RESEARCH BASE
Search 3,721 documents across 34 fields — every claim tier-rated by evidence
3,633 are the core, quality-scored corpus (34 lettered sections — see How We Work); the remaining 88 are cross-corpus synthesis documents (68 InterDocs, 12 Connections, 8 Theories) also indexed here.
27 results for "Pleistocene megafauna" — page 1 of 2
E_3_05 — Megafauna Extinction — Overkill, Climate, or Cosmic Impact?
The late Quaternary megafauna extinction represents one of the most dramatic biodiversity losses in the last 66 million years, eliminating approximately 178 species of large-bodied mammals (≥44 kg) across six continents
R_5_02 — Megafauna Extinction: Quaternary Losses and the Overkill Debate
Between ~50,000 and 10,000 years ago, Earth lost the majority of its large-bodied animals (megafauna >44 kg) — woolly mammoths, ground sloths, saber-toothed cats, giant wombats, moa, and dozens of other spectacular speci
F_1_29 — Aboriginal Australian First Arrival & Deep-Time Heritage
The first arrival of humans in Australia represents the oldest known maritime colonization in human history and one of the most significant events in the story of Homo sapiens. Reaching the continent now called Australia
E_4_24 — Quaternary Science: Integrating Ice Ages, Extinctions, and Migrations
Quaternary science is the interdisciplinary study of Earth's most recent geological period — the Quaternary (2.58 Ma to present), encompassing the Pleistocene (2.58 Ma to 11,700 BP) and the Holocene (11,700 BP to present
R_5_15 — Rewilding: Ecological Restoration Through Trophic Cascades and Keystone Species Reintroduction
Rewilding is a conservation strategy that aims to restore self-sustaining ecosystems by reintroducing native keystone species — particularly large predators and megaherbivores — and reconnecting fragmented habitats throu
M_4_10 — Giants in the Archaeological Record: Separating Fact from Fiction
Claims of giant human skeletons — remains of individuals standing 7, 8, 10, or even 30+ feet tall — are among the most persistent themes in alternative archaeology, appearing in 19th-century newspaper accounts, religious
B_5_05 — Megafaunal Fossil Misidentification and the Origins of Monster Traditions
The field of geomythology — a term coined by geologist Dorothy Vitaliano in 1968 — investigates how ancient peoples interpreted fossils, geological formations, and megafaunal remains, and how those interpretations genera
E_2_25 — Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs): Catastrophic Drainage Events
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) — also known by the Icelandic term jökulhlaup — are sudden, catastrophic releases of water from glacially dammed or moraine-dammed lakes, producing some of the largest known flood eve
E_4_26 — Younger Dryas Impact Evidence: A Comprehensive Review
The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) proposes that one or more extraterrestrial objects (comet or asteroid fragments) struck or exploded over the Earth approximately 12,900 years ago (12.9 ka BP), triggering the Yo
O_5_05 — Ice Ages and Milankovitch Cycles: Orbital Forcing of Climate
Ice ages — periods when massive continental ice sheets expand to cover large portions of Earth's surface — are among the most dramatic climate events in the planet's history. The Quaternary glaciation (beginning ~2.6 mil
L_1_14 — Homo Erectus: The Most Successful Human Species
Homo erectus (including regional variants sometimes classified as H. ergaster, H. georgicus, H. soloensis, and H. pekinensis) is arguably the most successful hominin species in evolutionary history — persisting for nearl
M_4_09 — Younger Dryas Impact and Lost Civilization Hypothesis
The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) proposes that a cosmic impact or airburst event approximately 12,800 years ago (12.8 ka BP) triggered the Younger Dryas cold reversal — a ~1,300-year return to near-glacial cond
C_4_04 — Tuareg and Saharan Serpent Traditions
The Sahara Desert — the world's largest hot desert at 9.2 million km² — was GREEN, wet, and densely inhabited for most of the last 11,000 years. The "African Humid Period" (AHP, ~11,000-5,000 BP) transformed the Sahara i
ZF_3_08 — Sunda Shelf and Southeast Asian Submerged Landscapes
The Sunda Shelf (or Sundaland) is one of Earth's largest continental shelves — an area of ~1.8 million km² (larger than the Indian subcontinent) that connects the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali to peninsular
E_3_15 — Sea-Level Curves: Eustatic Change from LGM to Present
Sea-level curves — graphical reconstructions of how global mean sea level has changed through time — represent one of the most important datasets in Quaternary science, recording the waxing and waning of continental ice
E_3_18 — Black Mat: Younger Dryas Boundary Layer Geochemistry
The "black mat" is a thin, dark, organic-rich sedimentary layer found at dozens of archaeological and geological sites across North America, dating to the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial (~12,800 cal BP). First system
E_3_03 — Ice Age Civilizations — Evidence for Complexity During the Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~26,500-19,000 BP) — when ice sheets covered ~32% of the global land surface and sea levels dropped ~120 meters below present — was not a period of human stagnation but of remarkable cultur
E_3_14 — Missoula Floods: Channeled Scablands and Catastrophism Vindicated
The Missoula Floods (also called the Spokane Floods or Bretz Floods) were a series of catastrophic megafloods — among the largest known floods in Earth's history — that swept across the inland Pacific Northwest of the Un
E_4_13 — Milankovitch Cycles and Orbital Forcing
Milankovitch cycles are periodic variations in Earth's orbital geometry that modulate the distribution and intensity of solar radiation reaching Earth's surface, driving the glacial-interglacial cycles that have dominate
E_4_09 — Magnetic Pole Reversals and the Laschamp Event
Earth's magnetic field periodically undergoes geomagnetic reversals — events in which the north and south magnetic poles swap polarity. This has occurred at least 183 times in the last 83 million years, with the last ful
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