Researchers examining fossilize stiff in the La Brea Tar Pit , Southern California , have come to a distressing conclusion . According to a raw , in - profundity analysis , changing temperature and human activeness led to more wildfire at the terminal of the Pleistocene epoch , which caused the extinction of megafauna species that once thrived in the area . The results are worry given the increasing number ofwildfiresblazing across many part of America and Europe today .
At the end of the last Ice Age ( about 13,000 year ago ) , around two - tierce of the planet ’s large mammalian outside of Africa disappeared in what credibly represent the initial spike in the ongoing extinction processes we are witnessing today .
Across the globe , this volume extinction cooccur with changes in the climate as well as the arrival of new human colony . However , despite its import for the ecosystem of the clip ( not to remark our understanding of the shock our current crisis could have ) , we are still not completely sure what do this event . This is because we lack reliably go out dodo and a precise chronology that show when experimental extinction pass in relation to environmental and human change .
“ The megafaunal extinction at the end of the Ice Age was the biggest extinction event to happen since an asteroid slammed into Earth and pass over out all the declamatory dinosaur , ” co - generator Dr Emily Lindsey , Associate Curator and Excavation Site Director at La Brea Tar Pits , said in astatement . “ The problem has been that nobody has been able to determine on the button when most of these big mammals actually disappeared because the dodo book is really uneven . It ’s hard to say much about what caused an extinction if you do n’t love when it happened . ”
To get the best this , Dr Lindsey and colleagues analyzed dodo record from the La Brea Tar Pits that belonged to eight large mammal species , including coyotes , horses , saber-toothed cats , the American Lion , dreadful wolf , and an ancient camel called aCamelops hesternus . Radiocarbon geological dating has show that seven of these species went extinct around 13,000 years ago .
The La Brea Tar Pits are located across 13 acres ( 5 hectare ) of ground and are still participating – fill up with burble black mineral pitch that has risen to the aerofoil from below the Earth . Once upon a time , prehistoric animal who got stuck in this broiling quite a little would lento bury and die in it , which allow their remains to be preserved as mineral pitch fogey .
Although this sucking ooze is pestilent for those that get stuck in it , the remains that it holds are invaluable for scientific research . By equate them with climate , pollen , and ardor records from the region , as well as data point on human population drive and emergence , the researchers were able to rule out some of the competing explanations for the the great unwashed extinguishing . And unfortunately , it ’s risky news .
“ At the level where we found the human universe to really start to increase in North America , we see an time interval of profound climatical and ecologic modification couple with unprecedented fire happening right here , and it ’s in this separation when all of the megafauna species disappear , ” Lisa Martinez , a PhD educatee at UCLA who exploit on the study , said .
The research establishes a disastrous Sir Ernst Boris Chain of bionomical connections that involved clime warming , reduction in tree diagram pollen , and an increase in human universe , which climax in the decay of big herbivores . According to their analysis , the red ink of tree pollen also indicated an increase in fires , but the real cause of many fire was linked to human activity .
“ When humans get we see major changes in the frequence of fervor and fire intensity , ” Dr Regan Dunn , paleobotanist and Assistant Curator at La Brea Tar Pits , tot up . “ [ Ninety - five ] percent of the fire we see today are make by anthropogenetic sources from power lines or campfires that have get away , from highways or cigarettes or something like that . In a signified , we already know what come about , and what we learned from the yesteryear can aid inform what will happen in the future tense and how better to design to avoid ecosystem collapses . ”
Regrettably , we now find ourselves bound in the same chain of events that led to this last mass experimental extinction . Human - causedclimate changeis creating the status for prolonged droughts and orotund mammal are more and more at jeopardy of conk out . On top of this , wildfires are becoming handsome and more frequent . As such , it is authoritative for us to pay attention to the admonition recuperate from the black scoop of La Brea Tar Pits . There is still prison term for us to act , but that windowpane is close quickly .
The study is published inScience .
