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– The Paleolithic Age: The First Mass Extinction –
Was Humanity a “Coexisting Species”?
Between approximately 70,000 and 10,000 years ago,
modern humans (Homo sapiens) left Africa and spread across Eurasia, Oceania, and eventually the Americas.
Strikingly, this expansion coincides with a global pattern:
the rapid disappearance of numerous large-bodied animals.
Was this merely the result of natural climatic change?
Or was it the first extinction event driven by humanity itself?
Contemporary paleoecology and archaeology increasingly support the latter interpretation.
Major Species Believed to Have Been Eliminated by Humans in the Paleolithic
- Mammoths (Mammuthus spp.)
- Woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis)
- Megatherium (giant ground sloth)
- Glyptodon (giant armored armadillo)
- Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus)
Why Did Extinction Occur Under Paleolithic Humans?
① Humans Were an “Unnatural” Predator
Humans hunted with:
- weapons such as spears and projectile tools,
- cooperative, organized strategies,
- intelligence that allowed anticipation and planning.
In this sense, humans were qualitatively different from any predator ecosystems had previously encountered.
② Prey Species Had No Evolutionary Experience
Many large mammals:
- had no evolutionary memory of humans as predators,
- showed little fear,
- failed to flee or mount effective resistance.
As a result, entire populations collapsed within surprisingly short periods of time.
③ Extinction Was Not Intentional
Humans did not set out to destroy nature.
They were simply a presence that ecosystems had never encountered before.
Humanity became, inadvertently,
the most efficiently lethal predator in Earth’s history.
The Meaning of Paleolithic Extinctions
These early extinctions were a prelude to what would follow.
- Extinction occurred even before agriculture.
- Environmental transformation occurred despite limited technology.
- The ecological consequences of “excess intelligence” were already visible.
This is not merely a problem of modern civilization.
It is a problem rooted in the very nature of humanity as a species.
Extinction-related book
