Short overlap of humans and megafauna in Pleistocene Australia

Abstract

Reappraisal of the reliability of numerical dating results for Australian extinct megafauna and archaeology reveals that many still-quoted ages are incorrect and should be eliminated from databases and discussions. We estimate that the megafauna-human overlap period on mainland Australia was about 3900 years (95% confidence interval 3158 to 4642 years) centred ∼44,000 calendar years ago. Our results rule out climatic and environmental changes associated with the Last Glacial Maximum as contributing factors in Australian late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions, whereas the short overlap suggests instead that anthropogenic factors are likely to be dominant.