Extinction of woolly mammoth still affects the world 50,000 years on

• New research suggests that the severity of ancient megafauna extinctions continues to influence food webs in some parts of the world today.
• The study, published in PNAS, analysed predator-prey relationships across 389 sites in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, involving 440 mammal species.
• Researchers found that food webs in the Americas currently have fewer, smaller prey and narrower predator-prey trait ranges compared to Africa and Asia.
• This difference is attributed to the Americas experiencing a more severe loss of megafauna, with over three-quarters of mammals weighing over 100 pounds disappearing in the last 50,000 years.
• Understanding these long-term impacts of past extinctions can help scientists predict the future consequences of current biodiversity loss, as nearly half of all mammals over 20 pounds are now vulnerable or endangered.

IN FULL

How extinction of giant ice age beasts could still affect food chains