What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?

During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of eviden...

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Main Authors: Johnson, C., Alroy, J., Beeton, N., Bird, M., Brook, B., Cooper, A., Gillespie, R., Herrando-Pérez, S., Jacobs, Z., Miller, Gifford, Prideaux, G., Roberts, R., Rodríguez-Rey, M., Saltré, F., Turney, C., Bradshaw, C.
Format: Journal Article
Published: The Royal Society Publishing 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/46795
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author Johnson, C.
Alroy, J.
Beeton, N.
Bird, M.
Brook, B.
Cooper, A.
Gillespie, R.
Herrando-Pérez, S.
Jacobs, Z.
Miller, Gifford
Prideaux, G.
Roberts, R.
Rodríguez-Rey, M.
Saltré, F.
Turney, C.
Bradshaw, C.
author_facet Johnson, C.
Alroy, J.
Beeton, N.
Bird, M.
Brook, B.
Cooper, A.
Gillespie, R.
Herrando-Pérez, S.
Jacobs, Z.
Miller, Gifford
Prideaux, G.
Roberts, R.
Rodríguez-Rey, M.
Saltré, F.
Turney, C.
Bradshaw, C.
author_sort Johnson, C.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:31:37Z
publishDate 2016
publisher The Royal Society Publishing
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-467952017-09-13T14:01:55Z What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul? Johnson, C. Alroy, J. Beeton, N. Bird, M. Brook, B. Cooper, A. Gillespie, R. Herrando-Pérez, S. Jacobs, Z. Miller, Gifford Prideaux, G. Roberts, R. Rodríguez-Rey, M. Saltré, F. Turney, C. Bradshaw, C. During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/46795 10.1098/rspb.2015.2399 The Royal Society Publishing unknown
spellingShingle Johnson, C.
Alroy, J.
Beeton, N.
Bird, M.
Brook, B.
Cooper, A.
Gillespie, R.
Herrando-Pérez, S.
Jacobs, Z.
Miller, Gifford
Prideaux, G.
Roberts, R.
Rodríguez-Rey, M.
Saltré, F.
Turney, C.
Bradshaw, C.
What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?
title What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?
title_full What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?
title_fullStr What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?
title_full_unstemmed What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?
title_short What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?
title_sort what caused extinction of the pleistocene megafauna of sahul?
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/46795