End of the Big Beasts

This map shows how catastrophic large-animal extinctions occurred around the world not long after humans first arrived in a geographical region. Australia and New Guinea suffered their mass extinctions between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago, North and South America theirs between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, and oceanic islands like the Greater Antilles, major Mediterranean islands, New Zealand, and Madagascar theirs between 1,000 and 6,000 years ago. All these occurred in the wake of initial human colonization. Numbers indicate percentages of extinct genera during the past 100,000 years.