Giant vegetarian cave bears were the first species to be killed off by humans.
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According to new research presented in the journal, Scientific Reports, Ice Age cave bears - which roamed Europe about 20,000 years ago - could have been the first animal driven to extinction by man, after DNA extracted from dozens of prehistoric remains suggested Homo sapiens played a crucial role in the animal's demise.
Co-author Professor Verena Schünemann, of the University of Zürich, said: ''It would be the first extinction in which humans were involved that we know of so far.''
The study's co-author Hervé Bocherens, a paleobiologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany - who has studied cave bear remains for 30 years - added:''If not for our arrival in Europe, I don't see any reason why cave bears should not be around today.''