10th Millennium BC - Environmental Changes

Environmental Changes

c. 10,000 BC:

• North America: Dire Wolf, Smilodon, Giant Beaver, Ground Sloth, Giant Imperial Mammoth (Mammuthus imperator), Jeffersonian Mammoth (Mammuthus jeffersonii), Columbian Mammoth (Mammuthus columbi), Woolly Mammoth, Mastodons, Giant Short-Faced Bear, American Cheetah, Scimitar Cats (Homotherium), American Camels, American Horses, and American Lions all become extinct.
• Bering Sea: Bering land bridge from Siberia to North America covered in water.
• North America: Long Island becomes an island when waters break through on the western end to the interior lake.
• Europe: Permanent ecological change. The savannah-dwelling reindeer, bison, and Paleolithic hunters withdraw to the sub-Arctic, leaving the rest to forest animals like deer, aurochs, and Mesolithic foragers. (1967 McEvedy)
• World: Allerod oscillation brings transient improvement in climate. Sea levels rise abruptly and massive inland flooding occurs due to glacier melt.

c. 9700 BC: Lake Agassiz forms.

c. 9600 BC: Younger Dryas cold period ends. Pleistocene ends and Holocene begins. Paleolithic ends and Mesolithic begins. Large amounts of previously glaciated land become habitable again.