2008/01/01 by Richard Gillespie, L.K. Fifield, Vladimir Levchenko +1 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s003382220004337x
openalex publication_date 2008/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
We report radiocarbon ages on cellulose isolated from the gut contents of a Diprotodon found at Lake Callabonna, South Australia. The maximum age obtained corresponds to a minimum age of >53,400 BP for this extinct giant marsupial. This is older than, and hence consistent with, the generally accepted Australian megafauna extinction window. We argue that dichromate and other strong oxidants are less selective than chlorite for lignin destruction in wood, and our results suggest that ages approaching laboratory background can be obtained using a repeated pretreatment sequence of chlorite-alkali-acid and measurement of the sometimes discarded 330°C combustion fraction.