Smilodon - Extinction

Extinction

Smilodon became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BC, a time which saw the extinction of many other large herbivorous and carnivorous mammals.

Prehistoric humans, who reached North America at the same time and are known to have hunted many of the species that disappeared, are often viewed as responsible for this extinction wave. Others have suggested that the end of the ice age caused the extinction. As the ice sheets retreated there would have been changing vegetation patterns. Grasslands expanded. The summers became more extreme and parts of North America began to dry out. However, this hypothesis does not explain why Smilodon and its ancestors as well as other megafaunal species successfully survived many previous interglacials, and then fairly suddenly died out over the entire contiguous land area of North and South America.