Search Here

Earlier, it was theorised that Australian megafauna, or animals of the Pleistocene period, about 1.8 million years ago, got extinct due to climate change. But surprisingly, a new study by scientists at the University of Tasmania shows that it was due to human hunters, according to Australia Network News.

Hence, a number of Australia's prehistoric animals, such as giant kangaroos and large, flightless birds, became extinct due to the human activity about 40,000 years ago.

"We looked at ... the dates of when humans arrived and what the climate was doing," said James Cook, co-author of the study. "We found the climate wasn't doing anything it hadn't done before ... and there was a close link between humans and megafauna extinction."

Michael Bird, another co-author of the study, explains that at the time when the megafauna vanished, the humans arrived at the Sahul landmass. It finally split into Papua New Guinea, Australia's mainland, and Tasmania, says the Daily Mail.

"We are not saying people came and started killing everything. But when people get involved in population dynamics, through things like hunting, taking eggs and killing juveniles, it affects things over time," Bird added.

Another study published in 2015 supports the current hypothesis. It shows evidence of charred animal eggs, pointing to their use for human consumption. However, hazy carbon dating and climate records make it difficult to put a precise date on the remains, says SBS News.

"Today, Sahul has no native terrestrial animal larger than about 40 kilograms, but for much of the Pleistocene it supported diverse large vertebrates up to almost 3 tonnes," Cook said. "The overkill hypothesis proposes that human hunting drove these animals extinct."

The findings were published in Feb. 10,2016 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.