Paul Schultz Martin

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Paul Schultz Martin
Paul Martin at Rampart Cave, home of the Shasta ground sloth in Grand Canyon, ca. 1975 Paul S Martin, by Thomas R van Devender.jpg
Paul Martin at Rampart Cave, home of the Shasta ground sloth in Grand Canyon, ca. 1975

Paul Schultz Martin (born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1928, died in Tucson, Arizona September 13, 2010) [1] [2] was an American geoscientist at the University of Arizona who developed the theory that the Pleistocene extinction of large mammals worldwide was caused by overhunting by humans. [3] Martin's work bridged the fields of ecology, anthropology, geosciences, and paleontology. [4]

Contents

In 1953, Martin received his bachelor's degree in zoology from Cornell University. In 1953 and 1956 he completed his master's and doctorate programs at the University of Michigan and then proceeded with postdoctoral research at Yale University and the University of Montreal. Martin's early interest embraced ornithology and herpetology and he conducted extensive fieldwork from 1948 to 1953 in Tamaulipas, Mexico. [5] [6] He published biogeographies on the birds of the Sierra de Tamaulipas [7] and the herpetofauna of the Gómez Farias (= El Cielo) region of Tamaulipas, [8] the latter considered "a classic treatise in historical biogeography". [9] A case of polio, contracted while doing undergraduate field work in Mexico, forced Martin to rely on a cane, which restricted but did not end his field work. [10] He joined the faculty of the University of Arizona in 1957, maintaining his office (and his ongoing collaborations and regional fieldwork) at the university's Desert Laboratory when he became emeritus professor in 1989. [11]

Overkill hypothesis

Martin's depiction of asynchronous megafaunal extinctions as evidence of newly arriving weaponized humans as the primary cause. Extinctions Africa Austrailia NAmerica Madagascar.gif
Martin's depiction of asynchronous megafaunal extinctions as evidence of newly arriving weaponized humans as the primary cause.
Paul Martin's "overkill hypothesis" prevails over the climate hypothesis when the timing of megafaunal extinctions in different locales is considered -- especially when paired with time of first arrival by humans. Megafauna extinction poster by Barlow 2004.jpg
Paul Martin's "overkill hypothesis" prevails over the climate hypothesis when the timing of megafaunal extinctions in different locales is considered — especially when paired with time of first arrival by humans.

The overkill hypothesis was proposed in 1966 by Paul S. Martin [15] in a paper published in the journal Nature. [16] Martin wrote, "The chronology of the extinction — first in Africa, second in America, finally in Madagascar — and the intensity of the extinction — moderate in Africa, heavier in America, and extremely heavy in Madagascar ... seems clearly related to the spread of human beings, to their cultural development, and to the vulnerabilities of the faunas they encountered." [17]

Martin theorized that between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago newly arriving humans hunted to extinction North America's Ice Age large mammals, including ground sloths, [18] camels, [19] mammoths and mastodons. [11] The theory, summarized by Martin for a scientific audience in 1973 [3] and in his 2005 book, Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of America, [20] has been controversial and thus widely examined (both criticized and supported) in academic papers. [21] From the outset, Martin pointed to the asynchronous timing of megafaunal extinctions in different locales — especially when paired with time of first arrival of humans. [11] (See the two images at right.) Five years before his death, Martin was still collaborating with colleagues on the timing data. He joined with David W. Steadman and six additional authors in a 2005 paper titled "Asynchronous Extinction of Late Quaternary Sloths on Continents and Islands." [22]

Early critics of the overkill hypothesis were researchers in the field of archaeology (Louis Leakey and Donald Grayson [23] ) and the geosciences (Russell Graham). The former focused on disagreements about human capabilities and expansions out of Africa. In geosciences, the focus was on the scale, speed, ecological effects, and biodiversity consequences of climate change during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods. Prior to Martin's overkill idea, the mainstream scientific understanding of Pleistocene and Holocene extinction causes was climate change. [24] [17]

Martin later developed an ancillary hypothesis focusing on the speed of human entry into and saturation of a frontier landscape. This, he called the “blitzkrieg model”, [25] which, similar to the ideas of Russian climatologist Mikhail I. Budyko, [26] relates the sudden demise of large mammal populations on different continents and at different times to the arrival of humans. Martin proposed that as humans migrated from Africa and Eurasia to Australia, the Americas, and the islands of the Pacific, the new arrivals rapidly hunted to extinction the large animals endemic to each continent and thus also naive in the presence of unfamiliar primates equipped with lethal projectiles. Martin particularly focused his research on North America, whose late Ice Age fauna rivaled that of Africa today. [27]

For the first several decades of scientific debate about the overkill hypothesis, Martin faced substantial criticism from archaeologists and paleontologists who claimed earlier dates for human arrival in the Americas [28] [29] or later dates for certain extinct animals than the overkill theory would suggest. Martin maintained that such claims were the result of faulty scientific analysis and pointed out that no such dates had yet been independently verified. [30] By 2015, five years after Martin died, radiocarbon dates had been compiled and refined to such an extent that a group of scientists concluded, "Our results, based on analyses of radiocarbon dates from Eastern Beringia, the contiguous United States, and South America, suggest north to south, time, and space transgressive declines in megafaunal populations as predicted by the overkill hypothesis. This finding is difficult to reconcile with other extinction hypotheses." [24]

The overkill hypothesis is thus far less controversial today than it was when first proposed. [31] [32] Overall, when climate is invoked as a causal factor of megafaunal extinctions, it is no longer portrayed as the only cause. For example, in 2010 a paper that focused on the timing of megafaunal extinctions and human occupation within South America concluded, "This pattern suggests that a synergy of human impacts and rapid climate change—analogous to what is happening today—may enhance extinction probability." [33] And in 2012 the authors of a paper published in Nature Communications concluded, "Mammoth extinction was not due to a single cause, but followed a long trajectory in concert with changes in climate, habitat, and human presence." [34]

More than a half century after Martin's first publication on the overkill hypothesis, a new line of evidence emerged that offered strong support. Researchers focusing entirely on genetic analyses of surviving megafaunal populations — rather than paleontological evidence of extinct megafauna — concluded: "The inability of climate to predict the observed population decline of megafauna, especially during the past 75,000 years, implies that human impact became the main driver of megafauna dynamics around this date." [35]

Rewilding

Paul Schultz Martin, 2008, holding a dungball of the extinct Shasta Ground Sloth, with whom Martin claimed to have "a totem relationship." Paul Schultz Martin, 2008, holding a dungball of the extinct Shasta Ground Sloth.jpg
Paul Schultz Martin, 2008, holding a dungball of the extinct Shasta Ground Sloth, with whom Martin claimed to have "a totem relationship."

Martin also championed the concept of Pleistocene rewilding [37] [38] [39] in which megafauna of the Pleistocene epoch that vanished in North America during the Holocene extinction could be restored by establishing breeding populations of close relatives from other continents. These could include large herbivores, such as llamas, camels, rhinoceros, and elephants, as well as lost carnivores that still reside in Africa: lions and cheetahs. [40] [41] [42] To restore the megafaunal browsing function lost in North America when its mastodons and mammoths went extinct, "Bring Back the Elephants" was the title of a 1999 advocacy essay that he (with coauthor David A. Burney) published in Wild Earth magazine. [43]

Prior to invention of the term rewilding and the beginnings of advocacy for it by conservation biologists, Martin had already proposed in 1969 [19] and 1970 [44] that large mammal equivalents from Africa and Asia be introduced into western North America. Their ecological function would be to restore native grasslands on which shrubs were becoming dominant — especially where cattle were grazed on semi-arid and arid landscapes in which large carnivores were rare or eliminated. In his 1969 article, Martin proposed reintroducing into North America a dry-adapted browser that had been on this continent for millions of years but vanished after humans arrived. This was the camel. To support his proposal, Martin called upon paleontological evidence that the camel family, Camelidae, actually originated in North America. He also quoted from the journal of an army officer, George Beal, who in 1857 drove a herd of domesticated camels through Texas and Arizona, destined for California. Beal reported that the camels not only would eat plants that cattle could not, but that the camels seemed to prefer thorny shrubs and "bitter herbs." [19] In Martin's 1970 article, his abstract drew upon paleontological evidence of other native species now extinct in North America whose ancestors had evolved millions of years earlier on other continents:

"Eleven thousand years ago in North America a major biotic catastrophe resulted in the extinction of 70% of the mammalian megafauna. In the arid Southwest, domestic livestock imperfectly fill the vacated ecological niches. The experimental introduction of modern African animals can be advocated on the grounds that many of the native American mammals were themselves late Pleistocene immigrants from Asia." [44]

In 1992 he published a broader advocacy piece, [45] which blended scientific argument with poetic appeal. Linking the title of his essay, "The Last Entire Earth", to a phrase and sentiment expressed by Henry David Thoreau, Martin followed with:

"This, then, is our birthright, a continent whose wilderness once echoed to the thunder of many mighty beasts, a fauna that eclipsed all that remains, including the wild animals of Yellowstone and Denali. Those who ignore the giant ground sloths, native horses, and saber tooth cats in their vision of outdoor America sell the place short, it seems to me. This land is the mastodon's land. While "Home on the Range" commemorates buffalo, deer, and antelope, it misses the mammoth, glyptodonts, and camels." [45]

Evolutionary anachronisms and their ghosts

Native fruits of North America with anachronistic features. Anachronistic fruit North America by Barlow.jpg
Native fruits of North America with anachronistic features.

"Without knowing it, Americans live in a land of ghosts," Paul S. Martin wrote on the first page of his final book,Twilight of the Mammoths (2005), whose subtitle linked "ice age extinctions" with a need for "rewilding of America". [20]

Martin had long pointed out the ecological costs in North America of the recent loss of browsing megafauna in the early part of the Holocene. He attributed the ongoing incursion of shrubs into native grasslands to the absence of browsing herbivores, especially in the context of introduced grazing cattle largely protected from the continent's large carnivores who remained. [19] [44] It was the ecologist Daniel H. Janzen who, in the late 1970s, prompted Martin to apply his paleoecological knowledge and perspective to an additional form of ecological loss stemming from that extinction. This was the loss of animal partners that had coevolved with particular plants in dispersing seeds. Megafauna were able to swallow large fruits without spitting out or damaging the contained seeds. Hours or days later, those seeds would be deposited not only at substantial distances away from the parent plant, but also in fertile mounds of dung. [47]

A 1982 paper published in a prominent academic journal was the outcome of Martin's collaboration with Janzen. [47] Titled "Neotropical Anachronisms: The Fruits the Gomphotheres Ate," this paper introduced a new concept in ecology: "evolutionary anachronism", also known as "ecological anachronism". [46] (Gomphotheres were an extinct form of elephant that lived in tropical zones of the Western Hemisphere prior to the arrival of humans.) The history of Martin's collaboration with Janzen and the impact that made in the ecological and botanical sciences were the subjects of a 2001 book by science writer Connie Barlow, titled The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms. [46] Martin contributed the book's foreword. [48] The species of anachronistic fruits that Barlow featured in her book included all those (and more) of temperate climate ecosystems in North America that Janzen and Martin recommended for study in the final paragraph of their "Neotropical anachronisms" paper:

"Our discussion has focused on neotropical plants and animals, but it can be generalized to the sweet-fleshed large fruits of the Kentucky coffeebean Gymnocladus dioica and honey locust Gleditsia triacanthos (Leguminaceae), osage orange Maclura (Moraceae), pawpaw Asimina triloba (Annonaceae), and persimmon Diospyros (Ebenaceae)."

Assisted migration

In 2014 researchers in the U.S. Forest Service suggested three types of assisted migration. Florida torreya was the tree listed for the type called assisted species migration. Assisted migration - 3 types with tree examples.jpg
In 2014 researchers in the U.S. Forest Service suggested three types of assisted migration. Florida torreya was the tree listed for the type called assisted species migration.
Paul Martin's advocacy in support of assisted migration of an endangered tree, Torreya taxifolia, led to citizens planting its seeds northward. Florida torreya camouflaged by fern.jpg
Paul Martin's advocacy in support of assisted migration of an endangered tree, Torreya taxifolia , led to citizens planting its seeds northward.

In 2004, Paul Martin played a role in launching a new controversy in conservation biology called assisted migration. Wild Earth magazine published in its forum section a pair of pro and con essays debating the topic of "Assisted Migration for an Endangered Tree". [50] Science writer Connie Barlow joined Martin in writing the pro position: "Bring Torreya taxifolia North — Now". [51] The oppositional case was presented by Mark W. Schwartz, professor at the University of California, Davis, who argued "Conservationists Should Not Move Torreya taxifolia". [52]

Both sides agreed that this ancient conifer was a glacial relict, having shifted southward during the glaciations but unable to disperse its large seed northward during the Holocene. Both sides also recognized the seriousness of intentionally moving this species northward, given that additional climate warming expected in the future might amplify calls for moving many other plants, too. Whether to act now or to engage in further scientific scrutiny and consultation was where the two sides differed. Barlow and Martin's final paragraph:

"'Left behind in near time' may thus be a syndrome that applies to a number of extinct, imperiled, and soon-to-be imperiled plants, and perhaps to small, isolated populations of species that are not themselves in danger of extinction. How might this awareness alter our conservation options as climate shifts? By assisting the migration of Torreya taxifolia now, we can help to shape a better next chapter for this beleaguered tree and, perhaps, many other plants."

A citizen group organized and began to act soon after the forum essays were published in Wild Earth. These Torreya Guardians have been called a "rogue" group for not following the guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. [53] And yet, a 2017 editorial within a leading international journal, Nature, characterized the group's actions in this way, "In one of the only real-world examples of assisted migration so far, campaigners have planted the seeds of the critically endangered conifer Torreya taxifolia hundreds of miles north of its Florida home." [54]

Legacy

Paul S. Martin, at home in Tucson, Arizona (2004). Paul S Martin 2004.jpg
Paul S. Martin, at home in Tucson, Arizona (2004).

The University of Arizona, where Paul S. Martin served as professor (and emeritus) until his death in 2010, published an obituary that included quotations from some of his colleagues and former students at the university. Vance Haynes commented, "Unlike so many people who get infatuated with their own theories, he [Martin] spent his professional career inviting criticism. He put together two critical conferences about Pleistocene extinctions, and the volumes that came out of those were pace-setting." [1]

David W. Steadman contributed an obituary published in the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. There he posted a long list of scholarly publications by his mentor, while characterizing Martin as "one of the giants of paleoecology." [4] Steadman wrote this tribute from the perspective of both a former graduate student of Martin's and a coauthor of four papers or book chapters. Commenting on Martin's life-long practice of natural history and identifying as a naturalist as well as a scientist, Steadman wrote, "Even though he was one of the most avid readers I have ever known, Paul believed firmly in the need to see things first hand."

Two coauthors with Martin of foundational papers in North American advocacy of megafaunal rewilding [37] [38] chose to highlight Martin's capacity to convey science in poetic ways. In an obituary published in PloS Biology, [55] C. Josh Donlan and Harry W. Greene selected this quotation (from Martin's 1969 essay [19] ): "Perhaps the long-lauded home where buffalo roam is also the land where camel and eland should play." The pair used a passage from Martin's 1992 essay [45] as the epigraph for the obituary: "To behold the Grand Canyon without thoughts of its ancient condors, sloths, and goats is to be half blind." Another coauthor, Connie Barlow, [56] selected that same sentence to feature in the eulogy that she contributed, while crediting Martin for giving her "deep-time eyes." [57] [58]

A Mammoth Memorial Service was staged at The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota, in June 1999. Mammoth Memorial Service 1999.jpg
A Mammoth Memorial Service was staged at The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota, in June 1999.

Barlow recorded in Tucson (September 1999) an hour-long audio interview with Martin, [59] later posted on vimeo with image overlays. [60] There Martin speaks of the historical underpinnings of three of his legacy projects: overkill theory (begins at timecode 02:38), Pleistocene rewilding (38:42), and ecological anachronisms (55:30).

Barlow also posted a video excerpted from the 2011 outdoor memorial service for Martin, during which seven colleagues offered their remembrances. [61] [62] The closing hymn at the service had been composed a dozen years earlier for an unusual memorial service that Martin himself had initiated. This was the "Mammoth Memorial Service," and it was staged with collaborators (Barlow among them) in 1999 at The Mammoth Site in South Dakota. [63] A few months earlier, Martin (with coauthor David Burney) had published an essay in Wild Earth magazine, titled "Bring Back the Elephants". [64] And so named was the hymn. Set to a tune by the Beatles, "Let It Be," Barlow had composed the words. The image at right includes all three verses, as does Barlow's 2001 book, The Ghosts of Evolution. [63] The final verse is this:

Many times in twenty million years / The elephants have journeyed here. From lands of the Old World, they did come. A capacity to change their act / is an evolutionary fact. We owe them a future, bring 'em back! / CHORUS: Bring 'em back, bring 'em back. Bring 'em back, bring 'em back. Bring back the elephants, bring 'em back. [63]

Selected bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holocene extinction</span> Ongoing extinction event caused by human activity

The Holocene extinction, or Anthropocene extinction, is the ongoing extinction event caused by humans damaging the environment (ecocide) during the Holocene epoch. These extinctions span numerous families of plants and animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, and affecting not just terrestrial species but also large sectors of marine life. With widespread degradation of biodiversity hotspots, such as coral reefs and rainforests, as well as other areas, the vast majority of these extinctions are thought to be undocumented, as the species are undiscovered at the time of their extinction, which goes unrecorded. The current rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background extinction rates and is increasing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mammoth</span> Extinct genus of mammals

A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus Mammuthus. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks. They lived from the Pliocene epoch into the Holocene about 4,000 years ago, and various species existed in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. Mammoths are more closely related to living Asian elephants than African elephants.

<i>Megatherium</i> Genus of ground sloth (extinct)

Megatherium is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of the Pleistocene. It is best known for the elephant-sized type species M. americanum, sometimes known as the giant ground sloth, or the megathere, native to the Pampas through southern Bolivia during the Pleistocene. Various other smaller species belonging to the subgenus Pseudomegatherium are known from the Andes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megafauna</span> Large animals

In zoology, megafauna are large animals. The most common thresholds to be a megafauna are weighing over 46 kilograms (100 lb) or weighing over a tonne, 1,000 kilograms (2,205 lb). The first of these include many species not popularly thought of as overly large, and being the only few large animals left in a given range/area, such as white-tailed deer, Thomson's gazelle, and red kangaroo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mastodon</span> Genus of mammals (fossil)

A mastodon is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus Mammut. Mastodons inhabited North and Central America from the late Miocene up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 to 11,000 years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian megafauna</span> Large animals in Australia, past and present era

The term Australian megafauna refers to the megafauna in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. Most of these species became extinct during the latter half of the Pleistocene, and the roles of human and climatic factors in their extinction are contested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pleistocene megafauna</span> Large animals that lived during the Pleistocene

Pleistocene megafauna is the set of large animals (megafauna) that lived on Earth during the Pleistocene epoch. Most Pleistocene megafauna outside of Africa became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event during the Late Pleistocene, resulting in substantial changes to ecosystems globally. The role of humans in causing Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions is controversial. The precise definition of megafauna is contentious, though a common definition are any animals with an adult body weight of over 45 kilograms (99 lb).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbian mammoth</span> Extinct species of mammoth that inhabited North America

The Columbian mammoth is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited the Americas as far north as the Northern United States and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch. The Columbian mammoth descended from the Eurasian mammoths that colonised North America around 1.5 million years ago, that later hybridised with woolly mammoths during the Middle Pleistocene, prior to 420,000 years ago. The Columbian mammoth was among the last mammoth species, and the pygmy mammoths evolved from them on the Channel Islands of California. The closest extant relative of the Columbian and other mammoths is the Asian elephant.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pleistocene rewilding</span> Ecological practice

Pleistocene rewilding is the advocacy of the reintroduction of extant Pleistocene megafauna, or the close ecological equivalents of extinct megafauna. It is an extension of the conservation practice of rewilding, which aims to restore functioning, self-sustaining ecosystems through practices that may include species reintroductions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quaternary extinction event</span> Extinction event occurring during the late Quaternary period

The latter half of the Late Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene saw extinctions of numerous predominantly megafaunal species, which resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity across the globe. The extinctions during the Late Pleistocene are differentiated from previous extinctions by the widespread absence of ecological succession to replace these extinct megafaunal species, and the regime shift of previously established faunal relationships and habitats as a consequence. The timing and severity of the extinctions varied by region and are thought to have been driven by varying combinations of human and climatic factors. Human impact on megafauna populations is thought to have been driven by hunting ("overkill") as well as possibly environmental alteration. The relative importance of human vs climatic factors in the extinctions has been the subject of long-running controversy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rewilding (conservation biology)</span> Restoring of wilderness environments

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolutionary anachronism</span> Attributes of living species that arose due to coevolution with other now-extinct species

Evolutionary anachronism, also known as "ecological anachronism", is a term initially referring to attributes of native plant species that seemed best explained as having been favorably selected in the past due to their coevolution with plant-eating megafauna that are now extinct. Diminished effectiveness and distance of seed dispersal by fruit-eating mammals inhabiting the same ecosystems today suggest maladaptation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beringian wolf</span> Extinct type of wolf that lived during the Ice Age in Alaska, Yukon, and northern British Columbia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood-pasture hypothesis</span> Ecological theory

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torreya Guardians</span> Conservation of American forests group

The Torreya Guardians is a self-organized group of conservationists dedicated to facilitating the assisted migration of the Florida torreya by rewilding it further north than its native range in Florida and Georgia. Founded in the early 2000s, the group is often mentioned as an instigator of the assisted migration of forests in North America for conservation and climate adaptation purposes. It is an example of citizen-initiated citizen science.

References

  1. 1 2 Mari N. Jensen. Paul S. Martin, Pleistocene Extinctions Expert, Dies [Usurped!]. University of Arizona. Retrieved 2010-09-17.
  2. Arizona Archives Online. "Paul S. Martin papers, 1910-2006". Arizona Archives Online. University of Arizona. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 Martin, Paul S (9 March 1973). "The Discovery of America". Science. 179 (4077): 969–974. Bibcode:1973Sci...179..969M. doi:10.1126/science.179.4077.969. PMID   17842155. S2CID   10395314.
  4. 1 2 Steadman, David W (January 2011). "Professor Paul Schultz Martin 1928–2010". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 92 (1): 33–46. doi:10.1890/0012-9623-92.1.33 . Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  5. Martin, Paul S. (1955). Herpetological Records from the Gómez Farias Region of Southwestern Tamaulipas, Mexico. Copeia 1955(3): 173-180.
  6. Martin, Paul S. (1955). Zonal Distribution of Vertebrates in a Mexican Cloud Forest. American Naturalist 89: 347-361.
  7. Martin, Paul S., C. Richard Robins, and William B. Heed. (1954). Birds and Biogeography of the Sierra de Tamaulipas, an Isolated Pine-Oak Habitat.The Wilson Bulletin.Vol. 66, No. 1: 38-57.
  8. Martin, Paul S. 1958. A Biogeography of Reptiles and Amphibians in the Gómez Farias Region, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Miscellaneous Publications, Museum of Zoology University of Michigan, 101: 1-102.
  9. Adler, Kraig. (2012). Contributions to the History of Herpetology, Vol. III. Contributions to Herpetology Vol. 29. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 564 pp. ISBN   978-0-916984-82-3
  10. Alan Weisman, The World Without Us, p. 68, Picador, 2007
  11. 1 2 3 Amos Esty, Paul S. Martin. American Scientist. An interview with Paul S. Martin . Retrieved 2010-09-17. Archived June 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  12. Martin, Paul S (1989). Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. ISBN   0-8165-1100-4.
  13. Barlow, Connie. "North American v. World Extinctions: Image by Connie Barlow for telling the story of the North American Continent". The Great Story. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  14. Barlow, Connie. "Mammoths, Overkill, and a Deep-Time Perspective on Pleistocene Extinctions (2004))". youtube. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  15. Weston, Phoebe (25 November 2022). "Humans v nature: our long and destructive journey to the age of extinction". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
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