Paleontologists: Giant Prehistoric Animals Were Wiped Out By People

Representatives of the Pleistocene megafauna, the Mammoths, started to die out faster than other animals and scientists may have found the answer to why.

One of the main causes of death of these large mammals could be the systematic destruction of their habitat by prehistoric humans.

The extinction of Mammoths (that lived between 2.6 million to 12 thousand years ago) was faster than the extinction of Saber-Toothed Cats and Giant Sloths. Large animals died out simultaneously on several parts of the planet. All their population started to decline firstly in Africa, 125 thousand years ago. On this part of the world, they were about 50% less than on other continents. However, the most detrimental factor to the Mammoth habitat decline was the migration from Africa.

Prehistoric humans preferred to hunt large animals because large amount of flesh can provide longer periods of food to ensure the sustenance of a large family, moreover, most large animals are herbivores, not predators and that's why they were the most vournerable to be the main course. Due to the fact that it was impossible for one person to kill a mammoth, people from time to time, have started to join large groups of hunters. Paleontologists have determined that these prehistoric hunters were the main cause and are accused for the accelerated extinction of large animal species. According to these researchers, humans continue to destroy large animal's habitats even today and very soon might not be a single animal larger than a cow.