Megafauna

Giant Beasts of Pleistocene South America (Life of the Past)

By: Richard A. Fariña, Sergio F. Vizcaíno, Gerry De Iuliis

Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann

More than 10,000 years ago spectacularly large mammals roamed the pampas and jungles of South America. This book tells the story of these great beasts during and just after the Pleistocene, the geological epoch marked by the great ice ages. Megafauna describes the history and way of life of these animals, their comings and goings, and what befell them at the beginning of the modern era and the arrival of humans. It places these giants within the context of the other mammals then alive, describing their paleobiology—how they walked; how much they weighed; their diets, behavior, biomechanics; and the interactions among them and with their environment. It also tells the stories of the scientists who contributed to our discovery and knowledge of these transcendent creatures and the environment they inhabited. The episode known as the Great American Biotic Interchange, perhaps the most important of all natural history "experiments," is also an important theme of the book, tracing the biotic events of both North and South America, that led to the fauna and the ecosystems discussed in this book.

©2013 Richard A. Fariña, Sergio F. Vizcaíno and Gerry De Iuliis (P)2023 Tantor

Pulling teeth, painful dissertation

Painful details about teeth and bones with no new evidence or information about WHAT caused the death of the megafauna. Chapter 9 whitewashing of this topic earned this review.

Academia would be proud. I think.

I made it to chapter seven which was a good accomplishment for me. I found it very interesting and informative. However I am not an academic and this book felt more like a dissertation or thesis and made for some arduous listening. I kept at it because I like learning about new things and felt as if I learned quite a bit about the fauna of South America and North America as well and through various epochs or eras. But it seemed that he was never going to cover why the fauna disappeared or answer any of the questions that my imagination was asking.
The story could have been much more interesting if it wasn’t a purely academic exercise in my opinion.