Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia

@article{Prideaux2010TimingAD,
  title={Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia},
  author={Gavin J. Prideaux and Grant A. Gully and Aidan M. C. Couzens and Linda K. Ayliffe and N. R. Jankowski and Zenobia Jacobs and Richard G. Roberts and John C. Hellstrom and Michael K. Gagan and Lindsay M Hatcher},
  journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences},
  year={2010},
  volume={107},
  pages={22157 - 22162}
}
  • G. PrideauxG. Gully L. Hatcher
  • Published 2 December 2010
  • Environmental Science, Geography
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Explaining the Late Pleistocene demise of many of the world's larger terrestrial vertebrates is arguably the most enduring and debated topic in Quaternary science. Australia lost >90% of its larger species by around 40 thousand years (ka) ago, but the relative importance of human impacts and increased aridity remains unclear. Resolving the debate has been hampered by a lack of sites spanning the last glacial cycle. Here we report on an exceptional faunal succession from Tight Entrance Cave… 
View on NAS
pnas.org
84 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
10
Background Citations
39
Methods Citations
3
Results Citations
2

Figures and Tables from this paper

84 Citations

Aridity, faunal adaptations and Australian Late Pleistocene extinctions

Abstract The faunal extinctions of the Late Pleistocene saw the disappearance of a suite of giant marsupials, birds and reptiles from the Australian landscape. Attempts to explain these extinctions…

Looking for the archaeological signature in Australian Megafaunal extinctions

Climate change not to blame for late Quaternary megafauna extinctions in Australia

This is the first comprehensive approach to incorporate uncertainty in fossil ages, extinction timing and climatology, to quantify mechanisms of prehistorical extinctions of megafaunal extinctions in the world's most controversial context.

Global late Quaternary megafauna extinctions linked to humans, not climate change

This first species-level macroscale analysis at relatively high geographical resolution provides strong support for modern humans as the primary driver of the worldwide megafauna losses during the late Quaternary.

Continuity of mammalian fauna over the last 200,000 y in the Indian subcontinent

The oldest well-dated sequence of mammalian faunas for the Indian subcontinent is presented, demonstrating continuity of 20 of 21 identified mammals from at least 100,000 y ago to the present, and suggesting that, although local extirpations occurred, the majority of taxa survived or adapted to substantial ecological pressures in fragmented habitats.

Extinction of eastern Sahul megafauna coincides with sustained environmental deterioration

The results do not support rapid or synchronous human-mediated continental-wide extinction, or the proposed timing of peak extinction events, and suggest megafauna extinctions coincide with regionally staggered spatio-temporal deterioration in hydroclimate coupled with sustained environmental change.

Large mammal species richness and late Quaternary precipitation change in south‐western Australia

The precipitation history of south‐west Australia since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) has important implications for understanding southern hemisphere climate dynamics. Previously reported…

Hydrological transformation coincided with megafaunal extinction in central Australia

Central to the debate over the extinction of many of Australia's last surviving megafauna is the question: Was climate changing significantly when humans arrived and megafauna went extinct? Here we…

The process, biotic impact, and global implications of the human colonization of Sahul about 47,000 years ago

Variation and pattern in the responses of mammal faunas to Late Pleistocene climatic change in southeastern South Australia

We examined mammal occurrence and variability through the Late Pleistocene vertebrate fossil deposit of Grant Hall in Victoria Fossil Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. To determine long‐term…
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 39 REFERENCES

Mammalian responses to Pleistocene climate change in southeastern Australia

Resolving faunal responses to Pleistocene climate change is vital for differentiating human impacts from other drivers of ecological change. While 90% of Australia's large mammals were extinct by ca.…

Age constraints on Pleistocene megafauna at Tight Entrance Cave in southwestern Australia

Ecosystem Collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a Human Role in Megafaunal Extinction

A 140,000-year record of dietary δ13C documents a permanent reduction in food sources available to the Australian emu, beginning about the time of human colonization; a change replicated at three widely separated sites and in the marsupial wombat.

An arid-adapted middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from south-central Australia

A diverse and exceptionally well preserved middle Pleistocene vertebrate assemblage from caves beneath the arid, treeless Nullarbor plain of south-central Australia, which implies substantially greater floristic diversity than that of the modern shrub steppe.

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

This work reports burial ages for megafauna from 28 sites and infer extinction across the continent around 46,400 years ago, ruling 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.

A Late Quaternary pollen record from deep-sea core Fr10/95, GC17 offshore Cape Range Peninsula, northwestern Western Australia

Penultimate Deglacial Sea-Level Timing from Uranium/Thorium Dating of Tahitian Corals

Results from fossil corals found in Tahiti indicate that sea level began to rise when insolation at 65° North latitude was near a minimum, not after it had begun to rise, as predicted by the Milankovitch theory, and that it fluctuated on a millennial time scale during deglaciation.

The uncertain blitzkrieg of Pleistocene megafauna

In sum, human colonization in the late Pleistocene almost certainly triggered a ‘blitzkrieg’ of the ‘megafauna’, but the operational details remain elusive.

Early Human Occupation at Devil's Lair, Southwestern Australia 50,000 Years Ago

Abstract New dating confirms that people occupied the Australian continent before the earliest time inferred from conventional radiocarbon analysis. Many of the new ages were obtained by accelerator…

U–Th dating of speleothems with high initial 230Th using stratigraphical constraint