The following letter was sent to me by Jorge Martinez-Moreno, an assistant
professor at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona:


Dear Dean Esmay,

Thanks for the information of Paleodiet List.

I will explain differents ideas about the letter of Loren Cordain
(04/02/1997) about Megafauna extintions...

The comment of Ray Audette (wich I don't reed) about a man with 6
dogs and an atlatl is a formidable predator is interesting and
provocative, but I think is a old idea (for example see papers of
P. Martin  or Clive Vance Haynes at 60's).

The extintions of megafauna at Late Pleistocene is a very
controversial hypothesis, but the recent discovery, at specially, the
new datations or arrival of human groups to new continents are a
critical factor  in the debate. For example, the arrival at Sahul,
than the last number of archaeological journal Antiquity, T.D. Price
has new sites with termoluminiscence datations about 100.000 BP
aprox. Egally,  Monte Verde (Chile), suggets a expansion of
temporal span between megafauna and hunter-gathrerers.

This exemples critized the "blitzkrieg" notion. Evidently human are a
factor important in the extintion of megafauna, and in recent context
humans are the causal factor, but during the Last Glacial, perhaps
are a secondary agent or an important factor into a mammals group
very dammaged in a stress ambient.

Reflexions about megafauna extintions and hunting subsistence Is very
interesting the book of GAMBLE, C (1993). Timewalkers.  Penguin.
Paper of Daniel FISHER at the book : The Evolution of Human
Hunting (Nitecki-Nitecki eds.) (1988) Plenum Press is a very
interesting taphonomyc approach to resolution of mastodont mortality
at North America.

I will very interested in the reference concret cited for Loren
Cordain: "bucher marks on mammoths in a number of european sites
indicate cut-marks....", because I don't know that  bone
modifications are really "cut-marks" and the european sites.... For
example in the superb Gary HAYNES  book: Mammoths, Elephants and
Mastodonts not cite cut-marks at european sites.

I hope my message is not very difficult to read for you

Sincerely

Jorge Martinez