20,000–7000 BCE: (Megafaunal Extinctions in the Americas — As Had Happened Previously in Eurasia the Arrival and Spread of Fully Modern Humans into the Ameri…

20,000–7000 BCE: (Megafaunal Extinctions in the Americas — As Had Happened Previously in Eurasia the Arrival and Spread of Fully Modern Humans into the Americas Setting Off a Series of Megafaunal Extinctions, Thirty-Five Genera of Mostly Large Animals Lost in North America Between 20,000 and 10,000 Years Ago Including the Ground Sloth Dire Wolf Saber Cat American Lion Horses Camels Mammoths and Mastodons, Fifty-Two Genera and Around 80 Percent of All Megafauna Extinct in South America Though a Few Species Like the Saber-Toothed Cat Giant Ground Sloth and Giant Armadillo May Have Survived Two or Three Millennia Past 9700 BCE): As had happened previously in Eurasia, the arrival and spread of fully modern humans into the Americas similarly helped set off a series of megafaunal extinctions. During the early human settlement of North America, from around 20,000 to 10,000 years ago, thirty-five genera of mostly large animals were lost, including the ground sloth, the dire wolf, the saber cat, the American lion, horses, camels, mammoths, and mastodons. In South America, over the same broad period of initial human settlement, another fifty-two genera became extinct — including around 80 percent of all megafauna — although a few notable species, such as the saber-toothed cat, the giant ground sloth, and the giant armadillo, may have survived for two or three millennia after 9700 BCE. The pattern is now global and unmistakable. In Australia, fourteen genera gone by 30,000 BCE. In Eurasia, mammoth and woolly rhinoceros gone by 10,000 BCE. In North America, thirty-five genera. In South America, fifty-two genera. And in Africa — where humans and megafauna had coevolved — the elephants, the rhinos, the hippos, the great cats all survived. The exception proves the rule. Africa’s megafauna survived because Africa’s megafauna had grown up with humans. Everywhere else, the arrival of our species was an ecological catastrophe of the first order — a wave of extinction that swept across every continent we reached, sparing only the continent we came from. The ecological footprint of humanity was devastating from the very beginning, and the idea that our species lived in harmony with nature until the Industrial Revolution is one of the most persistent and dangerous myths in our collective self-understanding.