Mammals (Late Quaternary), Extinctions of Table 725 Continued Stage duration (Ma) Odocoileus, deer species ỵ Torontoceros, extinct large cervid þ Navahoceros, mountain deer Rangifer, caribou ÃAlces, moose, broad-fronted moose þ Cervalces, stag-moose Cervus, wapiti (elk) þ Tetrameryx, four-horned pronghorns þ Hayoceros, Hay’s pronghorn þ Slockoceros, four-horned pronghorns Antilocapra, pronghorn [ ỵ ]Saiga, saiga Oreamnos, mountain goats Ovis, bighorn or mountain sheep ỵ Euceratherium, shrub ox ỵ Soergelia, Soergels ox þ Bootherium, bonnet-headed musk ox þ Praeovibos, extinct musk ox Ovibos, musk ox []Bison, bison species ỵ Platycerabos, flat-horned ox Primates Homo, modern H sapiens Originations Extinctions Total genera BLANCAN IRV RLB H 1,2 E M L E L 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.2 0.9 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.01 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X F 18 24 26 6 30 13 37 36 43 41 X X X X X X X X X X X 33 48 X 0 15 a After Kurte´n and Anderson (1980), Martin and Steadman (1999), and Anderson (personnel communication) Abbreviations used: IRV, Irvingtonian; RLB, Rancholabrean; H, Holocene; E, early; M, middle; L, late; ỵ , extinct genus extinct species; brackets indicate generic survival on other continents Living genera including extinct taxa of large size that vanished with late RLB extinction include Dasypus belli (giant armadillo), Canis dirus (dire wolf), Panthera leo atrox (American lion), Alces latifrons (broad-fronted moose), and Oreanos harringtoni (Harrington’s mountain goat) Age estimates in millions of years (Ma): Blancan 1,4.0–3.5 Ma; Blancan 2,3.5–3.0 Ma; Blancan 3, 3.0–2.5 Ma; Blancan 4, 2.5–2.0 Ma; Blancan 5, 2.0–1.8 Ma (Blancan–Irvingtonian Boundary); early Irvingtonian, 1.8–0.9 Ma; middle Irvingtonian, 0.9–0.5 Ma; late Irvingtonian, 0.5–0.3 Ma; early Rancholabrean 0.3–0.1 Ma; late Rancholabrean, 0.1–0.01 Ma; Holocene, last 10,000 years There may not be specimen records for all cells within the temporal range of a genus as plotted here Checklist and age estimates are courtesy of Elaine Anderson (1996), Denver Museum of Natural History, Denver, Colorado, Adapted from Kurte´n B and Anderson E (1980) Pleistocene Mammals in North America New York: Columbia Univ Press (Graham and Lundelius, 1994), All have terminal radiocarbon records at approximately 11,000 years ago (Stuart, 1991) One might imagine that if the LQEE were a natural catastrophe the ranges of the Holocene survivors (15 species listed in Table 1) would have expanded rapidly as niche space opened following extinctions For example, if some lethal climate condition at the end of the last glaciation eliminated their North American relatives, one might expect that afterward early Holocene warming would see the surviving populations of bison, elk, and moose expanding or at least maintaining their range In fact, bison range shrank away from both coasts (Graham and Lundelius, 1994) Only in recent years, with the help of local introductions by game departments, has the local range and numbers of moose, elk, and black bear expanded The historic fauna of bison, deer, moose, elk, pronghorn, bears, wolves, etc is traditionally regarded as the ‘‘natural’’ fauna of North America However, the view from the past shows that they are an aberrant, extinction-pruned remnant, unrepresentative of the diversity or the ecological amplitude of native large mammals that the continent supported during the latter half of the Cenozoic To view free-ranging bison, deer, moose, elk, pronghorn, bears, and wolves, the protected fauna of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming or Denali National Park in Alaska, as representative of an American Serengeti is to seriously underestimate the diversity, productivity, and evolutionary potential of the continent South America, Australia, and Madagascar The continents of South America, Australia, and Madagascar share a common property with North AmericaFheavy extinction of large mammals late in the Quaternary South America lost all large mammals more massive than a tapir (300 kg); Australia lost all mammals larger than a gray kangaroo (60 kg); and, excepting the bush pig which may have been introduced, Madagascar lost all terrestrial vertebrates