What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?

Christopher Johnson; John Alroy; Nicholas Beeton; Michael Bird; Barry Brook; Alan Cooper; Richard Gillespie; Salvador Herrando-Pérez; Zenobia Jacobs; Gifford Miller; Gavin Prideaux; Richard Roberts; Marta Rodríguez-Rey; Frédérik Saltré; Christian Turney; Corey Bradshaw

doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.2399

What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?

Christopher Johnson, John Alroy, Nicholas Beeton, Michael Bird, Barry Brook, Alan Cooper, Richard Gillespie, Salvador Herrando-Pérez, Zenobia Jacobs, Gifford Miller, Gavin Prideaux, Richard Roberts, Marta Rodríguez-Rey, Frédérik Saltré, Christian Turney, Corey Bradshaw

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.

Original language	English
Article number	20152399
Pages (from-to)	1-8
Number of pages	8
Journal	Proceedings of The Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences
Volume	283
Issue number	1824
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2399
Publication status	Published - 10 Feb 2016

Keywords

Archeology
Climate change
Human impacts
Palaeoecology
Prehistory
Quaternary

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1098/rspb.2015.2399

Cite this

Johnson, C., Alroy, J., Beeton, N., Bird, M., Brook, B., Cooper, A., Gillespie, R., Herrando-Pérez, S., Jacobs, Z., Miller, G., Prideaux, G., Roberts, R., Rodríguez-Rey, M., Saltré, F., Turney, C., & Bradshaw, C. (2016). What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul? Proceedings of The Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences, 283(1824), 1-8. Article 20152399. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.2399

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title = "What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?",

abstract = "During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.",

keywords = "Archeology, Climate change, Human impacts, Palaeoecology, Prehistory, Quaternary",

author = "Christopher Johnson and John Alroy and Nicholas Beeton and Michael Bird and Barry Brook and Alan Cooper and Richard Gillespie and Salvador Herrando-P{\'e}rez and Zenobia Jacobs and Gifford Miller and Gavin Prideaux and Richard Roberts and Marta Rodr{\'i}guez-Rey and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}rik Saltr{\'e} and Christian Turney and Corey Bradshaw",

year = "2016",

month = feb,

day = "10",

doi = "10.1098/rspb.2015.2399",

language = "English",

volume = "283",

pages = "1--8",

journal = "Proceedings of The Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences",

issn = "0962-8452",

publisher = "The Royal Society Publishing",