Stegomastadon: Another Unexplained Extinction

Not that I've tried to catalog all the extinctions from the cataclysm of 12,000 years ago (or so), because I've already seen enough evidence to convince me. However, until today I was not aware of this extinct beastie:

The stegomastodon... is a prehistoric mammal that looks like a stronger version of the modern elephant. It lived in the Andes region approximately 13,000 years ago.

...Scientists from the Universidad Austral rushed to the site (La Plata) to look for more fossils, and soon discovered remains of other prehistoric species. The concentration of the remains suggests the possibility that there was a human settlement close-by. Convinced they may have another Monte Verde on their hands, researchers are urging officials to classify the zone as an official archeological site.

Mario Pino, a geologist from the Universidad Austral, explained in an interview to La Nación that "it is very unusual that three distinct species of mammals would have died naturally in such a small sector."

“It could be the product of human activity," he added.

Some scientists are still fixated on the "millions of animals, dozens of species, became extinct at the same time, because we ate them all" theory.

Or, similarly, we have the La Brea tar pits, which has the remains of 100,000 birds (138 species, 19 of which are extinct), 700 sabre-tooth tigers, and wolf skulls that average twenty per cubic yard. Because all these stupid animals supposedly got stuck in the asphalt. Oh yeah, and 3 species of fish!

Mammoths in UK later than thought

Mammoth bones found in Shropshire, England provide the most geologically recent evidence of woolly mammoths in the UK and North Western Europe. The new evidence proves that mammoths existed in Britain long beyond when they were previously believed to have become extinct.

The bones, of one adult male and at four baby mammoths, were first excavated in 1986, but back then the carbon dating used was not as accurate as today. Consequently the extinction date has been advanced from 21,000 years ago to roughly 14,000 years ago.

"The new dates of the mammoths' last appearance correlate very closely in time to climate changes when the open grassy habitat of the Ice Age was taken over by advancing forests, which provides a likely explanation for their disappearance," said Lister. "There were humans around during the time of the Condover mammoths, but no evidence of significant mammoth hunting."

Instead of a pole shift, or other global cataclysm that seems to have occurred in that era, the best explanation for the mammoth's extinction these particular scientists can come up with is "advancing forests". Sounds like something out of LOTR...

Watch "Last Extinction" Online

After screening on PBS in America in March, the 1 hour documentary "Last Extinction" is now available for viewing online:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/clovis/program.html

The doco investigates the possibility of a comet causing widespread large mammal extinctions 12,900 years ago. Currently the most academically accepted theory is that migrating humans hunted the megafauna to extinction. However recently discovered evidence suggests that a comet may have struck at that time:

• Earth's temperature, according to geologic records, dropped 18 degrees in two years
• Scientists found iridium, rarely found on earth, in elevated levels across Northern America. Iridium is often an indicator of meteors and comets, and was also found in the layer correlating with the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
• Found alongside the iridium were hexagonally shaped microscopic diamonds, which don’t occur naturally on earth

All that stops this theory from becoming scientific fact is the lack of a crater, (although this hasn't been the case with Tunguska...). The show suggests that either the comet broke up into thousands of small pieces - Carolina Bays anyone?, or struck a glacier, which acted as a bullet-proof vest.