Editing Stone Age (section)

===Food and drink===
{{main|Paleolithic diet|Paleolithic#Diet and nutrition|l2=Paleolithic diet and nutrition}}
Food sources of the Palaeolithic [[hunter-gatherer]]s were wild plants and animals harvested from the [[environment (biophysical)|environment]]. They liked animal [[organ (anatomy)|organ]] meats, including the [[liver]]s, [[kidney]]s and [[brain]]s. Large seeded [[legume]]s were part of the human diet long before the [[Neolithic Revolution|agricultural revolution]], as is evident from archaeobotanical finds from the [[Mousterian]] layers of [[Kebara Cave]], in Israel.<ref name="doi10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006">{{cite journal |first1=Efraim |last1=Lev | first2=Mordechai E. |last2=Kislev|first3= Ofer |last3=Bar-Yosef |title=Mousterian vegetal food in Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=475–484 |date=March 2005 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2004.11.006 | bibcode=2005JArSc..32..475L}}</ref> Moreover, recent evidence indicates that humans processed and consumed wild cereal grains as far back as 23,000 years ago in the [[Upper Paleolithic]].<ref name="pmid15295598">{{cite journal|first1=Dolores R. |last1=Piperno |first2=Ehud |last2=Weiss |first3=Irene |last3=Holst |first4=Dani |last4=Nadel |title=Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis |journal=Nature |volume=430 |issue=7000 |pages=670–673 |date=5 August 2004 |pmid=15295598 |doi=10.1038/nature02734 |url=http://anthropology.si.edu/archaeobio/Ohalo%20II%20Nature.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504082225/http://anthropology.si.edu/archaeobio/Ohalo%20II%20Nature.pdf |archive-date=4 May 2011 |bibcode=2004Natur.430..670P |s2cid=4431395 }}</ref>

Near the end of the [[Wisconsin glaciation]], 15,000 to 9,000 years ago, mass extinction of [[Megafauna]] such as the [[woolly mammoth]] occurred in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. This was the first [[Holocene extinction event]]. It possibly forced modification in the dietary habits of the humans of that age and with the emergence of [[agricultural practices]], plant-based foods also became a regular part of the diet. A number of factors have been suggested for the extinction: certainly over-hunting, but also deforestation and climate change.<ref>{{Cite book | editor-first=Samuel T. | editor-last=Turvey | first=Samuel T. |last=Turvey | title=Holocene Extinctions | contribution=Chapter 2: In the shadow of the megafauna: prehistoric mammal and bird extinctions across the Holocene | series=Oxford Biology | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2009 | pages=16–17 }}</ref> The net effect was to fragment the vast ranges required by the large animals and extinguish them piecemeal in each fragment.