In the south, the giant ground sloth flourished until about 10,500 radiocarbon years BP. Most cite the appearance of an expanding population of human hunters as the cause of its extinction. There are a few late dates of around 8000 BP and one of 7000 BP for Megatherium remains, but the most recent date viewed as credible is about 10,000 BP. The use of bioclimatic envelope modeling indicates that the area of suitable habitat for Megatherium had shrunk and become fragmented by the mid-Holocene. While this alone would not likely have caused its extinction, it has been cited as a possible contributing factor