For hundreds of millions of years, large vertebrates (megafauna) have inhabited most of the ecosystems on our planet. During the late Quaternary, notably during the Late Pleistocene and the early Holocene, Earth experienced a rapid extinction of large, terrestrial vertebrates. While much attention has been paid to understanding the causes of this massive megafauna extinction, less attention has been given to understanding the impacts of loss of megafauna on other organisms with whom they interacted. In this review, we discuss how the loss of megafauna disrupted and reshaped ecological interactions, and explore the ecological consequences of the ongoing decline of large vertebrates. Numerous late Quaternary extinct species of predators, parasites, commensals and mutualistic partners were associated with megafauna and were probably lost due to their strict dependence upon them (co‐extinctions). Moreover, many extant species have megafauna‐adapted traits that provided evolutionary benefits under past megafauna‐rich conditions, but are now of no or limited use (anachronisms). Morphological evolution and behavioural changes allowed some of these species partially to overcome the absence of megafauna. Although the extinction of megafauna led to a number of co‐extinction events, several species that likely co‐evolved with megafauna established new interactions with humans and their domestic animals. Species that were highly specialized in interactions with megafauna, such as large predators, specialized parasites, and large commensalists (e.g. scavengers, dung beetles), and could not adapt to new hosts or prey were more likely to die out. Partners that were less megafauna dependent persisted because of behavioural plasticity or by shifting their dependency to humans via domestication, facilitation or pathogen spill‐over, or through interactions with domestic megafauna. We argue that the ongoing extinction of the extant megafauna in the Anthropocene will catalyse another wave of co‐extinctions due to the enormous diversity of key ecological interactions and functional roles provided by the megafauna.

中文翻译：

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巨型动物灭绝的生态和进化遗产

数亿年来，大型脊椎动物（巨型动物）居住在我们星球上的大部分生态系统中。在第四纪晚期，特别是在更新世晚期和全新世早期，地球经历了大型陆生脊椎动物的快速灭绝。虽然人们对了解这种大规模巨型动物灭绝的原因给予了很多关注，但对了解巨型动物丧失对与其相互作用的其他生物的影响的关注较少。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了巨型动物的丧失如何破坏和重塑了生态相互作用，并探讨了大型脊椎动物持续减少的生态后果。许多晚第四纪灭绝的捕食者、寄生虫、共生和互惠伙伴与巨型动物有关，可能由于对它们的严格依赖（共同灭绝）而消失。此外，许多现存物种具有适应巨型动物的特征，这些特征在过去的巨型动物丰富的条件下提供了进化优势，但现在没有使用或使用有限（时代错误）。形态进化和行为变化使其中一些物种部分克服了巨型动物群的缺失。尽管巨型动物群的灭绝导致了许多共同灭绝事件，但一些可能与巨型动物群共同进化的物种与人类及其家畜建立了新的相互作用。高度专门与巨型动物相互作用的物种，例如大型捕食者、特殊寄生虫和大型共生动物（例如清道夫、蜣螂），无法适应新宿主或猎物更有可能灭绝。由于行为可塑性或通过驯化、促进或病原体溢出或通过与家养巨型动物的互动将他们的依赖转移到人类身上，对巨型动物依赖较少的伴侣会继续存在。我们认为，由于巨型动物提供的关键生态相互作用和功能作用的巨大多样性，人类世现存巨型动物的持续灭绝将催化另一波共同灭绝。