus primigenius: last dated fossil 4,141–3,987 years agoEquus hydruntinus: last seen 1293Bos primigenius: last seen 1627Sus bucculentus: last seen 1892Rucervus schomburgki: last seen 1938Gazella bilkis: last seen 1951North AmericaTetrameryx shuleri: last dated fossil 23,720–22,740 years agoHomotherium serum: last dated fossil 22,380–22,120 years agoParamylodon harlani: last dated fossil 20,910–19,990 years agoGlyptotherium floridanum: last dated fossil 23,230–10,000 years agoMixotoxodon larensis: last dated fossil 20,000–10,000 years agoBootherium bombifrons: last dated fossil 15,000–11,400 years agoEquus francisci: last dated fossil 13,125–13,015 years agoMammuthus exilis: last dated fossil 13,250–12,430 years agoTapirus veroensis: last dated fossil 15,560–9,440 years agoHolmesina septentrionalis: last dated fossil 14,000–10,000 years agoMylohyus nasutus: last dated fossil 11,900–11,820 years agoTapirus merriami: last dated fossil 12,000–10,800 years agoPanthera atrox: last dated fossil 11,410–11,300 years agoSmilodon fatalis: last dated fossil 11,955–10,305 years agoNavahoceros fricki: last dated fossil 11,300–10,900 years agoCamelops hesternus: last dated fossil 11,840–10,310 years agoMiracinonyx trumani: last dated fossil 12,096–10,000 years agoHemiauchenia macrocephala: last dated fossil 13,000–9,000 years agoPalaeolama mirifica: last dated fossil 11,020–10,760 years agoTremarctos floridanus: last dated fossil 11,150–10,000 years agoMammuthus columbi: last dated fossil 11,500–9,500 years agoCastoroides ohioensis: last dated fossil 11,030–9,570 years agoMammut americanum: last dated fossil 10,370–10,030 years agoStockoceros conklingi: last dated fossil 12,600–7,500 years agoNothrotheriops shastensis: last dated fossil 10,785–9,285 years agoOreamnos harringtoni: last dated fossil 11,470–8,310 years agoArctodus simus: last dated fossil 9,690–9,570 years agoSangamona fugitiva: last dated fossil 10,200–8,680 years agoCervalces scotti: last dated fossil 9,130–6,592 years agoCanis dirus: last dated fossil 9,450–3,500 years agoPlatygonus compressus: last dated fossil 4,740–3,840 years agoSouth AmericaMorenelaphus brachyceros: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoMorenelaphus lujanensis: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoNeolicaphrium recens: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoNeuryurus trabeculatus: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoPampatherium humboldti: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoPanochthus tuberculatus: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoParaceros fragilis: last dated fossil 65,700–39,900 years agoXenorhinotherium bahiense: last dated fossil 48,000–30,000 years agoDiabolotherium nordenskioldi: last dated fossil 29,400–28,880 years agoHolmesina paulacoutoi: last dated fossil 27,510–27,110 years agoTapirus rondoniensis: last dated fossil 27,510–27,110 years agoTrigonodops lopesi: last dated fossil 27,510–27,110 years agoMegatherium tarijense: last dated fossil 28,060–26,300 years agoHolmesina occidentalis: last dated fossil 28,350–24,900 years agoHippidion devillei: last dated fossil 23,510–22,990 years agoPalaeolama weddeli: last dated fossil 20,940–20,740 years agoNotiomastodon platensis: last dated fossil 18,809–18,561 years agoPampatherium typum: last dated fossil 21,000–10,000 years agoAntifer ultra: last dated fossil 20,000–10,000 years agoLestodon armatus: last dated fossil 20,000–10,000 years agoNeochoerus aesopi: last dated fossil 20,000–10,000 years agoCuvieronius hyodon: last dated fossil 14,574–13,389 years agoEremotherium laurillardi: last dated fossil 13,302–13,116 years agoGlyptotherium cylindricum: last dated fossil 13,520–12,430 years agoValgipes bucklandi: last dated fossil 13,060–12,870 years agoHippidion principale: last dated fossil 12,640–12,570 years agoHemiauchenia paradoxa: last dated fossil 12,640–11,780 years agoNothrotherium maquinense: last dated fossil 12,320–12,080 years agoArctotherium wingei: last dated fossil 12,000 years agoArctotherium tarijense: last dated fossil 11,260–11,160 years agoEutatus seguini: last dated fossil 10,460–9,950 years agoMylodon darwinii: last dated fossil 10,600–9,800 years agoMacrauchenia patachonica: last dated fossil 9,940–9,840 years agoCatonyx cuvieri: last dated fossil 9,780–9,380 years agoSmilodon populator: last dated fossil 9,280–8,980 years agoScelidodon chiliensis: last dated fossil 9,110–8,710 years agoGlossotherium robustum: last dated fossil 8,760–8,600 years agoAgalmaceros blicki: last dated fossil 10,000–7,000 years agoNeosclerocalyptus paskoenis: last dated fossil 9,700–6,700 years agoGlyptodon clavipes: last dated fossil 8,610–6,830 years agoHoplophorus euphractus: last dated fossil 8,610–6,830 years agoPalaeolama major: last dated fossil 8,610–6,830 years agoMegatherium americanum: last dated fossil 7,370–7,270 years agoScelidotherium leptocephalum: last dated fossil 8,000–6,000 years agoDoedicurus clavicaudatus: last dated fossil 6,715–6,395 years agoToxodon platensis: last dated fossil 8,000–3,400 years agoCaribbeanAmblyrhiza inundata: last dated fossil 100,000 years agoMegalocnus zile: last dated fossil 18,305–16,505 years agoParocnus serus: last dated fossil 8,336–7,904 years agoParocnus browni: last dated fossil 6,350–4,950 years agoMegalocnus rodens: last dated fossil 4,840–4,580 years agoMadagascarArchaeoindris fontoynonti: last dated fossil 2,362–2,149 years agoPalaeopropithecus maximus: last dated fossil 2,352–2,157 years agoMegaladapis madagascariensis: last dated fossil 2,320–1,990 years agoHippopotamus lemerlei: last dated fossil 1,795–1,535 years agoElephant birds: collapse about 1,200–900 years agoMegaladapis grandidieri: last dated fossil 1,050–910 years agoMegaladapis edwardsi: last dated fossil 670–530 years agoHippopotamus madagascariensis: last dated fossil 311 years agoNew ZealandMoa (all species): 1406–1446 CE (Holdaway et al. 2014)MauritiusDodo: last accepted sighting, 1662
Filled dots: last fossil younger than the earliest claim of people. Open dots: older than any claim. Logarithmic scale.
Wherelast fossil after the accepted arrival
North America27 / 31
Australia and New Guinea15 / 25
Eurasia28 / 34
South America25 / 46
Caribbean1 / 5
Madagascar4 / 8

The dots that come too early are not proof that those species died before people. A last fossil marks the youngest bone anyone has found and dated, not the last animal alive. In the database the chart uses, Australian species whose last fossil predates the accepted arrival have a median of 5 dated fossil records, against 11 for the rest; in North America, 1 against 14.5. Rare animals vanish from the record early. South America’s chronology is the thinnest: most of its early dots rest on a single dated layer. The chart’s dates come from one database (Andermann et al. 2020) and sometimes differ from the newer studies quoted in the story: its youngest cave bear is 23,900 years old, against 30,500–28,500 in Stuart and Lister (2012).

Was it the end of the Ice Age instead?

The obvious suspect is climate. The extinctions overlap the end of the last Ice Age, when the world warmed by several degrees. So the page asks, for every 96 km square of land: how much did this place warm, from the peak of the Ice Age 21,000 years ago to recent millennia (the reconstruction by Tierney et al. 2020), and what share of its giants is gone?

Take only the places within 30° of the equator that warmed less than 4 °C. The climate changed by about the same amount in all of them. The losses did not:

Share of giant mammal species lost in places that warmed less than 4 °C since the Last Glacial Maximum, by landmass.0%25%50%75%100%Africawarmed 3.6 °C17%Eurasiawarmed 3.5 °C17%Wallacea islandswarmed 3.0 °C33%North Americawarmed 3.6 °C62%South Americawarmed 3.6 °C76%Australia and New Guineawarmed 3.6 °C91%Madagascarwarmed 3.3 °C100%
Share of giant mammal species lost in places that warmed less than 4 °C since the Last Glacial Maximum, by landmass.0%25%50%75%100%Africa · warmed 3.6 °C17%Eurasia · warmed 3.5 °C17%Wallacea islands · warmed 3.0 °C33%North America · warmed 3.6 °C62%South America · warmed 3.6 °C76%Australia and New Guinea · warmed 3.6 °C91%Madagascar · warmed 3.3 °C100%
Median share of giant species lost per 96 km square, squares within 30° of the equator that warmed under 4 °C. Grey: where people, or other humans, lived alongside the animals for hundreds of thousands of years.

Within a landmass, the climate argument does better in some places. Across Eurasia, the more a place warmed, the more giants it lost (rank correlation +0.67); Africa shows the same, more weakly (+0.51). But the most-warmed squares are in the north, where modern humans arrived last and the mammoth steppe disappeared, and this test cannot separate those. In North America and Australia warming tells you almost nothing about which places lost the most (-0.18 and -0.03); South America is weakly positive (+0.28).

Share of giant species lost against how much each place warmed since the Last Glacial Maximum, one line per landmass.0%25%50%75%100%under 2 °C2–4 °C4–6 °C6–8 °C8–12 °Cover 12 °Cwarming since the peak of the last Ice Age (°C)AfricaEurasiaNorth AmericaSouth AmericaAustralia and New Guinea
Share of giant species lost against how much each place warmed since the Last Glacial Maximum, one line per landmass.0%25%50%75%100%under 2 °C2–4 °C4–6 °C6–8 °C8–12 °Cover 12 °Cwarming since the peak of the last Ice Age (°C)AfricaEurasiaNorth AmericaSouth AmericaAustralia and New Guinea
Median share lost by how much each square warmed. Bins with fewer than 30 squares are left out.

There is a second argument against climate alone. The same animals had already lived through about ten long ice-age cycles in the last million years, with warmings as fast as this one. Only the last one, the one with people in it, came with a wave of extinctions that took the largest animals first (Svenning et al. 2024; Barnosky et al. 2004).

This repeats, with a finer map and a different climate reconstruction, the test of Sandom et al. (2014), who reached the same conclusion country by country.

The bigger the animal, the more likely it vanished

Climate change has no obvious reason to pick out the largest animals. Hunters do, since a big animal is worth a spear, and slow breeders recover slowly from any loss. Of species between 44 and 100 kg, 41 of 119 are extinct (34%). Above three tonnes, 14 of 16 (88%).

Share of giant mammal species lost by body size, Africa against the rest of the world.0%25%50%75%100%3/2638/9344–100 kg7/3053/80100–300 kg2/832/44300 kg–1 t1/425/281–3 t1/213/14over 3 tAfricaeverywhere else
Share of giant mammal species lost by body size, Africa against the rest of the world.0%25%50%75%100%3/2638/9344–100 kg7/3053/80100–300 kg2/832/44300 kg–1 t1/425/281–3 t1/213/14over 3 tAfricaeverywhere else
Species extinct, by body mass (PHYLACINE 1.2.1). Africa’s giants mostly survived, at every size up to three tonnes.

In Africa, 1 of 4 species weighing one to three tonnes died out. Everywhere else, 25 of 28.

Where the pattern does not hold

  • Africa lost giants too, 16 of 82 species, with people present the whole time. Among its best-dated species, the losses fall between 13,000 and 6,000 years ago, which Faith (2014) ties to grasslands changing.
  • Eurasia lost its giants in a staggered way, over 25,000 years, closely tracking climate swings (Stuart & Lister 2012; Cooper et al. 2015).
  • St Paul and Wrangel: mammoths died out with no people present; on St Paul, because its fresh water ran out.
  • Cyprus: the dwarf hippos were “probably already extinct or at least highly endangered” when people arrived (Zazzo et al. 2015).
  • The Caribbean: on the latest settlement dates, most of the last dated sloth bones come before people.
  • Arrival dates are argued over: Australia 48,000 or 65,000 years ago; Madagascar 1,350, 4,000 or 10,500. The longer people and giants lived side by side, the weaker “soon after” becomes.
  • The map rests on an assumption. The ranges of extinct species are drawn where their fossil companions live today, and PHYLACINE’s documentation notes that this treats each extinction as at least partly human-caused. The map shows where these animals would live now; it is not evidence by itself.

Even researchers who blame people warn against the cartoon of hunters sweeping a continent. Koch and Barnosky (2006) call it “an oversimplification”; their own reading is that in many regions people tipped faunas already stressed by climate.

Britain: the mammoths that met people twice

People came and went from Britain with the ice. Human ancestors walked at Happisburgh in Norfolk more than 780,000 years ago. A jaw from Kents Cavern in Devon, 44,200 to 41,500 years old, is among the earliest modern humans in north-west Europe. Then the ice drove everyone out, and people came back to stay only after 14,700 years ago.

The woolly rhinoceros was gone from Britain by about 35,000 years ago. The last British mammoths, the Condover herd in Shropshire, date to 14,500 to 14,000 years ago: within centuries of people returning, and during a sharp warming. In Britain, the people and the climate arrived together.

How this was made

Giants. Land mammals with an average body mass of at least 44 kg in PHYLACINE 1.2.1, which maps the natural range of every mammal alive or extinct in the last 130,000 years on a 96 km grid. Seals, the polar bear and all human species are left out: 329 species, 175 extinct (161 of them before 1500). Status follows the 2016 IUCN list used by PHYLACINE: one of the 175, the scimitar oryx, was then extinct in the wild and has since been returned to Chad, and the wild dromedary is counted although its domestic descendants live on.

Wherespecies lostgenera lost
Africa16 / 82 (20%)12 / 48 (25%)
Eurasia66 / 147 (45%)41 / 85 (48%)
North America50 / 70 (71%)38 / 54 (70%)
South America50 / 65 (77%)41 / 53 (77%)
Australia and New Guinea25 / 26 (96%)11 / 12 (92%)
Madagascar7 / 7 (100%)4 / 4 (100%)
Caribbean5 / 5 (100%)3 / 3 (100%)

When. Each extinct species leaves the globe at its youngest dated fossil, or its last sighting for recent ones, from Andermann et al. (2020); where the young end of a date is unconstrained the old end is used. Four species have no date and are not drawn. Arrival dates per landmass come from the sources below; the globe lights each landmass at once, although people spread across a continent over centuries or millennia.

Climate. Warming is the difference in annual surface air temperature between the Last Glacial Maximum (23,000–19,000 years ago) and the late Holocene (the last 4,000 years) in lgmDA v2.1 (Tierney et al. 2020). Only squares with at least three giant species are used. Squares lie next to each other and are not independent, so no significance tests are given.

Your place. The square under the point you choose. “Gone from here” compares the natural range with today’s range in PHYLACINE. Silhouettes are drawn at each species’ own body mass from a drawing of the same genus or family, so shapes are approximate.

Related on this site: the White Sands footprints.

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Silhouettes: PhyloPic. Mammuthus primigenius: Kamil S. Jaron (CC0); Mammut americanum: artrociraptor (CC0); Palaeoloxodon antiquus: Steven Traver (CC0); Coelodonta antiquitatis: Steven Traver (CC0); Elasmotherium sibiricum: JFstudios (CC0); Megaloceros giganteus: Steven Traver (CC0); Ursus spelaeus: Margot Michaud (CC0); Panthera spelaea: Gabriele Russo (CC0); Bison priscus: Zimices (CC BY 3.0); Bos primigenius: Ivan Iofrida (CC BY 4.0); Equus ferus: Andy Wilson (CC0); Smilodon fatalis: Steven Traver (CC0); Eremotherium laurillardi: Zimices (Julián Bayona) (CC BY 4.0); Doedicurus clavicaudatus: Becky Barnes (CC0); Toxodon platensis: Zimices (CC BY 3.0); Diprotodon optatum: Steven Traver (CC0); Procoptodon goliah: Dan Niel (CC0); Thylacoleo carnifex: Steven Traver (CC0); Genyornis newtoni: Ferran Sayol (CC0); Aepyornis maximus: Robert Cooke (CC0); Dinornis robustus: Ferran Sayol (CC0); Hieraaetus moorei: Andy Wilson (CC0); Raphus cucullatus: Ferran Sayol (CC0); Hydrodamalis gigas: T. Michael Keesey (PDM); Homo neanderthalensis: T. Michael Keesey (CC0); Loxodonta africana: Steven Traver (CC0); Varanus priscus: Rachel T Mason (CC0); Stegodon: Asier Larramendi (CC BY 4.0); Cuvieronius hyodon: Zimices (CC BY 3.0); Notiomastodon platensis: Prehistopia (CC BY 4.0); Homo sapiens: Cagri CEVRIM (CC0).