Megafauna Extinctions Reconsidered: Perspectives from around the Globe

During the Late Pleistocene, a significant number of megafauna species, broadly defined as animals exceeding 44 kg, disappeared from every inhabited continent. The timing, pace, and severity of these losses differed markedly across regions, making megafauna extinctions one of the most geographically and ecologically complex events in recent Earth history. The underlying causes remain actively debated, with researchers examining the relative contributions of human expansion, climatic shifts, and their interaction. Resolving these questions requires integrating evidence from disciplines as varied as paleontology, zooarchaeology, ecology, and biomolecular science. These extinctions were not simply a loss of species; they fundamentally reshaped ecosystems. The removal of large herbivores, predators, and seed dispersers had cascading effects on vegetation structure, nutrient cycling, fire regimes, and landscape dynamics, many of which persist to this day. These legacies have renewed scientific and policy interest in understanding megafauna extinctions not only as a historical phenomenon, but as a lens for addressing present-day biodiversity loss and for informing rewilding and conservation strategies.

This Research Topic invites contributions that advance our understanding of Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions from any methodological perspective. We warmly welcome traditional paleontological and (zoo)archaeological analyses, including new site reports, faunal assemblage studies, taphonomic investigations, and morphological or taxonomic work, alongside contributions employing innovative biomolecular approaches such as ancient DNA, sedaDNA, palaeoproteomics, and stable isotope analysis. Big data approaches, spatial modelling, and interdisciplinary syntheses are equally encouraged. No single method or framework is prioritized; the editors value rigor and novelty of insight above approach.

A particular focus of this relaunch is the connection between past extinctions and present-day conservation. Contributions that examine the ecological consequences of megafauna loss — including its effects on ecosystem function, plant diversity, trophic cascades, and carbon dynamics — and that draw implications for rewilding initiatives, species reintroduction programs, or conservation planning, are especially welcome. We also encourage work from historically understudied regions, where significant gaps in the megafauna record remain. Both local or regional case studies and continental or global-scale analyses are within scope.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: megafauna, Late Pleistocene, extinction, palaeontology, zooarchaeology, rewilding, conservation, ancient DNA, sedaDNA, palaeoproteomics, isotope analysis, ecosystem function, trophic cascades, biodiversity, human-megafauna interactions

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.