Body size downgrading of mammals over the late Quaternary

Authors

Felisa A. Smith, University of New MexicoFollow
Rosemary E. Elliott Smith, University of California, San DiegoFollow
S. Kathleen Lyons, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Jonathan L. Payne, Stanford UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

4-20-2018

Citation

Published in Science 360 (2018), pp 310–313 + supplement.

doi 10.1126/science.aao5987

Comments

Copyright 2018 AAAS. Used by permission.

Abstract

Since the late Pleistocene, large-bodied mammals have been extirpated from much of Earth. Although all habitable continents once harbored giant mammals, the few remaining species are largely confined to Africa. This decline is coincident with the global expansion of hominins over the late Quaternary. Here, we quantify mammalian extinction selectivity, continental body size distributions, and taxonomic diversity over five time periods spanning the past 125,000 years and stretching approximately 200 years into the future. We demonstrate that size-selective extinction was already under way in the oldest interval and occurred on all continents, within all trophic modes, and across all time intervals. Moreover, the degree of selectivity was unprecedented in 65 million years of mammalian evolution. The distinctive selectivity signature implicates hominin activity as a primary driver of taxonomic losses and ecosystem homogenization. Because megafauna have a disproportionate influence on ecosystem structure and function, past and present body size downgrading is reshaping Earth’s biosphere.

Includes Supplementary materials.