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Science 8 January 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5399, pp. 205 - 208
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5399.205
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Reports

Pleistocene Extinction of Genyornis newtoni: Human Impact on Australian Megafauna

Gifford H. Miller, * John W. Magee, Beverly J. Johnson, dagger Marilyn L. Fogel, Nigel A. Spooner, Malcolm T. McCulloch, Linda K. Ayliffe ddagger

More than 85 percent of Australian terrestrial genera with a body mass exceeding 44 kilograms became extinct in the Late Pleistocene. Although most were marsupials, the list includes the large, flightless mihirung Genyornis newtoni. More than 700 dates on Genyornis eggshells from three different climate regions document the continuous presence of Genyornis from more than 100,000 years ago until their sudden disappearance 50,000 years ago, about the same time that humans arrived in Australia. Simultaneous extinction of Genyornis at all sites during an interval of modest climate change implies that human impact, not climate, was responsible.

G. H. Miller and B. J. Johnson, Center for Geochronical Research, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0450, USA. J. W. Magee, Department of Geology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia. M. L. Fogel, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5251 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA. N. A. Spooner, M. T. McCulloch, L. K. Ayliffe, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gmiller{at}colorado.edu

dagger    Present address: School of Oceanography, Box 357940, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7940, USA.

ddagger    Present address: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climatet et de l'Environnement (LSCE), Domaine du CRNS-Bt 12, Ave. de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, Cedex, France.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)