title: New ages for the last Australian megafauna: continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago.
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.
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. rgrobe@unimelb.edu.au
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: T F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Flannery
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Ayliffe
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Olley
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Prideaux
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Laslett
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baynes
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D001717:Birds; D001824:Body Constitution; D002980:Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D005580:Fossils; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D012104:Reptiles; D013910:Thorium; D013995:Time; D014501:Uranium
chemical_list: D014501:Uranium; D013910:Thorium