Did a Bolide Impact Trigger the Younger Dryas and Wipe Out American Megafauna? A Skeptic's Reaction to an Intriguing Hypothesis.

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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5420 Impact Phenomena, Cratering (6022, 8136), 6022 Impact Phenomena (5420, 8136), 6240 Meteorites And Tektites (1028, 3662), 6250 Moon (1221), 9350 North America

Scientific paper

Perhaps there is credible physical evidence of a bolide impact in North America at 12,900 cal BP. However, several incongruous aspects of the paleoclimatic, archaeological, and faunal records of the Terminal Pleistocene must be addressed to allay skepticism about the hypothesis of dramatic effects upon humans or megafauna: 1) Paleoindian populations (e.g., Folsom, Dalton) thrived after the Younger Dryas (YD) onset; 2) megafauna, including giant sloths were wiped out in Florida, but medium-sized sloths in the Caribbean islands (including Cuba) survived into the mid-Holocene; 3) South American megafauna survived until at least 12,500 cal BP, probably longer; why was there not a synchronous extinction? 4) Late Pleistocene cold reversals in Antarctica and southern South America are not synchronous with the YD; 5) Bison and grizzly survived, and elk and moose expanded into North America in the Terminal Pleistocene-Early Holocene; why did they survive and thrive? 6) Mammoths survived on Wrangel Island and probably in pockets in Siberia well into the Holocene; why did the supposed impact in the Arctic not wipe them out? 7) Finally, the YD ended at 11,590 cal BP even more abruptly than it began (over less than a decade); does this require another impact? If not, why does the YD onset call for an extraterrestrial trigger?

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