The End of Megafauna. The Fascinating Life and Mysterious Death of Mammoths, Saber-Toothed Tigers, and Giant Sloths

Paleontologist Ross MacPhee seeks to uncover the mystery of extinctions over the last 50,000 years, mainly affecting the largest animals on Earth. Among them are giant sloths, mastodons, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and other representatives of megafauna. The author examines both... classic hypotheses of their extinction—due to climate change and human hunting—as well as new ones: disruptions in food webs, hyperepidemics, and the impact of a celestial body on Earth's atmosphere 12,900 years ago. This allows for a unification of numerous paleontological and archaeological data, including those obtained from recent research. In conclusion, MacPhee reflects on the possibility of restoring megafauna and discusses the successes of synthetic biology and genetic engineering—specifically the attempts to revive the woolly mammoth.