Once & Future Giants

October 26, 2012 By John E. Riutta in Newly Noted Books Tags: animal, book, extinction, large, levy, megafauna, oxford, Pleistocene

Not so very long ago – at least in geologic time – a host of now extinct megafauna roamed the earth; then suddenly at the end of the last ice age they vanished. What happened? Many have postulated that a dramatic change in the climate did them in; however in Sharon Levy‘s Once & Future Giants; What Ice Age Extinctions Tell Us About the Fate of Earth’s Largest Animals, an alternative idea is put forward: our ancient ancestors were the cause of their demise. If this was indeed the case, what are the implications to the megafauna still inhabiting the planet today? I, for one, am most eager to discover what Ms. Levy has written about both these questions.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

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