At least 17,000 years of coexistence: Modern humans and megafauna at the Willandra Lakes, South-Eastern Australia

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• 作者：Michael C. Westaway^a ; ^{m.westaway@griffith.edu.au} ; Jon Olley^b ; Rainer Grü ; n^a
• 关键词：Australia ; Megafauna ; Extinction ; Zygomaturus ; New ages ; Dating
• 刊名：Quaternary Science Reviews
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：1 February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：157
• 期：Complete
• 页码：206-211
• 全文大小：894 K
• 卷排序：157

文摘

The question of how the Australian megafauna became extinct has been one of the most fiercely debated in Australian archaeology. The dominant hypothesis as reported in much of the press is that the megafauna became extinct through human agency shortly after the arrival of the First Australians some 50,000 years ago. We show that there is at least 17,000 years of overlap between people and megafauna at one of Australia’s richest archaeological landscape. The research undermines the rapid kill hypothesis and suggests that megafauna extinction was likely the results of a combination of factors. It is clear that much more research is required if we are to understand how the Australian megafauna became extinct.