Proboscideans, Drought, and Cyanobacteria: Natural Death Events both Present and Past

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Lawrence Todd has made substantial contributions to the studies of taphonomy, Paleoindians, and megafauna, among other topics. His foundational research provides the basis for important questions to be asked about megafaunal extinctions. Drawing first on data on elephant deaths in northern Botswana in 2020 that initially were blamed on poaching and intentional poisoning, this paper considers the possibility of cyanobacteria as playing a role in the mass deaths. It appears that humans were not involved in the deaths of over 300 elephants in the Okavango Delta but instead toxins were a contributing factor. Expanding on that theme, the paper goes on to assess Late Pleistocene megafaunal deaths in North America, some of which may have been due to toxins that built up around waterholes during times when Paleoindians occupied the Great Plains. Black mats in archaeological sites of megafauna may be indicators of cyanobacteria presence, especially in the Younger Dryas Cold Event when drought and cooler temperatures may have contributed to the buildup of cyanobacteria, which, in turn, contributed to mass deaths of megafauna. These findings suggest that environmental conditions were key drivers of at least some megafaunal deaths both in Africa and in North America.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35569.0