Extinct Fauna of Beringia

Beringia was considered a refuge for animals from 25,000-12,000 ya during the last glaciation. During 12,000 to 9,000 ya things changed, and about 40 species of animals went extinct in Beringia. Here are a few of the species that became extinct in Beringia.

Woolly Mammoth Chersky Horses Woolly Rhinoceros Steppe Bison Yak Musk-ox Saiga Antelope Cave lion Wapati Dire Wolf Mastrodons Giant Beaver

The cause of these extictions have been attributed to climatic change, and excessive human hunting. Most likely a variety of effects led to these faunal extinctions instead of one massive event. Each species of animal would have responded differently to environmental change, and would have varied in their susceptibility to this change. Animals were probably wiped out gradually after a major decline in the population size due to the stresses impossed during the rapid warming at the end of the Pleistocene. As survivorship curves have indicated, survival rate in the young is low. Perhaps the young animals couldn't cope with any change in climate so there was no replacement for the species and it died out.