Caribbean Extinctions: Climate change probably wasn’t the culprit
By Sid Perkins
Remains of extinct sloths unearthed in Cuba and Haiti indicate that the creatures persisted in Caribbean enclaves until about 4,200 years ago. Such a recent demise practically absolves post–ice age global warming as the cause of die-offs among these mammals and could undermine climate change as the trigger for extinctions throughout the Western Hemisphere since the last ice age ended some 10,000 years ago.
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As many as 150 species of large mammals disappeared from North America and South America soon after the ice receded. The cause or causes for those extinctions have been debated for decades, says Ross D.E. MacPhee of the American Museum of Natural History in New York.