ArticleNature communications2023
Worldwide Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene population declines in extant megafauna are associated with Homo sapiens expansion rather than climate change.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Meta-analysis shows that wild large herbivores shape ecosystem properties and promote spatial heterogeneity.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Pooled it
- Derivation of elephant induced pluripotent stem cells.Nature methods · 2026Article
- A refined chronology of the Naumann's elephant (Palaeoloxodon naumanni) provides a new insight on factors of their extinction.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Climate and ecological constraints of cultivating bioenergy crops for climate mitigation in tropical regions.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Sedimentary Metagenomics Reveal Avian Community Transitions From the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Genomic insights into recurrent demographic collapses and recovery dynamics in Tibetan antelopes (Pantholops hodgsoni).Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Diverging selection on body size in specialist terrestrial mammals.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- High-quality genome assembly of Chironomus riparius and its population history in European populations.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Persistent Genomic Erosion in Whooping Cranes Despite Demographic Recovery.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Asian elephants are associated with a more robust mammalian community in tropical forests.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- What moves large grazers? Habitat preferences and complementing niches of large herbivores in a Danish trophic rewilding area.Environmental management · 2025Article
- Conservation Evolutionary Biology: A Unified Framework Connecting the Past, Present, and Future of Biodiversity Conservation.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Review
- Global spatiotemporal patterns of demographic fluctuations in terrestrial vertebrates during the Late Pleistocene.Science advances · 2025Article
- Temperate forest plants are associated with heterogeneous semi-open canopy conditions shaped by large herbivores.Nature plants · 2025Article
- Parameterizing Pantherinae: De Novo Mutation Rate Estimates from Panthera and Neofelis Pedigrees.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Road to Extinction? Past and Present Population Structure and Genomic Diversity in the Koala.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Semi-Feral Horse Grazing Benefits the Grassland Diversity of Flowering Plants Including a Pollinator-Promoting Indicator Species.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Not evolved to save the planet, yet capable to promote pro-environmental action leveraging human nature.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Article
- The genomic natural history of the aurochs.Nature · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The worldwide extinction of megafauna during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene is evident from the fossil record, with dominant theories suggesting a climate, human or combined impact cause. Consequently, two disparate scenarios are possible for the surviving megafauna during this time period - they could have declined due to similar pressures, or increased in population size due to reductions in competition or other biotic pressures. We therefore infer population histories of 139 extant megafauna species using genomic data which reveal population declines in 91% of species throughout the Quaternary period, with larger species experiencing the strongest decreases. Declines become ubiquitous 32-76 kya across all landmasses, a pattern better 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 the past 50,000 years, implying major human-driven ecosystem restructuring at a global scale.
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