Yeakel, J. D.,Pires, M. M.,Rudolf, L.,Dominy, N. J.,Koch, P. L.,Guimaraes, P. R.,Grossc, T.
Extract: Our recent paper used artistic depictions of animals and fossil evidence to examine the community-level effects of local extinction events over 6,000 y of Egyptian history (1). We found that local extinctions were nonrandom, that changes to community structure (quantified by the species predator/prey ratio) seemed to correspond to local aridification pulses, and that the decline in species richness throughout Egyptian history resulted in a drop in dynamic stability because of the elimination of smaller-bodied herbivores. In response to our paper, Bar-Oz et al. (2) note complimentary faunal changes in the Levant, an area that did not experience such large climatic swings (pointing to human impacts as the primary …