At the end of the Pleistocene, Earth was ruled by formidable megafauna... dire wolves, giant cave bears, predators that shaped daily survival for early human cultures. The world was vastly different, and so were the pressures on life. Late Pleistocene extinctions struck unevenly across regions: South America lost 80% of its large mammal genera, Australia nearly all of them. When habitat collapses, the largest creatures suffer first...long gestation, high food demands, and slow maturation become