https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379121005230?via%3Dihub

Abstract

Multiple large-bodied species went extinct during the Pleistocene. Changing climates and/or human hunting are the main hypotheses used to explain
these extinctions. We studied the causes of Pleistocene extinctions in the Southern Levant, and their subsequent effect on local hominin food spectra,
by examining faunal remains in archaeological sites across the last 1.5
million years. We examined whether climate and climate changes, and/or
human cultures, are associated with these declines. We recorded animal abundances published in the literature from 133 stratigraphic layers, across
58 Pleistocene and Early Holocene archaeological sites, in the Southern
Levant. We used linear regressions and mixed models to assess the
weighted mean mass of faunal assemblages through time and whether it
was associated with temperature, paleorainfall, or paleoenvironment (C3 vs.
C4 vegetation). We found that weighted mean body mass declined log-
linearly through time. Mean hunted animal masses 10,500 years ago, were
only 1.7% of those 1.5 million years ago. Neither body size at any period,
nor size change from one layer to the next, were related to global
temperature or to temperature changes. Throughout the Pleistocene, new
human lineages hunted significantly smaller prey than the preceding ones.
This suggests that humans extirpated megafauna throughout the
Pleistocene, and when the largest species were depleted the next-largest
were targeted. Technological advancements likely enabled subsequent
human lineages to effectively hunt smaller prey replacing larger species that were hunted to extinction or until they became exceedingly rare.

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