Australian megafauna in the now
Outline recent scientific research on the australian megafauna and indicate how it is changing our ideas about the megafauna.
The idea that Australia’s large, terrestrial carnivore faunas of the middle Tertiary to Pleistocene were dominated by reptiles such as dinosaurs has gained wide agreement in recent decades. however, due to recent discoveries, this idea has been still aceppted but to a lesser degree. what was that discovery that changed this idea? it was the discovery of mammal megafauna.
also, due to aging techniques, scientists have discovered that these megafaunal mammals went extinct less than 20,000 years ago, when in 2001,in south australia, a team of scientists discovered 2 diprotodons and a tasmanian tiger, that have been extinct for 20,000 years. this put the theory that assumes that the megafauna died 40,000 years ago to question.
When did the megafauna die out in australia? outline current theories regarding the extinction of the australian megafauna.
It is believed that megafauna initially came into existence in response to glacial conditions. The extinction of megafauna around the world was probably due to environmental and ecological factors. It was almost completed by the end of the last ice age. It is believed that megafauna initially came into existence in response to glacial conditions and became extinct with the onset of warmer climates. it had nothing to do with humans as most people seem to think. If people have been in Australia for up to 60 000 years, then megafauna must have co-existed with humans for at least 30 000 years. Regularly hunted modern kangaroos survived not only 10 000 years of Aboriginal hunting, but also an onslaught of commercial shooters.
