No, I'm not writing a Jurassic park fanfic, I want to create a world where certain species were never driven to extinction. Specifically, species that were hunted to extinction. Problem is with my current research of Holocene-era extinctions, it's hard to tell which were over-hunted and which ones were wiped out by other causes.Can i get a little help?
The story's world doesn't really coincide with anywhere on earth, It's explained that the various species escaped extinction by hiding here and are brought together and domesticated by the people of the "alternate earth".
Ok, that opens up a rather broad array of mega-fauna. Do you need whichever creatures get chosen to serve a particular purpose like, say, to serve as "cattle" substitute or draft animals, riding animals, pets, etc? Or are they part of the story backdrop, the scenery, so to speak?
Well, some of the larger animals such as the Moa and Quagga will be used as draft animals, but most of the birds will just be there for scenery.
A quagga might do well as a draft animal, but I think a moa would be more dangerous than worth the effort. I notice these are both rather recent extinctions as are the great majority of animals on that wiki-list. Are you looking for creatures that recently extinct or perhaps earlier extinctions as well? There are great mega-fauna animals of the Americas that were around up to the coming of the first humans in the new world.
Did the first humans arriving in the new world have the facilities to wipe out entire species? Because actual poaching to the point of extinction is fairly recent in the grand scheme of things. But if so, can you find some examples? Sounds interesting.
They had the means, but not the mindset. These people are primarily scientists from our world so while they could very well wipe them out again, they would much rather study the creatures and maybe even bring back some specimens to resurrect the species on earth.
I'm sticking with recent extinctions simply because I can prove than man and these creatures can live side-by-side as long as man doesn't go psycho and kill them all again. Plus, I thought most of the american megafauna needs a cold environment to thrive? I'm writing this in a more temperate setting.
