Emily Lindsey – The Conversation

The Palisades wildfire in Los Angeles in January 2025. EPA-EFE/Allison Dinner

January 23, 2025

How wildfire, humans and a warming climate led to the extinction of California’s big mammals 13,000 years ago – podcast

Gemma Ware, The Conversation

Paleoecologist Emily Lindsey on the wildfires that led to mass extinction during California’s Ice Age. Listen to The Conversation Weekly.

Ringo Chiu via Shutterstock

November 2, 2023

The wildfires that led to mass extinction: a warning from California’s Ice Age history – podcast

Gemma Ware, The Conversation

A changing climate, humans and fire were a deadly combination for the big animals that used to roam southern California. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.

The fossil deposits at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles have well-preserved remains of many prehistoric animals that got stuck in natural asphalt seeps over the past 60,000 years. Cullen Townsend, courtesy of NHMLAC

August 17, 2023

A changing climate, growing human populations and widespread fires contributed to the last major extinction event − can we prevent another?

Emily Lindsey, University of California, Los Angeles; Lisa N. Martinez, University of California, Los Angeles, and Regan E. Dunn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

New findings from the La Brea Tar Pits in southern California suggest human-caused wildfires in the region, along with a warming climate, led to the loss of most of the area’s large mammals.

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