New evidence implicates humans in prehistoric animal extinctions

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Protemnodon skull from cave at Mt. Cripps northwest Tasmania. Image supplied by Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Tasmania Australia
Protemnodon skull from cave at Mt. Cripps, northwest Tasmania. Image supplied by Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania, Australia
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Research led by UK and Australian scientists sheds new light on the role that our ancestors played in the extinction of Australia's prehistoric animals. The study, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, provides the first evidence that Tasmania's giant kangaroos and marsupial 'rhinos' and 'leopards' were still roaming the island when humans first arrived. The findings suggest that the mass extinction of Tasmania's large prehistoric animals was the result of human hunting, and not climate change as previously believed.


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