Dr. David Gwynn

Because one of the things that we know from Bonner Day hunter-gatherers is that going after a really big game like that is actually a low probability of success activity. So more often, you're shooting a deer, you're prying open a turtle. And so if you've got that Swiss Army knife, you've got the tool that you need for all occasions and

If on occasion you run into an elephant, you can use it on that. But don't count on it being all that lethal because the penetrating power of these things is just not that great.

If on occasion you run into an elephant, you can use it on that. But don't count on it being all that lethal because the penetrating power of these things is just not that great.

If on occasion you run into an elephant, you can use it on that. But don't count on it being all that lethal because the penetrating power of these things is just not that great.

Well, I think that argument is just flat wrong in terms of human impacts. Look, there's lots of reasons to doubt that humans had an impact on these animals, right? And the entire ecosystems, I'm guessing as well, yeah. Well, okay. Thank you. Because in fact, we're talking about 38 different genera in North America alone.

Well, I think that argument is just flat wrong in terms of human impacts. Look, there's lots of reasons to doubt that humans had an impact on these animals, right? And the entire ecosystems, I'm guessing as well, yeah. Well, okay. Thank you. Because in fact, we're talking about 38 different genera in North America alone.

Well, I think that argument is just flat wrong in terms of human impacts. Look, there's lots of reasons to doubt that humans had an impact on these animals, right? And the entire ecosystems, I'm guessing as well, yeah. Well, okay. Thank you. Because in fact, we're talking about 38 different genera in North America alone.

And the estimates of how many animals were out there range upwards of 100 million animals. And you've got a small band of hunter-gatherers coming in with sticks and sharp rocks. I'm exaggerating to make the point here. They're coming into a landscape that they still don't fully understand, that they still don't fully know well.

And the estimates of how many animals were out there range upwards of 100 million animals. And you've got a small band of hunter-gatherers coming in with sticks and sharp rocks. I'm exaggerating to make the point here. They're coming into a landscape that they still don't fully understand, that they still don't fully know well.

And the estimates of how many animals were out there range upwards of 100 million animals. And you've got a small band of hunter-gatherers coming in with sticks and sharp rocks. I'm exaggerating to make the point here. They're coming into a landscape that they still don't fully understand, that they still don't fully know well.

And as a wonderful archaeologist by the name of George Frizen, who actually did subsistence hunting as a child in the 1920s, has said, to successfully match wits with wild animals with the intent to kill them requires a thorough knowledge of the hunting territory and the behavioral patterns of that animal. And you're not going to get that as you're running pell-mell through the hemisphere, right?

And as a wonderful archaeologist by the name of George Frizen, who actually did subsistence hunting as a child in the 1920s, has said, to successfully match wits with wild animals with the intent to kill them requires a thorough knowledge of the hunting territory and the behavioral patterns of that animal. And you're not going to get that as you're running pell-mell through the hemisphere, right?

And as a wonderful archaeologist by the name of George Frizen, who actually did subsistence hunting as a child in the 1920s, has said, to successfully match wits with wild animals with the intent to kill them requires a thorough knowledge of the hunting territory and the behavioral patterns of that animal. And you're not going to get that as you're running pell-mell through the hemisphere, right?

And further, that as a hunter-gatherer, when you're coming into a new landscape, this is not like, let me use a sort of a Civil War analogy. where William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union general, basically burned his way through Georgia on his march to the sea. 62,000 men marching 300 miles just basically devastated everything in a swath about 50 miles wide.

And further, that as a hunter-gatherer, when you're coming into a new landscape, this is not like, let me use a sort of a Civil War analogy. where William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union general, basically burned his way through Georgia on his march to the sea. 62,000 men marching 300 miles just basically devastated everything in a swath about 50 miles wide.

And further, that as a hunter-gatherer, when you're coming into a new landscape, this is not like, let me use a sort of a Civil War analogy. where William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union general, basically burned his way through Georgia on his march to the sea. 62,000 men marching 300 miles just basically devastated everything in a swath about 50 miles wide.

The hunter-gatherers coming into the Americas were not an army, right? They were not able to sort of devastate the ecosystem like that. But really, this all comes down to the empirical test. If overkill, if the notion that people were responsible for Pleistocene extinctions is correct, we should see ample evidence of kill sites, right?

The hunter-gatherers coming into the Americas were not an army, right? They were not able to sort of devastate the ecosystem like that. But really, this all comes down to the empirical test. If overkill, if the notion that people were responsible for Pleistocene extinctions is correct, we should see ample evidence of kill sites, right?

The hunter-gatherers coming into the Americas were not an army, right? They were not able to sort of devastate the ecosystem like that. But really, this all comes down to the empirical test. If overkill, if the notion that people were responsible for Pleistocene extinctions is correct, we should see ample evidence of kill sites, right?

We've got 38 different genera, possibly tens if not hundreds of millions of them. We ought to see dead bodies all over the place with Clovis points stuck in them. And if, in fact, humans were responsible, then the extinction of those 38 genera should all have occurred within the window in which human hunters arrived and spread throughout the hemisphere.