Twilight of the Mammoths:: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America (Organisms and Environments) | 
|  | | | Title: | Twilight of the Mammoths:: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America (Organisms and Environments) | | Author: | Paul S. Martin | | Publisher: | University of California Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 08 May, 2007 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0520252438 / 9780520252431 | | List Price: | $18.95 | | You Save: | $6.06 | | Amazon Price: | $12.89 | |
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Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews:
• Great For Understanding Ice Age Mega Fauna Extinctions 12 November, 2007
This book is an excellent, reasoned discourse on the evidence chain and the theories behind why large mammals in North America went extinct all at the same time - about 12,500 years ago. Before I read this book I had heard of the popular theories of why the north american megafauna went extinct, but had not heard which theory was most likely. Martin makes clear that the overkill theory has the greatest logical and evidentiary support.
it's important in science to keep an open mind about causes. Recently, more work has been done on an ash layer in the geologic record that suggests a great fire or possible comet explosion that may have occurred around the time of the megafauna extinctions in north america. I can believe that such an event had a contributing impact. After reading this book though, there is no question in my mind that n. american megafauna would have survived even a great fire or comet blast so long as they were not also subject to human induced causes.
The other great theories for ice age mammal extinction are referred to as 'overill', for disease-related explanations, and 'overchill', for cold climate explanations. Martin skillfully and convincingly refutes these theories for their unsound logic and lack of evidence.
It is clear to me now that the reason for this debate between overkill, overill, and overchill persists only because the evidentiary chain is not clearly in favor enough of any one of the 3. But the preponderance of evidence, and the soundest reasoning, favors overkill by at least a 10-1 compared to overill or overchill. I would expect future archaeological and paleontological discoveries to add to the evidence supporting overkill.
One final note: I am now a huge supporter of the Pleistocene park concept, and am hopeful that humans are able to rescue the remaining African and Asian megafauna from extinction with park reserves in Siberia and the Americas. I can envision now a park in Texas with asian elephants replacing mammoths, African or Asian lions once again bringing the lost American lion back to life, camels returning to their evolutionary American origins, wild horse herds, introduced threatened African or Asian ungulate species to stand in for their recently extinct American cousins, cheetahs returning, and even threatened tigers getting a second life as the replacement for now-extinct scimitar and saber tooth cats. I leave it to a zoologist to figure out how to replace a giant ground sloth, or even a Shasta ground sloth.
Other pleistocene park possibilities exist in other parts of the world. South america could easily see a return of elephants. The remaining ancestor of the short faced bear, which is the South American spectacled bear, is itself threatened and could use a reserve somewhere else in the world.
Enjoy this book!
- Reviewed by customer ID: AM7EIPRQW9JL
• Not Light Reading 22 January, 2008
Well written and interesting, but not light reading for the average reader without a background in anthropology. Still, you will probably learn a lot, if you skip over the latin.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3EGQ247B4GY6Z
• A Hypothesis Is Just That... 17 February, 2007
Twilight Of The Mammoths by Paul S. Martin is a book I wanted to read because I wanted to see what the author had to say about the overkill idea. That Ice Age extinctions were caused by human invasion of the New World and not by germs and sudden change in the climate.
I have to say he did a good job not only of explaining and defending his hypothesis but at pointing out the weak points in the other theories of how the mass extinctions of the megamammals came about. The book is a solid read but somewhat dry. Lots of data on kill sites, pollen, climate changes and lots of dung.
He also takes a few chapters to talk about the idea rewilding the New World. In some ways that has already been going on so we may wish to take a controlling hand in the process.
Published in 2005 the information is up-to-date and hard to argue with. But who knows what will be discovered in the years to come?
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3NIQK6ZLYEP1L
• Twilight Of The Mammoths 09 October, 2007
Paul Martin makes a strong arguement for human caused extinctions of ice-age mammals including the mammoths through human overkill hunting behavior. Insted of presenting an idea without support, Martin provides extensive documentation to support his position. However, as intriguing as his ideas about human involvement in the loss of ice-age and post ice-age mammals are, it is difficult to believe that humans spread to every nook and cranny of north, central and south America causing the extinction of every large mammal grouping present. Questions also arise regarding the type of animal they might have hunted versus other available animals. Why would early humans decide to hunt to extinction the giant bison when smaller and presumably less dangerous bison were available? Why would they possibly hunt the American lion, sabertooth tiger or dire wolves when there was, according to Martin, a wealth of animals available for food, skins and bone? Obviously, something happened toward the end of the last advance of continental ice sheets and the early peopling of the Americas, but I do not believe overkill is the sole cause of the disappearance of large mammals of the Americas. A combination of factors including human most likely is the cause of their loss.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A16C3Q8GB78CIN
• Thought-provoking Arguments And Speculation 02 August, 2007
This is one of those books that may jolt the conventional wisdom implanted in your brain, especially if you are an environmentalist. First the negative...I thought the first 5 chapters, about one-half, of this book to be a bit boring, telling me more about sloth dung than I really wanted to know. But then the book picked up -- way up -- in interest.
The true "natural" environment of the United States, in Martin's view, existed 13,000 years ago before man got here and that it has been out of balance since. Martin comes down strong on the side that human beings were responsible for the extinction of many large mammals in the Americas about 13,000 years ago and his argument is persuasive. He also makes a strong case that human beings have lived in the Americas for little more than 13,000 years. This is a hot-button issue among archaeologists, but Martin's point is: if the Indians were here more than 13,000 years ago where are the signs of their presence? Not many, if any, have been found in a hundred years of looking.
His most interesting point and new to me was his proposals to re-people (wrong word, maybe "re-animate"?) the New World with representatives of the large mammals that became extinct. For example, why is that our government is trying to kill off the burros and wild horses in national parks? Horses originated in the Americas; they became extinct about 13,000 years ago. Why not allow them to reestablish themselves as a native species?
And then he really gets off on a speculative tangent, "rewilding America." Camels and Llamas lived in the United States until 13,000 thousand years ago; why not reintroduce them as native, wild species. Similarly rhinocerous, elephant, lion, tiger and other mammal species. To be sure the species of the mammals that became extinct are not exactly the same species that now live -- but close enough, in his opinion. An Asian elephant, he says, is closer genetically to extinct mammoths than it is to the African elephant.
Smallchief
- Reviewed by customer ID: A912C7977MO6O
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