Paleogeneticist: Critics argue that the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna across northern Eurasia was driven exclusively by abrupt climatic warming rather than human hunting pressure. However, this view fails to withstand scrutiny. Ice-core records establish that northern Eurasia underwent dozens of equally abrupt warming oscillations during earlier interglacial epochs without triggering widespread megafaunal collapse. Furthermore, recent radiometric dating demonstrates that megafaunal extinctions across distinct subregions coincided precisely with the documented arrival of anatomically modern humans, regardless of the local climatic conditions. Therefore, climatic warming alone is insufficient to account for the extinctions, and human hunting pressure was a decisive factor.
Based on the passage, arrange the logical stages of the paleogeneticist’s argument into the sequential order in which they establish the ultimate conclusion.
- 1Stating the opposing claim that abrupt climatic warming was the exclusive cause of megafaunal extinctions.
- 2Citing historical paleoclimate data showing that previous warming episodes did not precipitate extinction events.
- 3Introducing chronological evidence demonstrating that regional extinctions correlated with human migration irrespective of local climate.
- 4Inferring the intermediate conclusion that sudden climatic warming alone cannot account for the extinction pattern.
- 5Deducing the final conclusion that human hunting pressure was a decisive factor in driving the extinctions.