ORIGINS OF THE ANTHROPOCENE: Part 2: Human-wildlife conflict, the ‘overkill’ hypothesis and megafaunal extinctions

2026-01-28 - 03:21

In Part 1 of this series, we explored the scientific debates around the extinction of dozens of large species outside of Africa during the late stages of what is popularly known as the ‘Ice Age’. If one accepts the ‘overkill’ hypothesis that these extinctions were caused by human hunting, it begs the obvious question: why?