Archaeologica.org

Not sure where to put this, since it's about northern hemisphere megafauna.

”Disappearance of wildflowers may have doomed Ice Age giants”

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSB ... S&irpc=942

Interesting to be sure but it immediately raises the question of why earlier advances/retreats of the ice did not have similar effects?

Maybe it did. Maybe we haven't found the fossil evidence for it yet?

It couldn't have killed them off or they wouldn't have been around to die out again in 10,000.

My suspicion is that it is a mistake to look for "the one big reason." More likely a cascade of events including climate change ( a repeating variable,) human hunting ( a new variable, perhaps) and even Firestone's asteroid/comet ( a one-time variable) coming together. Start introducing new variables onto a population already under stress from climate change and anything is possible.

I picture it as an ebb & flow pattern until humans entered the equation. As the climate changes, the flora changes along with it. The fauna either follows the edibles or they die out. Like the advance & retreat of glaciers. Once humans enter the picture, it becomes a game changer. Megafauna have low birth rates. Change some of the variables, you create a situation that is difficult, if not impossible to recover from.

Nice find !