What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?

C N Johnson¹, J Alroy², N J Beeton³, M I Bird⁴, B W Brook³, A Cooper⁵, R Gillespie⁶, S Herrando-Pérez⁷, Z Jacobs⁸, G H Miller⁹, G J Prideaux¹⁰, R G Roberts⁸, M Rodríguez-Rey¹¹, F Saltré¹¹, C S M Turney¹², C J A Bradshaw¹¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia c.n.johnson@utas.edu.au.
² Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
³ School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
⁴ Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Studies, College of Science Technology and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4878, Australia.
⁵ Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
⁶ Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
⁷ The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia Department of Biogeography and Global Change, National Museum of Natural Sciences-Spanish Research Council (CSIC) c/ José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
⁸ Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.
⁹ Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0450, USA Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia.
¹⁰ School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042, Australia.
¹¹ The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
¹² Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.

PMID: 26865301
PMCID: PMC4760161
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2399

Review

What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?

C N Johnson et al. Proc Biol Sci. 2016.

. 2016 Feb 10;283(1824):20152399.

doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2399.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia c.n.johnson@utas.edu.au.
² Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
³ School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
⁴ Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Studies, College of Science Technology and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4878, Australia.
⁵ Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
⁶ Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.
⁷ The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia Department of Biogeography and Global Change, National Museum of Natural Sciences-Spanish Research Council (CSIC) c/ José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain.
⁸ Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.
⁹ Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0450, USA Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia.
¹⁰ School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042, Australia.
¹¹ The Environment Institute, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
¹² Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.

PMID: 26865301
PMCID: PMC4760161
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2399

Abstract

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.

Keywords: archeology; climate change; human impacts; palaeoecology; prehistory; quaternary.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

**Figure 1.**
Time-series of dated specimens of *Diprotodon* sp., arranged in sequence from youngest to oldest, with ±1 s.d. High-reliability dates [38] are black and low-quality dates grey; youngest reliable date is arrowed. *Diprotodon* sketch by Peter Murray.

**Figure 2.**
Trends in variability of temperature in the EPICA Dome C core over the last 450 000 years. (a) ER for linear trend in mean deviation in EPICA δD (δ deuterium = a proxy for temperature: more negative values indicate lower temperatures) from 450 to 24 ka ( indicates evidence for linear trend) across sampling intervals of increasing width; also shown is the mean trend slope (β) per sampling interval width; (b) example EPICA temperature series resampled at a constant window of 600 years from present back to 450 ka; and (c) average and 95 percentile mean deviation of temperature within the four interstadials since 450 ka.

formula image — **Figure 2.**
Trends in variability of temperature in the EPICA Dome C core over the last 450 000 years. (a) ER for linear trend in mean deviation in EPICA δD (δ deuterium = a proxy for temperature: more negative values indicate lower temperatures) from 450 to 24 ka ( indicates evidence for linear trend) across sampling intervals of increasing width; also shown is the mean trend slope (β) per sampling interval width; (b) example EPICA temperature series resampled at a constant window of 600 years from present back to 450 ka; and (c) average and 95 percentile mean deviation of temperature within the four interstadials since 450 ka.

**Figure 3.**
Relative abundance of eggshells of *Genyornis* and emu *Dromaius novaehollandiae* through the last glacial cycle: (a) and (b) numbers of dated samples from *Genyornis* and emu, respectively, from [24]. (c) Ratio of frequencies of *Genyornis* to emu samples, with 95% confidence intervals, calculated using a moving window (scaled to density of samples) to generate a smoothed curve.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Wallace AR. 1876. The geographical distribution of animals, with a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating past changes of the Earth's surface, vol. 1. New York, NY: Harper and Brothers.
1. Sandom C, Faurby S, Sandel B, Svenning J-C. 2014. Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change. Proc. R. Soc. B 281, 20133254 (10.1098/rspb.2013.3254) - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Lorenzen ED, et al. 2011. Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans. Nature 479, 359–364. (10.1038/nature10574) - DOI - PMC - PubMed
1. Lima-Ribeiro MS, Hortal J, Varela S, Diniz-Filho JAF. 2014. Constraint envelope analyses of macroecological patterns reveal climatic effects on Pleistocene mammal extinctions. Quat. Res. 82, 260–269. (10.1016/j.yqres.2014.02.003) - DOI
1. Bartlett LJ, Williams DR, Prescott GW, Balmford A, Green RE, Eriksson A, Valdes PJ, Singarayer JS, Manica A. 2015. Robustness despite uncertainty: regional climate data reveal the dominant role of humans in explaining global extinctions of Late Quaternary megafauna. Ecography 38, 1–10. (10.1111/ecog.01566) - DOI

Publication types

Actions
Actions

MeSH terms

Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions
Actions

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
- Europe PubMed Central
- PubMed Central
Other Literature Sources
- scite Smart Citations

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?

Affiliations

What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Other Literature Sources