An interesting theory I saw about the megafauna extinctions was that they were triggered by an unprecedented low CO2 level during the end of the last ice age that exceeded the ability of even grasses to cope with, causing ecological collapses around the planet that mostly impacted the largest animals.
The survival of megafauna on isolated islands like New Zealand and Madagascar until very recently (followed by rapid extinction due to human hunting) is a strong piece of evidence favouring human influence in historic extinctions.
Another point worth pointing out- some data suggests that the first waves of "modern" humans leaving Africa followed mostly coastal routes and were mostly specialised in gathering coastal seafood, and were pretty inefficient at hunting large terrestrial animals. This muddies any simple correlation of "earliest arrival of humans" with extinction events since it might matter which humans you are talking about.
I know that the point of your article isn’t to determine the “correct” theory of how the megafauna went extinct; however, there is potentially a third factor leading to the extinction of megafauna. The third factor could potentially be extinction due to, or accelerated by, cataclysms. The event or events of cataclysms are a theory put forth by various researchers in the field of catastrophism (if you are interested, I could point you in the direction of various researchers on this topic).
While I’m not going to go into that theory, I thought I would provide some examples of “mythologies” from indigenous cultures of Turtle Island that are, what I would argue, stories about actual cataclysms they witnessed. Some believe that these events are electrical in nature, which could potentially cause very rapid evolutionary changes (for instance, see how electric eels alter DNA). This could lead to entire species being wiped out if species are unable to “adapt” or handle the rapid change. Also, as the following stories show, many tribes, plants, ecosystems, and animals “went away” during the cataclysms. I know, if this all seems fanciful to you (I was once there too), it should. But, it’s a fascinating theory that I think helps us gain a better understanding of the history of earth.
4). The Sioux legend of the badlands, as told by Red Bird:
“…At last the men of the plains held a great council of all the tribes. To appease the spirits, people fasted for many days. Some tortured themselves. The medicine men did everything they could to win the favor of the spirits, but they received no answer. Their people were in despair.”
“At last the spirits sent their answer. The midday sky became as black as a midnight sky. Lightning flashed, seeming to come from the ground, and thunder rolled. Strange fires lighted the entire country with their flames. The earth shook. Where the western tribe had their
camp, waves of land like waves of a great water rolled back and forth. In the troughs of these gigantic waves, the whole warring tribe with their tipis and their horses sank and were engulfed by the next waves. With them went the grass, the trees, the streams, the game animals- everything that had been on the high plain.”
“As the frightened people from the north and the east watched from a distance, the great commotion suddenly stopped. The fires burned themselves out. When dawn came, the peaceloving tribes saw that the rolling waves of earth had become fixed, bare rocks. Their beautiful plain was now a wasteland on which nothing could ever grow…”
3.)”The Idaho Shoshonis and Bannocks have the following tradition about the origin of the Lava Beds [of southeastern Idaho]”:
“…When all the members of the great council had given their promise to the Great Chief of the spirits, the medicine man was lifted high into the air. So high was he taken that his companions lost sight of him in the darkness. The spirits carried him above the treetops to a tall and rocky mountain. There they ordered him to touch the topmost point with his finger. When he did, the peak instantly ignited and burned fiercely.”
“Then the spirits carried him back to the opening in the forest and told him to depart immediately with his people. ‘Go back to the mountain on which you hold your councils.’”
“As they journeyed, they saw a bright light gleaming through occasional openings in the forest, and they reached their mountain quickly. From it they saw another mountain burning and melted rock running down its sides like red water. The fire grew bigger and bigger. Nearby hills and cliffs melted and flowed into the valley.”
“All the trees were rapidly consumed by the fire. In a short time the valley was a lake of fire as far as the eye could see. All the strangers who had invaded the land of the Indians were destroyed.”
“After many moons the hot rocks cooled, but it was many snows before trees began to appear again on the foothills. More snows came and went before there was plenty of game and fish once more….”
2.)”Sunni White Bear Navo related this myth to Sven Liljeblad in 1941, in the Bannock language, and Professor Liljeblad translated it. An old Chehalis Indian, near the Washington coast, told me a variant of this story in 1953.”
“A LONG TIME AGO this earth was made. Nobody knows when, but there is a story about it. Our Father was on this earth. When he was here, the earth got on fire. He had a wife, who stood at his left side. Their son stood at his right side. When the earth was burning, they walked among the flames.”
“As they were walking, the Father said to his wife and to his son, ‘Don't look back at the fire. No matter if it is burning your heels, don't look back.’"
“Right behind them the flames made a roaring, and the fire was ready to catch in their skirts. The woman felt it. She looked behind her and was immediately turned into stone. She was turned into stone because she had done what the Father told her not to do.”
“He had a walking stick. Wherever he and his son walked, he put his walking stick on the ground ahead of them. There the flames went out, and so the Father and his son could pass through the fire. Everything around them was burning, the whole earth. But because of the walking stick, they could travel around.”
“Behind the fire came the water. Soon it flooded the whole earth. Everything was covered by water, even the mountains...”
“…Under Muskrat's fingernails, they found bits of mud. The Father took these bits of mud and formed them into a little ball.”
"’You did get earth,’ he said to Muskrat.”
“Then the Father began to roll the ball of earth in his hands, to and fro. Then he would stretch it, and then roll it into a ball again. Then he would flatten it between his hands. He did that again and again, and the earth-ball got bigger and bigger. The bigger it got, the harder it was for him to work with it. He would stop and look at it and would say, ‘It is too small yet.’”
“So he would work at it again. He stretched it, he rolled it, he flattened it between his hands. When it got very large, and he had flattened it out, he spread it over the top of the water. Then he began to make hills and mountains on his earth. Later he made springs and rivers beside these mountains. Later he made different kinds of trees and flowers to grow around the springs and on the mountains. Then he made different kinds of animals and birds [Its unclear as to if the use of “different” in the last two sentences is with respect to before the flood; or, if it means multiple species that are different from each other.].”
“Until the time of the fourth tribe, the world was in darkness, for there was no sun. Believing that the sole cause of their wickedness was the darkness, the people held a council to discuss the matter. These were the animal people-animals that could reason and talk. All of them refused to be the sun except Sinchlep, or Coyote. He was the smartest and most powerful of the animal people. But when Coyote was the sun and passed over the land, he saw what everyone was doing. And he called out, so that all might hear, even the secret doings of people. The evildoers angrily took Coyote by the tail, which at that time was very long, and brought him back to the ground. They told him that he could no longer be the sun!”
“Crow then offered to be the sun. But as he was really black all over, he gave very little light. People laughed at him. Unable to endure their ridicule, Crow gave up the task in shame.”
“Amotken, though invisible, had several sons, one of whom was Spokani. Seeing the people's need for light, he sent Spokani down to be the sun. Spokani, wishing to marry a woman from the earth, landed in a camp of Flatheads. People thought him very handsome but so different from themselves that they refused to admit him to their lodges.”
“Disappointed, Spokani left the place. Nearby, he saw a family of frogs to whom he complained about the treatment their neighbors had given him. One of the frogs, very large and fat, said that she was willing to marry him; she would be happy to become the wife of Amotken's son. With a jump she attached herself to one cheek of Spokani.”
“The neighboring people, seeing the disfigured cheek, were so angry that they tried to kill the frog with sticks, but they could not. She remained on Spokani's cheek. She begged him to leave the earth and become the sun at once.”
“And so Spokani became the sun. To revenge himself for the contempt of the people, he does not allow them to see him closely during the day but covers himself with a shining robe. As night approaches, he removes his robe, crosses the waters under the earth, and then only shows himself as he is. Then he is the moon. The spots on the moon are the frog on his cheek.”
Anyway, the following examples of cataclysms are from the book, “Indian Legends, from the Northern Rockies” by Ella E. Clark. I have italicized parts of the “myths” that are pertinent to this topic, or should even sound familiar to more well-known myths and religious texts:
1).“The following creation myth of the Salish or Flathead Indians was sent to Gibbs by Father Gregory Mengarini.”
“Before the world was created, a son was born to a very powerful woman, Skomeltem. The son’s name is Amokten, which means “he who sits on top of the mountain,” for his home is on the summit of the covering of the earth. Amokten created heaven and earth and mankind. He created other worlds also, worlds under and above and around us. His mother lives alone on one of those worlds beyond the waters.”
“The first human beings that Amotken created became very wicked and turned a deaf ear to his teachings and his warnings. Angry with them, he drowned all of them in a great flood. Then he created a second tribe, twice as tall as the first. But they became even more wicked than the first people, and so Amotken destroyed them by fire from heaven. He created a third tribe; when they became as wicked as the first, he destroyed them by a pestilence. The fourth tribe would have been destroyed also had not Amotken's mother begged him to let them live. She so softened the anger of Amotken that he promised never to destroy his creations again.”
An interesting theory I saw about the megafauna extinctions was that they were triggered by an unprecedented low CO2 level during the end of the last ice age that exceeded the ability of even grasses to cope with, causing ecological collapses around the planet that mostly impacted the largest animals.
The survival of megafauna on isolated islands like New Zealand and Madagascar until very recently (followed by rapid extinction due to human hunting) is a strong piece of evidence favouring human influence in historic extinctions.
Another point worth pointing out- some data suggests that the first waves of "modern" humans leaving Africa followed mostly coastal routes and were mostly specialised in gathering coastal seafood, and were pretty inefficient at hunting large terrestrial animals. This muddies any simple correlation of "earliest arrival of humans" with extinction events since it might matter which humans you are talking about.
Also, the electric eel article link:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/eels-can-genetically-modify-nearby-fish-with-their-electrical-pulses-180983422/
The order of my comments got messed up, please follow the number at the top of each comment, start at "1" 😂
1
I know that the point of your article isn’t to determine the “correct” theory of how the megafauna went extinct; however, there is potentially a third factor leading to the extinction of megafauna. The third factor could potentially be extinction due to, or accelerated by, cataclysms. The event or events of cataclysms are a theory put forth by various researchers in the field of catastrophism (if you are interested, I could point you in the direction of various researchers on this topic).
While I’m not going to go into that theory, I thought I would provide some examples of “mythologies” from indigenous cultures of Turtle Island that are, what I would argue, stories about actual cataclysms they witnessed. Some believe that these events are electrical in nature, which could potentially cause very rapid evolutionary changes (for instance, see how electric eels alter DNA). This could lead to entire species being wiped out if species are unable to “adapt” or handle the rapid change. Also, as the following stories show, many tribes, plants, ecosystems, and animals “went away” during the cataclysms. I know, if this all seems fanciful to you (I was once there too), it should. But, it’s a fascinating theory that I think helps us gain a better understanding of the history of earth.
6
4). The Sioux legend of the badlands, as told by Red Bird:
“…At last the men of the plains held a great council of all the tribes. To appease the spirits, people fasted for many days. Some tortured themselves. The medicine men did everything they could to win the favor of the spirits, but they received no answer. Their people were in despair.”
“At last the spirits sent their answer. The midday sky became as black as a midnight sky. Lightning flashed, seeming to come from the ground, and thunder rolled. Strange fires lighted the entire country with their flames. The earth shook. Where the western tribe had their
camp, waves of land like waves of a great water rolled back and forth. In the troughs of these gigantic waves, the whole warring tribe with their tipis and their horses sank and were engulfed by the next waves. With them went the grass, the trees, the streams, the game animals- everything that had been on the high plain.”
“As the frightened people from the north and the east watched from a distance, the great commotion suddenly stopped. The fires burned themselves out. When dawn came, the peaceloving tribes saw that the rolling waves of earth had become fixed, bare rocks. Their beautiful plain was now a wasteland on which nothing could ever grow…”
5
3.)”The Idaho Shoshonis and Bannocks have the following tradition about the origin of the Lava Beds [of southeastern Idaho]”:
“…When all the members of the great council had given their promise to the Great Chief of the spirits, the medicine man was lifted high into the air. So high was he taken that his companions lost sight of him in the darkness. The spirits carried him above the treetops to a tall and rocky mountain. There they ordered him to touch the topmost point with his finger. When he did, the peak instantly ignited and burned fiercely.”
“Then the spirits carried him back to the opening in the forest and told him to depart immediately with his people. ‘Go back to the mountain on which you hold your councils.’”
“As they journeyed, they saw a bright light gleaming through occasional openings in the forest, and they reached their mountain quickly. From it they saw another mountain burning and melted rock running down its sides like red water. The fire grew bigger and bigger. Nearby hills and cliffs melted and flowed into the valley.”
“All the trees were rapidly consumed by the fire. In a short time the valley was a lake of fire as far as the eye could see. All the strangers who had invaded the land of the Indians were destroyed.”
“After many moons the hot rocks cooled, but it was many snows before trees began to appear again on the foothills. More snows came and went before there was plenty of game and fish once more….”
4
2.)”Sunni White Bear Navo related this myth to Sven Liljeblad in 1941, in the Bannock language, and Professor Liljeblad translated it. An old Chehalis Indian, near the Washington coast, told me a variant of this story in 1953.”
“A LONG TIME AGO this earth was made. Nobody knows when, but there is a story about it. Our Father was on this earth. When he was here, the earth got on fire. He had a wife, who stood at his left side. Their son stood at his right side. When the earth was burning, they walked among the flames.”
“As they were walking, the Father said to his wife and to his son, ‘Don't look back at the fire. No matter if it is burning your heels, don't look back.’"
“Right behind them the flames made a roaring, and the fire was ready to catch in their skirts. The woman felt it. She looked behind her and was immediately turned into stone. She was turned into stone because she had done what the Father told her not to do.”
“He had a walking stick. Wherever he and his son walked, he put his walking stick on the ground ahead of them. There the flames went out, and so the Father and his son could pass through the fire. Everything around them was burning, the whole earth. But because of the walking stick, they could travel around.”
“Behind the fire came the water. Soon it flooded the whole earth. Everything was covered by water, even the mountains...”
“…Under Muskrat's fingernails, they found bits of mud. The Father took these bits of mud and formed them into a little ball.”
"’You did get earth,’ he said to Muskrat.”
“Then the Father began to roll the ball of earth in his hands, to and fro. Then he would stretch it, and then roll it into a ball again. Then he would flatten it between his hands. He did that again and again, and the earth-ball got bigger and bigger. The bigger it got, the harder it was for him to work with it. He would stop and look at it and would say, ‘It is too small yet.’”
“So he would work at it again. He stretched it, he rolled it, he flattened it between his hands. When it got very large, and he had flattened it out, he spread it over the top of the water. Then he began to make hills and mountains on his earth. Later he made springs and rivers beside these mountains. Later he made different kinds of trees and flowers to grow around the springs and on the mountains. Then he made different kinds of animals and birds [Its unclear as to if the use of “different” in the last two sentences is with respect to before the flood; or, if it means multiple species that are different from each other.].”
3
“Until the time of the fourth tribe, the world was in darkness, for there was no sun. Believing that the sole cause of their wickedness was the darkness, the people held a council to discuss the matter. These were the animal people-animals that could reason and talk. All of them refused to be the sun except Sinchlep, or Coyote. He was the smartest and most powerful of the animal people. But when Coyote was the sun and passed over the land, he saw what everyone was doing. And he called out, so that all might hear, even the secret doings of people. The evildoers angrily took Coyote by the tail, which at that time was very long, and brought him back to the ground. They told him that he could no longer be the sun!”
“Crow then offered to be the sun. But as he was really black all over, he gave very little light. People laughed at him. Unable to endure their ridicule, Crow gave up the task in shame.”
“Amotken, though invisible, had several sons, one of whom was Spokani. Seeing the people's need for light, he sent Spokani down to be the sun. Spokani, wishing to marry a woman from the earth, landed in a camp of Flatheads. People thought him very handsome but so different from themselves that they refused to admit him to their lodges.”
“Disappointed, Spokani left the place. Nearby, he saw a family of frogs to whom he complained about the treatment their neighbors had given him. One of the frogs, very large and fat, said that she was willing to marry him; she would be happy to become the wife of Amotken's son. With a jump she attached herself to one cheek of Spokani.”
“The neighboring people, seeing the disfigured cheek, were so angry that they tried to kill the frog with sticks, but they could not. She remained on Spokani's cheek. She begged him to leave the earth and become the sun at once.”
“And so Spokani became the sun. To revenge himself for the contempt of the people, he does not allow them to see him closely during the day but covers himself with a shining robe. As night approaches, he removes his robe, crosses the waters under the earth, and then only shows himself as he is. Then he is the moon. The spots on the moon are the frog on his cheek.”
2
Anyway, the following examples of cataclysms are from the book, “Indian Legends, from the Northern Rockies” by Ella E. Clark. I have italicized parts of the “myths” that are pertinent to this topic, or should even sound familiar to more well-known myths and religious texts:
1).“The following creation myth of the Salish or Flathead Indians was sent to Gibbs by Father Gregory Mengarini.”
“Before the world was created, a son was born to a very powerful woman, Skomeltem. The son’s name is Amokten, which means “he who sits on top of the mountain,” for his home is on the summit of the covering of the earth. Amokten created heaven and earth and mankind. He created other worlds also, worlds under and above and around us. His mother lives alone on one of those worlds beyond the waters.”
“The first human beings that Amotken created became very wicked and turned a deaf ear to his teachings and his warnings. Angry with them, he drowned all of them in a great flood. Then he created a second tribe, twice as tall as the first. But they became even more wicked than the first people, and so Amotken destroyed them by fire from heaven. He created a third tribe; when they became as wicked as the first, he destroyed them by a pestilence. The fourth tribe would have been destroyed also had not Amotken's mother begged him to let them live. She so softened the anger of Amotken that he promised never to destroy his creations again.”