Question 13

For decades, paleontologists have debated the primary driver behind the sudden disappearance of North America's megafauna-giant creatures such as mammoths, mastodons, and saber-toothed cats-at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. The 'overkill hypothesis,' first popularized in the 1960s, posits that the arrival of humans across the Bering Land Bridge directly precipitated these extinctions through aggressive hunting practices. Proponents argue that the timing of human arrival coincides too perfectly with the collapse of megafaunal populations to be coincidental. However, recent radiocarbon dating and climatic reconstructions suggest a more nuanced reality. Evidence indicates that significant climate fluctuations, leading to habitat loss and vegetation changes, were already stressing these populations prior to human entry. Consequently, many researchers now advocate for a synergistic model, suggesting that while human predation may have delivered the final blow to weakened populations, it was likely the rapid environmental restructuring that made these species vulnerable in the first place. Which view regarding the extinction of North American megafauna does the writer support?