Abstract
While overhunting and climate change have been the major hypotheses to explain the late-Pleistocene New World megafaunal extinctions, the role of introduced disease has only received brief attention. Here, we review pre-Columbian diseases endemic to aboriginal Americans and evaluate their potential to cause large-scale mortality in Pleistocene mammals. Of the probable communicable diseases present in pre-Columbian times, we regard anthrax and tuberculosis as viable candidates. These two diseases demonstrate characteristics that could have made them deadly to immunologically naïve populations. Introduced disease, as a primary cause or interacting with overhunting and climate change, could have contributed to the decline and extirpation of Pleistocene megafauna.
DOI
http://doi.org/10.5038/2162-4593.19.1.1193
Recommended Citation
Nickell, Zachary D. and Moran, Matthew D.. "Disease Introduction by Aboriginal Humans in North America and the Pleistocene Extinction." Journal of Ecological Anthropology 19, no. 1 (2017): 29-41.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/jea/vol19/iss1/2
Included in
Biodiversity Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Immunology and Infectious Disease Commons
