Prehistoric Extinctions on Islands and Continents

摘要: Geological extinction of a continental megafauna Holarctic mammoths, American ground sloths, and Australian diprotodonts, to name few mammalian examples, rivals pulsing ice sheets fluctuating sea levels in being hallmark the Quaternary. To these more familiar examples late Quaternary (LQE), younger fossils recently recovered from oceanic islands, including bird land snail taxa Pacific various endemic terrestrial vertebrates Caribbean, add many thousands species populations list. Apart loss pinnipeds sirenians (large coastal or estuarine mammals), LQE was strictly accident. Unlike case on continents virtually all small (other than commensals parasites large mammals) escaped extinction. Looking toward deep-water islands promises aid our understanding what happened, when it did, forced change.