Research overview: big cats in the Quaternary megafaunal extinctions

This overview surveys the disappearance of numerous large cats, including Smilodon, Homotherium, the American lion, the cave lion, and Miracinonyx, as part of the broader late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions. As specialized predators dependent on large herbivores, these cats were vulnerable to the collapse of megaherbivore populations driven by rapid climate change at the end of the last glaciation and by the expanding influence of human hunters. The survey reviews how dating the last appearances of these predators constrains the timing of their losses, how the extinction of big cats relates to that of their prey, and the ongoing debate over the relative roles of climate and humans. It frames the loss of the great Ice Age cats as a defining episode in the recent restructuring of terrestrial predator communities worldwide.