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Science 8 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5732, pp. 287 - 290
DOI: 10.1126/science.1111288
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Reports

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

Gifford H. Miller,1 Marilyn L. Fogel,2 John W. Magee,3 Michael K. Gagan,4 Simon J. Clarke,5 Beverly J. Johnson6

Most of Australia's largest mammals became extinct 50,000 to 45,000 years ago, shortly after humans colonized the continent. Without exceptional climate change at that time, a human cause is inferred, but a mechanism remains elusive. A 140,000-year record of dietary {delta}13C 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. We speculate that human firing of landscapes rapidly converted a drought-adapted mosaic of trees, shrubs, and nutritious grasslands to the modern fire-adapted desert scrub. Animals that could adapt survived; those that could not, became extinct.

1 INSTAAR and Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309–0450 USA.
2 Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1051 Broad Branch Road, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
3 Department of Earth and Marine Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
4 Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
5 Charles Sturt University, Locked Bag 588, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia.
6 Department of Geology, Bates College, Lewiston, ME 04240–6028, USA.

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