Overkill Hypothesis

1.) Were the North American megafauna wiped out by early human colonizers? The Overkill hypothesis is of the Clovis crossing into a “virgin continent” (The America’s) and wiped out the megafauna due to overhunting. First developed by Paul Martin in the 1960’s, Clovis started to occupy North and South America 13,500-12,500 years ago; soon after early sites were established 17 genera of North and South American megafauna went extinct between 13,250-12,900 (other species such as ground sloths become extinct much later). He believed as the Clovis population started to expand and fill this new world; the megafauna were easily hunted and killed, given that they were not used to this new predator occupying their environment. There are numerous archaeological sites that prove megafauna were easily hunted by the Clovis population, such as the Blackwater Draw site in 1932 (near Clovis, New Mexico), artifacts found were remains of mammoth and horse bones found with Clovis points (akin to spear points), which further proves some megafauna were hunted and killed by Clovis. There are problems with this theory, the megafauna did not just die out in the Americas but on all continents, as well some archaeologist do not believe Clovis were able to hunt the
“Donald Grayson and David Meltzer found that only fourteen sites show clear evidence [in the America’s] of Clovis hunting of