End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals. This item is unavailable.End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals

"Ross MacPhee's End of the Megafauna is a marvellous survey of what we know about the magnificent creatures who shared our world just 12,000 years ago, and he is brilliantly served by the superb illustrations of Australian artist Peter Schouten." The Sunday Times Culture

Until a few thousand years ago, creatures-"megafauna"-that could have been from a sci-fi thriller roamed the earth. With a handful of exceptions, all are now gone. Ross MacPhee explores the question of what caused the disappearance of these prehistoric behemoths, examining the extinction theories, weighing the evidence and presenting his conclusions. He comments on how past extinctions can shed light on future losses and on the possibility of bringing back extinct species through genetic engineering. Gorgeous four-colour illustrations bring these megabeasts back to life in vivid detail.

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Ross D. E. MacPhee is a paleomammalogist with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he has worked since 1988. He has conducted more than fifty expeditions in many parts of the world, including both polar regions. In addition to numerous scientific papers, he is the author of Race to the End: Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole (2010) and the editor of Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences (1999). Peter Schouten is a self-taught and trained artist who works primarily in the field of natural history illustration. He has illustrated many award-winning books and his artworks have been collected by museums and galleries around the globe. In 2015 he was awarded the title Member of the Order of Australia, in recognition of his contributions to the development of Australian arts and sciences.