Great megafauna mystery solved? Humans really did drive ancient giants to extinction

AARHUS, Denmark — Imagine a world where elephants roamed across Europe, giant ground sloths lumbered through the Americas, and car-sized armadillos burrowed in South American grasslands. This wasn’t some fantastical realm from a Hollywood movie — it was Earth just 50,000 years ago. But then something happened. These megafauna — animals weighing over 100 pounds — began to disappear. By 10,000 years ago, most were gone forever. What caused this mass extinction event that reshaped life on our planet? It’s …