Editing Holocene extinction (section)

=== Americas ===
{{Main|List of North American animals extinct in the Holocene|List of South American animals extinct in the Holocene}}
[[File:Mammoth House (Replica).JPG|thumb|left|Reconstructed [[woolly mammoth]] bone hut, based on finds in [[Mezhyrich, Cherkasy Oblast|Mezhyrich]].]]
[[File:Ectopistes migratorius (passenger pigeon).jpg|thumb|upright|The [[passenger pigeon]] was a species of pigeon endemic to North America. It experienced a rapid decline in the late 1800s due to habitat destruction and intense hunting by [[European colonization of the Americas|European settlers]]. The last wild bird is thought to have been shot in 1901.]]
There has been a debate as to the extent to which the disappearance of [[megafauna]] at the end of the last [[glacial period]] can be attributed to human activities by hunting, or even by slaughter{{efn|This may refer to groups of animals endangered by climate change. For example, during a catastrophic drought, remaining animals would be gathered around the few remaining watering holes, and thus become extremely vulnerable.}} of prey populations. Discoveries at Monte Verde in South America and at [[Meadowcroft Rock Shelter]] in Pennsylvania have caused a controversy<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite book |last=Haynes |first=Gary |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49327000 |title=The early settlement of North America : the Clovis era |date=2002 |isbn=0-521-81900-8 |location=Cambridge |oclc=49327000 |pages=18–19}}</ref> regarding the [[Clovis culture]]. There likely would have been human settlements prior to the Clovis culture, and the history of [[Prehistoric migration and settlement of the Americas from Asia|humans in the Americas]] may extend back many thousands of years before the Clovis culture.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> The amount of correlation between human arrival and megafauna extinction is still being debated: for example, in [[Wrangel Island]] in Siberia the extinction of dwarf [[woolly mammoth]]s (approximately 2000 BC)<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Martin|first1=P.S.|year=1995|title=Mammoth Extinction: Two Continents and Wrangel Island|journal=Radiocarbon|volume=37|issue=1|pages=7–10|doi=10.1017/s0033822200014739|bibcode=1995Radcb..37....7M |doi-access=free}}</ref> did not coincide with the arrival of humans, nor did megafaunal mass extinction on the South American continent, although it has been suggested climate changes induced by anthropogenic effects elsewhere in the world may have contributed.<ref name="Kolbert-2014" />

[[File:Glyptodon old drawing.jpg|thumb|right|Illustration of [[Paleo-Indians]] hunting a [[glyptodon]]]]

Comparisons are sometimes made between recent extinctions (approximately since the [[Industrial Revolution]]) and the Pleistocene extinction near the end of the last [[glacial period]]. The latter is exemplified by the extinction of large herbivores such as the [[woolly mammoth]] and the carnivores that preyed on them. Humans of this era actively hunted the [[mammoth]] and the [[mastodon]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pitulko |first1=V. V. |last2=Nikolsky |first2=P. A. |last3=Girya |first3=E. Y. |last4=Basilyan |first4=A. E. |last5=Tumskoy |first5=V. E. |last6=Koulakov |first6=S. A. |last7=Astakhov |first7=S. N. |last8=Pavlova |first8=E. Y. |last9=Anisimov |first9=M. A. |year=2004 |title=The Yana RHS site: Humans in the Arctic before the Last Glacial Maximum |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1085219 |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=303 |issue=5654 |pages=52–56 |bibcode=2004Sci...303...52P |doi=10.1126/science.1085219 |pmid=14704419 |s2cid=206507352 |access-date=21 March 2023 |archive-date=22 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322035102/https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1085219 |url-status=live }}</ref> but it is not known if this hunting was the cause of the subsequent massive ecological changes, widespread extinctions and climate changes.<ref name="Doughty, C. E. 2010" /><ref name="link.springer.com" />

The ecosystems encountered by the first Americans had not been exposed to human interaction, and may have been far less resilient to human made changes than the ecosystems encountered by industrial era humans. Therefore, the actions of the Clovis people, despite seeming insignificant by today's standards could indeed have had a profound effect on the ecosystems and wild life which was entirely unused to human influence.<ref name="Kolbert-2014" />

In the Yukon, the mammoth steppe ecosystem collapsed between 13,500 and 10,000 BP, though wild horses and woolly mammoths somehow persisted in the region for millennia after this collapse.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Murchie |first1=Tyler J. |last2=Monteath |first2=Alistair J. |last3=Mahony |first3=Matthew E. |last4=Long |first4=George S. |last5=Cocker |first5=Scott |last6=Sadoway |first6=Tara |last7=Karpinski |first7=Emil |last8=Zazula |first8=Grant |last9=MacPhee |first9=Ross D. E. |last10=Froese |first10=Duane |last11=Poinar |first11=Hendrik N. |date=8 December 2021 |title=Collapse of the mammoth-steppe in central Yukon as revealed by ancient environmental DNA |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=7120 |doi=10.1038/s41467-021-27439-6 |pmid=34880234 |pmc=8654998 |bibcode=2021NatCo..12.7120M }}</ref> In what is now Texas, a drop in local plant and animal biodiversity occurred during the Younger Dryas cooling, though while plant diversity recovered after the Younger Dryas, animal diversity did not.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Seersholm |first1=Frederik V. |last2=Werndly |first2=Daniel J. |last3=Grealy |first3=Alicia |last4=Johnson |first4=Taryn |last5=Keenan Early |first5=Erin M. |last6=Lundelius Jr. |first6=Ernest L. |last7=Winsborough |first7=Barbara |last8=Farr |first8=Grayal Earle |last9=Toomey |first9=Rickard |last10=Hansen |first10=Anders J. |last11=Shapiro |first11=Beth |last12=Waters |first12=Michael R. |last13=McDonald |first13=Gregory |last14=Linderholm |first14=Anna |last15=Stafford Jr. |first15=Thomas W. |last16=Bunce |first16=Michael |date=2 June 2020 |title=Rapid range shifts and megafaunal extinctions associated with late Pleistocene climate change |journal=[[Nature Communications]] |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=2770 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-16502-3 |pmid=32488006 |pmc=7265304 |bibcode=2020NatCo..11.2770S }}</ref> In the [[Channel Islands (California)|Channel Islands]], multiple terrestrial species went extinct around the same time as human arrival, but direct evidence for an anthropogenic cause of their extinction remains lacking.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Louys |first1=Julien |last2=Braje |first2=Todd J. |last3=Chang |first3=Chun-Hsiang |last4=Cosgrove |first4=Richard |last5=Fitzpatrick |first5=Scott M. |last6=Fujita |first6=Masaki |last7=Hawkins |first7=Stuart |last8=Ingicco |first8=Stuart |last9=Kawamura |first9=Ai |last10=MacPhee |first10=Ross D. E. |last11=McDowell |first11=Matthew C. |last12=Meijer |first12=Hanneke J. M. |last13=Piper |first13=Philip J. |last14=Roberts |first14=Patrick |last15=Simmons |first15=Alan H. |last16=Van den Bergh |first16=Gerrit |last17=Van der Geer |first17=Alexandra |last18=Kealy |first18=Shimona |last19=O'Connor |first19=Sue |date=3 May 2021 |title=No evidence for widespread island extinctions after Pleistocene hominin arrival |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]] |volume=118 |issue=20 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2023005118 |pmid=33941645 |pmc=8157961 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11823005L |doi-access=free }}</ref> In the montane forests of the Colombian Andes, spores of coprophilous fungi indicate megafaunal extinction occurred in two waves, the first occurring around 22,900 BP and the second around 10,990 BP.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pym |first1=Felix C. |last2=Franco-Gaviria |first2=Felipe |last3=Espinoza |first3=Ismael G. |last4=Urrego |first4=Dunia H. |date=26 April 2023 |title=The timing and ecological consequences of Pleistocene megafaunal decline in the eastern Andes of Colombia |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/quaternary-research/article/abs/timing-and-ecological-consequences-of-pleistocene-megafaunal-decline-in-the-eastern-andes-of-colombia/93E12371830647431A5BB3CA25CA6DFB |journal=[[Quaternary Research]] |volume=114 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1017/qua.2022.66 |bibcode=2023QuRes.114....1P |s2cid=258362772 |access-date=29 April 2023|hdl=10871/133219 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> A 2023 study of megafaunal extinctions in the Junín Plateau of [[Peru]] found that the timing of the disappearance of megafauna was concurrent with a large uptick in fire activity attributed to human actions, implicating humans as the cause of their local extinction on the plateau.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rozas-Davila |first1=Angela |last2=Rodbell |first2=Donald T. |last3=Bush |first3=Mark B. |date=24 January 2023 |title=Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in the grasslands of Junín-Peru |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.14566 |journal=[[Journal of Biogeography]] |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=755–766 |doi=10.1111/jbi.14566 |bibcode=2023JBiog..50..755R |s2cid=256255790 |access-date=21 March 2023 |archive-date=22 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322035100/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.14566 |url-status=live }}</ref>