megafauna
...ndly, mega fauna are the biggest and slowest animals in the environment. These kinds of animals are very vulnerable to hunting, but not to climate change. As people did not arrive in Africa, but evolved there, the evolution of our human ancestors from scavengers into skilled hunters happened slowly, allowing the ecosystem and its abundant mega fauna time to adjust. However, that did not happen elsewhere. The extinction of mega fauna was most extreme in places where humans arrived as already skilled hunters. We could also class elephants and hippos as mega fauna because of their large size. And since 1820 (the introduction of rifles) there have been the threat of extinction. This is the reasoning behind the blitzkrieg theory of extinction of the mega fauna. Controversly there is the climate change theory, where the mega fauna extinctions were caused by unhabitable climate changes. Dr Judith Field, of the University of Sydney says, "It can be argued that climate change might have driven vegetation change, periodic drought, and increased seasonality. (The climate) weaves backwards and forwards - it might just need one more extended drought and bang, the mega fauna are knocked off." Animals gravitate to the remaining water holes in the environment. And there have been a large number of the 'giant demon duck of doom’ fossils found in Alcoota. Scientists believe that the animals congregated around the last waterholes to find food and drink, but when the waterhole dries up they die of starvation. Both theories are attempting to explain the reasons for why the mega fauna became extinct. Here are the reasons for the blitzkrieg theory and against the climate change theory: · The extinction of all mega fauna has been coincided with human activity and human inventions · It is a known and proven fact that humans cause mass extinctions of any animal type. · The sheer variety of mega fauna lived in anything from swamps to the arid Simpson Desert, so a climate change could not affect their habitats that at least one type would not survive. · With the size of the mega fauna the speed at which they can move is greatly effected. So this type of animal would be a lot more susceptible to hunting. · Climate changes effect worldwide not just in one area, so the animals would have all died out at the same time...