Bibliograph

Twilight of the mammoths, ice age extinctions and the rewilding of America, Paul S. Martin

Type

Label

Twilight of the mammoths, ice age extinctions and the rewilding of America, Paul S. Martin

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-241) and index

resource.governmentPublication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Twilight of the mammoths

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

58055404

Responsibility statement

Paul S. Martin

Series statement

Organisms and environments, 8

Sub title

ice age extinctions and the rewilding of America

Summary

As recently as 11,000 years ago--"near time" to geologists--mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres, ground sloths, giant armadillos, native camels and horses, the dire wolf, and many other large mammals roamed North America. In what has become one of science's greatest riddles, these large animals vanished in North and South America around the time humans arrived at the end of the last great ice age. Part paleontological adventure and part memoir, Twilight of the Mammoths presents in detail internationally renowned paleoecologist Paul Martin's widely discussed and debated "overkill" hypothesis to explain these mysterious megafauna extinctions. Taking us from Rampart Cave in the Grand Canyon, where he finds himself "chest deep in sloth dung," to other important fossil sites in Arizona and Chile, Martin's engaging book, written for a wide audience, uncovers our rich evolutionary legacy and shows why he has come to believe that the earliest Americans literally hunted these animals to death. As he discusses the discoveries that brought him to this hypothesis, Martin relates many colorful stories and gives a rich overview of the field of paleontology as well as his own fascinating career. He explores the ramifications of the overkill hypothesis for similar extinctions worldwide and examines other explanations for the extinctions, including climate change. Martin's visionary thinking about our missing megafauna offers inspiration and a challenge for today's conservation efforts as he speculates on what we might do to remedy this situation--both in our thinking about what is "natural" and in the natural world itself. --Publisher

Table Of Contents

Discovering the last lost world : radiocarbon dating and Quaternary extinctions -- Overview of overkill -- Ground sloth dung and packrat middens : giant meat-eating bats? -- Ground sloths at home : cryptozoology, ground sloths, and Mapinguari National Park -- Grand Canyon suite : mountain goats, condors, equids, and mammoths -- Deadly syncopation -- Digging for the first people in America : high stakes at Tule Springs : tricks, hoaxes, and bad science -- Kill sites, sacred sites -- Models in collision : climatic change versus overkill -- Restoration : unexpected ramifications of ecological change -- Resurrection : the past is future

Classification