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Articles on Megafaunal extinction

Displaying 21 - 31 of 31 articles
An impression of what it could have looked like: a giant lizard, Megalania, stalks a herd of migrating Diprotodon, while a pair of massive megafaunal kangaroos look on. Laurie Beirne

Giant marsupials once migrated across an Australian Ice Age landscape

Gilbert Price, The University of Queensland

Studies of the fossil teeth of the three-tonne Diprotodon have revealed the now-extinct beast was Australia’s only known seasonally migrating marsupial.
What it could have looked like when humans and megafauna lived together: a giant macropod Procoptodon goliah in the foreground, while Thylacinus cynocephalus hunts for prey nearby. A herd of Zygomaturus can be see on the lake edge of the ancient Willandra system. Illustration by Laurie Beirne

Aboriginal Australians co-existed with the megafauna for at least 17,000 years

Michael Westaway, Griffith University; Jon Olley, Griffith University, and Rainer Grun, Griffith University

The extinction of the giant reptiles, marsupials and birds that once called Australia home has been the subject of much debate, including the role early Australians may have had on their fate.
Diprotodon, the largest ever marsupial, probably died out at human hands. Peter Murray (courtesy of Chris Johnson)

New analysis finds no evidence that climate wiped out Australia’s megafauna

Frédérik Saltré, University of Adelaide; Christopher Johnson, University of Tasmania, and Corey J. A. Bradshaw, University of Adelaide

What killed off Australia’s giant wombats and other megafauna? New dating once again points the finger at human hunters, rather than abrupt changes to the climate.
An artist’s reconstruction of what the giant bird Dromornis would look like. Genyornis would be similar but slightly smaller. Peter Trusler

A case of mistaken identity for Australia’s extinct big bird

Trevor H. Worthy, Flinders University

Our entire knowledge of one of Australia’s extinct ancient giant birds is flawed because experts have been looking at remnants of the wrong egg the whole time.
Abrupt warming events may have helped kill off megafauna species like the mammoth. AAP Image/James Shrimpton

Abrupt climate warming, not cold snaps, kicked off megafauna extinction: study

Eliza Berlage, The Conversation

New research challenges previously held views that the Ice Age, giant biblical floods or hunting by humans were the key drivers behind the disappearance of megafauna.
Megafauna such as Glyptodon were muck-spreaders. Pavel Riha

Megafauna extinction affects ecosystems 12,000 years later

Chris Doughty, University of Oxford

If Earth were like a human body, large animals might be its arteries, moving nutrients from where they’re abundant to where they’re needed. Currently the planet has large regions where life is limited…

Related Topics

  1. Archaeology
  2. Australian megafauna
  3. Climate change
  4. Extinction
  5. Fossils
  6. Ice Age
  7. Marsupials
  8. Megafauna
  9. Palaeontology
  10. Woolly mammoth

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