Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction

摘要: Establishing the cause of past extinctions is critical if we are to understand better what might trigger future occurrences and how prevent them. The mechanisms continental late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, however, still fiercely contested. Potential factors contributing their demise include climatic change, human impact, or some combination. On Australian mainland, 90% megafauna became extinct by ≈46 thousand years (ka) ago, soon after first archaeological evidence for colonization continent. Yet, on neighboring island Tasmania (which was connected mainland when sea levels were lower), extinction appears have taken place before initial arrival between 43 40 ka, which would seem exonerate people as a factor in extirpation megafauna. Age estimates last megafauna, poorly constrained. Here, show, direct dating fossil remains associated sediments, that Tasmanian survived until at least 41 ka (i.e., mainland) thus overlapped with humans. Furthermore, vegetation record spanning 130 shows no significant regional environmental change occurred 37 land bridge existed mainland. Our results consistent model human-induced most probably driven hunting, they reaffirm value islands adjacent landmasses tests competing hypotheses Quaternary extinctions.