Megafauna Extinction: video worksheets, differentiated.

An engaging, discursive tour of competing ideas which may explain the loss of megafauna throughout the world… except Africa. With beautiful and remarkable footage, the scene is set with the world-wide Pleistocene distribution of megafauna, and moves on to La Brea Tar Pits for an in-depth look at the work scientists studying everything from bones to pollen. Evidence for competing theories is reviewed: the arrival of humans in North America, Australia and the Pacific islands; the Overkill hypothesis. Humans before Clovis point technology. Was extinction due to slower over-hunting and other human activity? Why did smaller large mammals survive? How plant micro-fossils indicate climate change. African megafauna co-evolving with humans. Lessons from the Pleistocene could be applicable to Africa today.

Find the film by searching YouTube’s Be Smart channel for “The Mystery of Earth’s Disappearing Giants | IN OUR NATURE)”.

16 questions for the 21-min film. Differentiated! Both versions look very similar, but “B” version has subtle clues. Excellent subtitles, typed in by a human, not auto-generated garbage. Answer sheet. Very easy to mark. .doc & .pdf for all files. Link to film on all sheets.