Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Faith JT
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2791611 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Faith J Tyler JT Surovell Todd A TA
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20091123 49
The late Pleistocene witnessed the extinction of 35 genera of North American mammals. The last appearance dates of 16 of these genera securely fall between 12,000 and 10,000 radiocarbon years ago (approximately 13,800-11,400 calendar years B.P.), although whether the absence of fossil occurrences for the remaining 19 genera from this time interval is the result of sampling error or temporally staggered extinctions is unclear. Analysis of the chronology of extinctions suggests that sampling error ...[more]