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20
tropical America" (P. S. Martín and
H. E. Wright, Jr., editors,
Pleistocene
Extinction,
"Bestiary for Pleistocene
Biologists," by P. S. Martín and
J.
E.
Gui lday, New Haven: Yale, 1967, p.
23).
Giant tortoises, victims of thís same
mammal destruction, were found
throughout the warmer parts of the
world . No paleontologist can daim that
even in glacial times freezing tempera–
tures extended through the Caribbean.
It
is no wonder paleontologists put
the Ice Age theory of extinction into
cold storage.
It
simply would uot
explún catastrophe in the tropics.
For example, about a decade ago,
eminent paleontologist G. G. Simpson
was discussing the specific prehistoric
demise of the horse in North America.
lt was a real head-scratcher. When
horses were reintroduced into the hemi–
sphere, they increased marvelously.
If
the present climate and terrain ís so
favorable, what caused their extinction
in the prehistoric period?
To George Gaylord Simpson,
it
was
"one of the most mysterious episodes of
animal history."
Wiped Off che Face of the Earth
What signed the horses' death war–
rant - killing them in droves? For Dr.
Simpson, there was no answer:
"There has been no lack of specula–
tion and a dozen possible explanations
have been suggested, but all of these
Jack evidence and none is really
satisfactory."
After explaining why he, in particu–
lar, rejected the Ice Age as the Grim
Reaper of horses, Simpson dejectedly
summarized by saying:
"This seems at preseut one of the sit–
uations in which we must be humble
and honest and admit that we simply do
not know the answer.
"lt must be remembered too that
extinction of the horses in the New
World is only part of a larger problem.
Many other animals became extinct here
at about the same time" (George Gay–
lord Simpson,
Horses,
New York:
Doubleday, 1961, pp. 198, 200) .
Why did the horse cash in - so
violently and quíckly? Why did the
candle go out on
so
many hardy species
of mammal life around the world?
The
PLAIN TRUTH
What caused the mass destruction m
Alaska? How did mammal genocide
across the vast stretches of Siberia
occur? What caused the last gasp, the
death rattle of Jand-living creatures in
every contioent the world over?
Was Man the Killer?
As paleontologists discussed the prob–
lem, a new gleam carne to many an
eye. They saw that the remains
of
man
- camp lires, burnt bones, arrow heads
- are sometimes
a.IJociated
with animal
remains.
The more they thought about ít, the
greater became tbeir excitement. "Could
man be responsible for the decimation
and extinction of mammal life ?" they
asked .
It
was an intriguing idea.
Extinction occurred
ONLY
on land.
It
sometimes occurred with defmite evi–
dence of the presence of man. Further,
the explanation seemed to be the
ONL
Y
ONE
Jeft.
Paleontologists published a book,
Pleistocene Exthzctions, The Search for
a Cause,
in 1967. The book was based
largely on papees read during the Pro–
ceediogs of the VII Congress of the
international Association for Quaternary
Research.
From the reports, it was quite evident
that the new "overkill" idea was too
impotent to be the answer to the mam–
mal massacre. Although a number of
paleontologists accepted the idea, they
had to acknowledge the weakness of
the theory.
For example, note the following
admission:
"We may speculate but we cannot
determine how moose, elk, and caribou
managed to survive while horse, ground
sloth, and mastodon did not.
"One must acknowledge that within
historie time the Bushmen and other
primitive hunters at a Paleolithic level
of technology have not exterminated
their game resources, certainly not .in
any way comparable to the devastation
of the late-Pleistocene.
"These and other
VALID OBJECTIONS
to the hypothesis of overkill remain"
(P. S. Martín, "Prehistoric Overkill," in
Pleistocene Extinctions, The Search for
a Cause,
P. S. Martín and H. E.
April-May, 1970
Wright,
Jr.,
editors, New Haven: Yale,
1967,
p.
115) .
For example, anthropologist Arthur
Jelinek in his article "Man's Role in
Extinction of Pleistocene Faunas" for
the above-mentioned book, had this to
say:
"Throughout the New World one
major puzzle exists wíth regard to link–
ing man with the extinction. This is the
absence of direct evidence of human
activity associated with the remains of
extinct animals"
(!bid.,
p. 198).
More staggering were the masses of
bone in Siberia and Alaska. Surely,
these could not be explained as the
"ovcrki ll" effects of man.
The Problem of Siberia
Russian scientist
N.
K. Vereshchagin
was blunt. He simply disagreed that
man could be responsible for the mas–
sive piles of animal bones in Siberia.
"The accumulations of mammoth
bones and carcasses of mammoth,
rhinoceros, and bison found in frozen
ground in Indigirka, Kolyma, and
Novosibirsk islands bear
no lt'ace of
hrmting
or activity of primitive man"
(lbid.,
''Primitive Hunters and Pleisto–
cene Extinction in the Soviet Union,"
p.
388).
That man hunted animals is not in
dispute. That he may have "overkilled"
is, of course, possible. Some of the fos–
sils
DO
bear what appears to be the
action of man's hunting.
But to accuse man as solely respon–
sible for killing
ALL
the animals whose
fossils are found round the world is
impossible. Even where animal fossils
and evidence of man are found together,
roan is one of the fossils!
A Worldwide Catastrophe
The evidence ' - globe-wide evi–
dence - seems to demand a
WORLD–
WJDE
paroxysm. Thís is what stuns
geologists and paleontologists.
"Either some
UN!QUE NATURAL
CATASTROPHE
must have precipitated
extinction or else natural environmental
changes had nothiog to do with the
event" (P. S. Martín, "Prehistoric
Overkill," in
Pleistocme Extinctions,
P.
S. Martín and H. E. Wright, Jr., edi–
tors, New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1967, p. 86).
There it was in a nutshell. The