THE ICE AGE FORESTS REFUGES AND IT’S CORRELATION TO THE PLEISTOCENIC MEGAFAUNA EXTINCTION: A CASE OF STUDY

Abstract

Almost all South American Megafauna animals were extinguished still late Pleistocene. However the paleontologistics sites on southwestern Piauí state Brazil, gets attention to an exceptional case. Southwest Piauí concentrates a vast sample of the american intertropical Pleistocenic Megafauna species; however, recent paleontology researches had found fossils that demonstrate the surviving of some of these animals still Holocene. The reasons for its late extinction can be found in the interpretation of the Ice Age Forests Refuges Theory, which had been used as the most coherent model to explain the landscape evolution in the South American neotropics that is also related to paleontologistics studies that had been taken in that region. Key-words: Palaeogeography, extintiction, Pleistocenic Megafauna, Ice Age Forest Refuges Theory, evolution.