New Ages for the Last Australian Megafauna: Continent-Wide Extinction About 46,000 Years Ago

2001/06/08 by Richard G. Roberts, Timothy F. Flannery, Linda K. Ayliffe +8 · 27 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1060264

openalex publication_date 2001/06/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

All Australian land mammals, reptiles, and birds weighing more than 100 kilograms, and six of the seven genera with a body mass of 45 to 100 kilograms, perished in the late Quaternary. The timing and causes of these extinctions remain uncertain. We report burial ages for megafauna from 28 sites and infer extinction across the continent around 46,400 years ago (95% confidence interval, 51,200 to 39,800 years ago). Our results rule out extreme aridity at the Last Glacial Maximum as the cause of extinction, but not other climatic impacts; a "blitzkrieg" model of human-induced extinction; or an extended period of anthropogenic ecosystem disruption.

Citations

• Vertebrate palaeontology of Australasia
• The Discovery of America
• Pleistocene faunal loss: implications of the aftershock for Australia's past and future
• OPTICAL DATING OF SINGLE AND MULTIPLE GRAINS OF QUARTZ FROM JINMIUM ROCK SHELTER, NORTHERN AUSTRALIA: PART I, EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND STATISTICAL MODELS*

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• Adaptation and conservation insights from the koala genome
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• Dating the colonization of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia–New Guinea): a review of recent research
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• Re‐evaluating the evidence for late‐surviving megafauna at Nombe rockshelter in the New Guinea highlands
• Inferring the palaeobiology of palorchestid marsupials through analysis of mammalian humeral and femoral shape
• Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions on the continents: a short review
• Cuddie Springs [wikipedia]
• Diprotodon [wikipedia]
• Great American Interchange [wikipedia]
• Late Pleistocene extinctions [wikipedia]