About 15,000 years ago, rapid warming began in the Earth’s climate. This alone was a challenge for animals, but the warming climate resulted in a series of environmental changes.
Vegetation belts were rearranged.
The mammoth steppe almost completely disappeared, and the area of forests increased.
All this severely reduced the food sources and habitats of many herbivores, resulting in the formation of isolated, small populations, which proved fatal for many species. The significant decline in the number of prey also led to the extinction of many predators.
So much water melted from glaciers and continental ice sheets that the climate became rainier and global sea levels rose by more than 100 meters.