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Science 8 June 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5523, pp. 1888 - 1892
DOI: 10.1126/science.1060264
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Reports

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

Richard G. Roberts,1* Timothy F. Flannery,2 Linda K. Ayliffe,3dagger Hiroyuki Yoshida,1 Jon M. Olley,4 Gavin J. Prideaux,5 Geoff M. Laslett,6 Alexander Baynes,7 M. A. Smith,8 Rhys Jones,9 Barton L. Smith10

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.

1 School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
2 South Australian Museum, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia.
3 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
4 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Land and Water, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
5 Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
6 CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences, Melbourne, Victoria 3168, Australia.
7 Western Australian Museum, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia.
8 National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
9 Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
10 Department of Earth Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rgrobe{at}unimelb.edu.au

dagger    Present address: Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.

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