A requiem for North American overkill

摘要: The argument that human hunters were responsible for the extinction of a wide variety large Pleistocene mammals emerged in western Europe during 1860s, alongside recognition people had coexisted with those mammals. Today, overkill position is rejected but lives on Australia and North America. survival this hypothesis due almost entirely to Paul Martin, architect first detailed version it. In America, archaeologists paleontologists whose work focuses late routinely reject Martin's two prime reasons: there virtually no evidence supports it, remarkably broad set strongly suggests it wrong. response, Martin asserts model predicts lack supporting evidence, thus turning absence empirical support into his beliefs. We suggest feature removes from realm science places squarely faith. One may or not believe position, one should confuse scientific about nature American past.