Here, the authors use genomic data to infer population histories of 139 extant megafauna, suggesting that their population decline is better explained by Homo sapiens expansion than by...

Integrating novel data on late-Quaternary large mammals, covering 158 extinct and 329 extant species, and climate change over the past 120,000 years, this study 1) strongly supports Homo sapiens as responsible for the megafauna extinctions during the late-Quaternary and 2) for the size-bias in the extinctions and associated loss in ecological ...

explained by worldwide Homo sapiens expansion than by changes in climate. We estimate that, in consequence, total megafauna abundance, biomass, and energy turnover decreased by 92–95% over...

Time-dependent distribution of the global extinction of megafauna is compared with the growth of human population. There is no correlation between the two processes. Furthermore, the size of human population and its growth rate were far too small to have any significant impact on the environment and on the life of megafauna.

In areas where animals and hominins coexisted and coevolved longer, fewer megafauna species were lost upon the arrival of Homo sapiens. Climate change had the most substantial impact on the LQE in Europe.