North America with a less major megafauna extinction.

i know this is slightly ASBs or needs a really early POD, but it seems cool.

Perhaps the last Ice age ends very slowly over a few million years so that the megafauna can lose some of their fur and such? Would this work?

I can totally imagine colonizers getting slaughtered by neomastadon cavalry and north American horses being ridden.
 
It was said that humans were the caused of the mega fauna extinction, since there is a correlation between extinction and the first appearance of humans.

So perhaps the best POD was that humans never crossed the Bering Straight.
 
There are several very good timelines on the site about this you might be interested in, particularly regarding North American horses.
 
I think that the general consensus is that they died from a combination of humans and from climate change. Let's say less people cross, just enough for a lack of inbreeding, and the ice age ends really slow, so that they can adapt. Would that work?
 
Looks like the Clovis Point happened. The wielders seem to have taken down all the mega-fauna they met, plus possibly the earlier waves of settlers who'd come down the 'West coastal shelf' during the glacial low-stand...

Cue ecological collapse...
 
Another reason for their die-off was the unification of North and South America through Panama. The Columbian Exchange destabilized ecosystems.

It was said that humans were the caused of the mega fauna extinction, since there is a correlation between extinction and the first appearance of humans.

Correlation is not causation. (Although in this case, I do think humans played a major role.)
 
ASB, especially with your geologic POD, but it's ASB otherwise too. You'd need to somehow get rid of the Clovis culture and drastically reduce hunting of megafauna.

It would be interesting to see an Americas that had its megafauna still. Can you imagine the Africa-like documentaries?
 
Humans are one of the main causes, you need to stop humanity from coming, that is not going to happen. They were to good hunters and brought deadly disease. Add in climate change and the isolation of the Americas you will get a mass extinction. I think even without humans you would only see animals that survived the mass extinctions in the old world survive. Meaning no Mammoths, Dire wolves or Saber-toothed cats, but equinnes, lions and cheetahs and camels. Possibly a few others. The really massive megafuna would probably not survive due to changes of climate and food changes. We will never know.
 
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