Editing Holocene extinction (section)

=== Madagascar ===
{{Further|Wildlife of Madagascar|Subfossil lemur}}
[[File:Subfossil lemur C14 ranges.svg|thumb|upright=1.15|Radiocarbon dating of multiple subfossil specimens shows that now extinct [[Subfossil lemur|giant lemurs]] were present in Madagascar until after human arrival.]]
Within centuries of the arrival of [[Malagasy people|humans]] around the 1st millennium AD, nearly all of Madagascar's distinct, [[Endemism|endemic]], and [[Allopatric speciation|geographically isolated]] megafauna became extinct.<ref name="Hansford-2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Hansford |first1=James P. |last2=Lister |first2=Adrian M. |last3=Weston |first3=Eleanor M. |last4=Turvey |first4=Samuel T. |date=July 2021 |title=Simultaneous extinction of Madagascar's megaherbivores correlates with late Holocene human-caused landscape transformation |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379121002031 |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |language=en |volume=263 |pages=106996 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106996 |bibcode=2021QSRv..26306996H |s2cid=236313083 |access-date=2023-05-31 |archive-date=2023-05-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230531235823/https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379121002031 |url-status=live }}</ref> The largest animals, of more than {{convert|150|kg|lbs}}, were extinct very shortly after the first human arrival, with large and medium-sized species dying out after prolonged hunting pressure from an expanding human population moving into more remote regions of the island around 1000 years ago. as well as 17 species of [[Subfossil lemur|"giant" lemurs]]. Some of these lemurs typically weighed over {{convert|150|kg|lbs}}, and their fossils have provided evidence of human butchery on many species.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Perez|first1=Ventura R.|last2=Godfrey|first2=Laurie R.|last3=Nowak-Kemp|first3=Malgosia|last4=Burney|first4=David A.|last5=Ratsimbazafy|first5=Jonah|last6=Vasey|first6=Natalia|date=2005-12-01|title=Evidence of early butchery of giant lemurs in Madagascar|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|volume=49|issue=6|pages=722–742|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2005.08.004|pmid=16225904|bibcode=2005JHumE..49..722P }}</ref> Other megafauna present on the island included the [[Malagasy hippopotamus]]es as well as the large flightless [[elephant bird]]s, both groups are thought to have gone extinct in the interval 750–1050 AD.<ref name="Hansford-2021" /> Smaller fauna experienced initial increases due to decreased competition, and then subsequent declines over the last 500 years.<ref name="Crowley-2010" /> All fauna weighing over {{convert|10|kg|lbs}} died out. The primary reasons for the decline of Madagascar's biota, which at the time was already stressed by natural [[aridification]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Hanying |last2=Sinha |first2=Ashish |last3=André |first3=Aurèle Anquetil |last4=Spötl |first4=Christoph |last5=Vonhof |first5=Hubert B. |last6=Meunier |first6=Arnaud |last7=Kathayat |first7=Gayatri |last8=Duan |first8=Pengzhen |last9=Voarintsoa |first9=Ny Riavo G. |last10=Ning |first10=Youfeng |last11=Biswas |first11=Jayant |last12=Hu |first12=Peng |last13=Li |first13=Xianglei |last14=Sha |first14=Lijuan |last15=Zhao |first15=Jingyao |last16=Edwards |first16=R. Lawrence |last17=Cheng |first17=Hai |date=16 October 2020 |title=A multimillennial climatic context for the megafaunal extinctions in Madagascar and Mascarene Islands |journal=[[Science Advances]] |volume=6 |issue=42 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abb2459 |pmid=33067226 |pmc=7567594 |bibcode=2020SciA....6.2459L |s2cid=222811671 }}</ref> were human hunting,<ref name="GodfreyEtAl2019" /><ref name="HixonEtAl2021">{{cite journal |last1=Hixon |first1=Sean W. |last2=Douglass |first2=Kristina G. |last3=Crowley |first3=Brooke E. |last4=Rakotozafy |first4=Lucien Marie Aimé |last5=Clark |first5=Geoffrey |last6=Anderson |first6=Atholl |last7=Haberle |first7=Simon |last8=Ranaivoarisoa |first8=Jean Freddy |last9=Buckley |first9=Michael |last10=Fidiarisoa |first10=Salomon |last11=Mbola |first11=Balzac |last12=Kennett |first12=Douglas J. |date=21 July 2021 |title=Late Holocene spread of pastoralism coincides with endemic megafaunal extinction on Madagascar |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B |volume=288 |issue=1955 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2021.1204 |pmid=34284627 |pmc=8292765 }}</ref> herding,<ref name="HixonEtAl2022">{{cite journal |last1=Hixon |first1=Sean W. |last2=Domic |first2=Alejandra I. |last3=Douglass |first3=Kristina G. |last4=Roberts |first4=Patrick |last5=Eccles |first5=Laurie |last6=Buckley |first6=Michael |last7=Ivory |first7=Sarah |last8=Noe |first8=Sarah |last9=Kennett |first9=Douglas J. |date=22 November 2022 |title=Cutmarked bone of drought-tolerant extinct megafauna deposited with traces of fire, human foraging, and introduced animals in SW Madagascar |journal=[[Scientific Reports]] |volume=12 |issue=1 |page=18504 |doi=10.1038/s41598-022-22980-w |pmid=36414654 |pmc=9681754 |bibcode=2022NatSR..1218504H }}</ref><ref name="HixonEtAl2021" /> farming,<ref name="GodfreyEtAl2019">{{cite journal |last1=Godfrey |first1=Laurie R. |last2=Scroxton |first2=Nick |last3=Crowley |first3=Brooke E. |last4=Burns |first4=Stephen J. |last5=Sutherland |first5=Michael R. |last6=Pérez |first6=Ventura R. |last7=Faina |first7=Peterson |last8=McGee |first8=David |last9=Ranivoharimanana |first9=Lovasoa |date=May 2019 |title=A new interpretation of Madagascar's megafaunal decline: The "Subsistence Shift Hypothesis" |journal=[[Journal of Human Evolution]] |volume=130 |pages=126–140 |doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.03.002 |pmid=31010539 |s2cid=128362254 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2019JHumE.130..126G }}</ref> and [[Deforestation in Madagascar|forest clearing]],<ref name="HixonEtAl2022" /> all of which persist and threaten Madagascar's remaining taxa today. The natural ecosystems of Madagascar as a whole were further impacted by the much greater incidence of fire as a result of anthropogenic fire production; evidence from Lake Amparihibe on the island of [[Nosy Be]] indicates a shift in local vegetation from intact rainforest to a fire-disturbed patchwork of grassland and woodland between 1300 and 1000 BP.<ref name="ReinhardtEtAl2022">{{cite journal |last1=Reinhardt |first1=Antonia L. |last2=Kasper |first2=Thomas |last3=Lochner |first3=Maximilian |last4=Bliedtner |first4=Marcel |last5=Krahn |first5=Kim J. |last6=Haberzettl |first6=Torsten |last7=Shumilovskikh |first7=Lyudmila |last8=Rahobisoa |first8=Jean-Jacques |last9=Zech |first9=Roland |last10=Favier |first10=Charly |last11=Behling |first11=Hermann |last12=Bremond |first12=Laurent |last13=Daut |first13=Gerhard |last14=Montade |first14=Vincent |date=4 February 2022 |title=Rain Forest Fragmentation and Environmental Dynamics on Nosy Be Island (NW Madagascar) at 1300 cal BP Is Attributable to Intensified Human Impact |journal=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |volume=9 |pages=1–21 |issn=2296-701X |doi=10.3389/fevo.2021.783770 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022FrEEv...983770R }}</ref>