Research overview: body size and extinction selectivity among Ice Age carnivores

This overview examines how body size influenced which carnivores survived the end-Pleistocene extinctions and which, like the great cats, did not. Large predators tend to have smaller populations, lower reproductive rates, and greater food requirements, traits that can heighten extinction risk when prey become scarce or habitats shift. The survey reviews evidence that the largest and most specialized cats, including sabertooths and the American and cave lions, were disproportionately lost while smaller, more flexible felids persisted. It discusses the interplay of body size, dietary specialization, and prey dependence in shaping extinction selectivity, how this pattern recurs across mass-extinction and turnover events, and what the size-biased disappearance of Ice Age big cats reveals about the vulnerabilities of large carnivores facing environmental change and, ultimately, the modern conservation of their surviving relatives.