Pleistocene overkill hypothesis

The Pleistocene overkill hypothesis suggests that human hunters played a significant role in causing the extinction of many large Ice Age animals, like mammoths and giant sloths, around 10,000 years ago. As humans spread across North America and other continents, their hunting pressure, combined with environmental changes, likely led to the rapid decline and disappearance of these megafauna. This idea emphasizes that early human activity may have contributed directly to the loss of these large species, rather than their extinction being caused solely by climate change.