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Ecosystem Collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a Human Role in Megafaunal Extinction
Ist Teil von
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2005-07, Vol.309 (5732), p.287-290
Ort / Verlag
Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Erscheinungsjahr
2005
Quelle
Science Online_科学在线
Beschreibungen/Notizen
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 δ13C 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.