ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Pleistocene extinction

Okay, so imagine that a very long time ago, there were a bunch of animals that roamed the Earth. These animals were called megafauna and they were really big and cool, like mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and giant sloths. But something happened and all these animals disappeared. That something was called the Pleistocene extinction.

Now, you know how sometimes in a game of musical chairs, there are fewer chairs than there are people and someone has to leave? Well, it was kind of like that for the megafauna. There were too many of them and they had to compete for resources like food, water, and shelter. But then, things got even tougher. The temperature changed and the Earth became cooler and dryer. This meant that there was even less food and water for the megafauna to survive.

To make matters worse, humans started to appear on the scene. These humans hunted and killed the megafauna for food and other resources. They also changed the environment through things like fire and deforestation, which made it even harder for the animals to survive. Eventually, the megafauna just couldn't keep up and they died out.

So, to sum it up, the Pleistocene extinction was a period of time when a lot of cool and big animals died because there were too many of them, the Earth became cooler and dryer, and humans hunted and changed their environment.