Back to Search
Start Over
Humans rather than climate the primary cause of Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in Australia
- Source :
- van der Kaars, W A, Miller, G, Turney, C, Cook, E, Nürnberg, D, Schönfeld, J, Kershaw, P & Lehman, S 2017, ' Humans rather than climate the primary cause of Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in Australia ', Nature Communications, vol. 8, 14142, pp. 1-7 . https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14142, Nature Communications (2041-1723) (Nature Publishing Group), 2017-01, Vol. 8, N. 14142, P. 7p., Nature Communications, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2017), Nature Communications, Nature Communications, 8 (14142)., Nature Communications, 8:14142, 1-7. Nature Publishing Group
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Environmental histories that span the last full glacial cycle and are representative of regional change in Australia are scarce, hampering assessment of environmental change preceding and concurrent with human dispersal on the continent ca. 47,000 years ago. Here we present a continuous 150,000-year record offshore south-western Australia and identify the timing of two critical late Pleistocene events: wide-scale ecosystem change and regional megafaunal population collapse. We establish that substantial changes in vegetation and fire regime occurred ∼70,000 years ago under a climate much drier than today. We record high levels of the dung fungus Sporormiella, a proxy for herbivore biomass, from 150,000 to 45,000 years ago, then a marked decline indicating megafaunal population collapse, from 45,000 to 43,100 years ago, placing the extinctions within 4,000 years of human dispersal across Australia. These findings rule out climate change, and implicate humans, as the primary extinction cause.<br />Megafaunal extinction in Australia has been attributed to both climate change and human causation. Here, van der Kaars et al. present a 150,000 year record offshore southwest Australia in which they refine the timing and nature of regional ecosystem changes and megafaunal population collapse.
- Subjects :
- 010506 paleontology
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Environmental change
Pleistocene
Science
Climate Change
Population
Population Dynamics
General Physics and Astronomy
Climate change
Extinction, Biological
01 natural sciences
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Article
Sporormiella
Megafauna
Animals
Humans
Human Activities
Glacial period
Herbivory
SDG 14 - Life Below Water
education
Ecosystem
History, Ancient
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Mammals
education.field_of_study
Multidisciplinary
biology
Ecology
Australia
Fungi
General Chemistry
biology.organism_classification
Geography
13. Climate action
Biological dispersal
Animal Distribution
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20411723
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- van der Kaars, W A, Miller, G, Turney, C, Cook, E, Nürnberg, D, Schönfeld, J, Kershaw, P & Lehman, S 2017, ' Humans rather than climate the primary cause of Pleistocene megafaunal extinction in Australia ', Nature Communications, vol. 8, 14142, pp. 1-7 . https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14142, Nature Communications (2041-1723) (Nature Publishing Group), 2017-01, Vol. 8, N. 14142, P. 7p., Nature Communications, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2017), Nature Communications, Nature Communications, 8 (14142)., Nature Communications, 8:14142, 1-7. Nature Publishing Group
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c6e385f596a1a599cecc9e800db15717
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14142