Scientists Uncover Timing, Causes of SoCal Ice Age Extinctions
The end of the last ice age also marked the end for more than three dozen genera of large mammals in North America, from mammoths and mastodons to ...
The end of the last ice age also marked the end for more than three dozen genera of large mammals in North America, from mammoths and mastodons to bison and saber-toothed cats. Details of the precise timing and circumstances, however, have remained murky ever since. A team of scientists that included Texas A&M University archaeologist Michael Waters recently focused on the well-known Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Southern California in their quest to provide answers to these questions. The results include the most exact and detailed timeline for the extinctions that happened during the latter part of the Pleistocene period in North America.