Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Chris S M TurneyNeil Ogle

Abstract

Establishing the cause of past extinctions is critical if we are to understand better what might trigger future occurrences and how to prevent them. The mechanisms of continental late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, however, are still fiercely contested. Potential factors contributing to their demise include climatic change, human impact, or some combination. On the Australian mainland, 90% of the megafauna became extinct by approximately 46 thousand years (ka) ago, soon after the first archaeological evidence for human colonization of the continent. Yet, on the neighboring island of Tasmania (which was connected to the mainland when sea levels were lower), megafaunal extinction appears to have taken place before the initial human arrival between 43 and 40 ka, which would seem to exonerate people as a contributing factor in the extirpation of the island megafauna. Age estimates for the last megafauna, however, are poorly constrained. Here, we show, by direct dating of fossil remains and their associated sediments, that some Tasmanian megafauna survived until at least 41 ka (i.e., after their extinction on the Australian mainland) and thus overlapped with humans. Furthermore, a vegetation record for Tasmania spanning the last...Continue Reading

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Mar 7, 2012·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Graham W PrescottAndrea Manica
May 8, 2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Stephen WroeScott D Mooney
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Jan 24, 2021·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Vera WeisbeckerEmma Sherratt
Feb 20, 2021·Science·Alan CooperRoland Zech

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