Age of the Lancefield megafauna: A reappraisal

Huet, Sanja Van; Grün, Rainer; Murray-Wallace, Colin V.; Redvers-Newton, Nicola; White, J. Peter

doi:10.1080/03122417.1998.11681605

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…Radiocarbon dating of bone and charcoal older than 35 ka is problematic using conventional sample pretreatments (17)(18)(19). Consequently, 14 C ages were used in this study only for comparison with ages of Ͻ50 ka obtained (29).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Ages for the Last Australian Megafauna: Continent-Wide Extinction About 46,000 Years Ago

Roberts

Flannery

Ayliffe

et al. 2001

Science

459

311

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All Australian land mammals, reptiles, and birds weighing more than 100 kilograms, and six of the seven genera with a body mass of 45 to 100 kilograms, perished in the late Quaternary. The timing and causes of these extinctions remain uncertain. We report burial ages for megafauna from 28 sites and infer extinction across the continent around 46,400 years ago (95% confidence interval, 51,200 to 39,800 years ago). Our results rule out extreme aridity at the Last Glacial Maximum as the cause of extinction, but not other climatic impacts; a "blitzkrieg" model of human-induced extinction; or an extended period of anthropogenic ecosystem disruption.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Ages for the Last Australian Megafauna: Continent-Wide Extinction About 46,000 Years Ago

Roberts

Flannery

Ayliffe

et al. 2001

Science

459

311

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“…Fluvial deposition modes include both horizontally (channel) and vertically accreted deposits (Van Huet, 1999). Radiocarbon, electron spin resonance and amino‐acid dating indicates that the deposit is late Pleistocene (Gillespie et al ., 1978; Van Huet et al ., 1998).…”

Section: Geological and Geographical Settings Of The Depositsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taxonomy and palaeobiology of the largest-ever marsupial, Diprotodon Owen, 1838 (Diprotodontidae, Marsupialia)

Price

2008

Zool J Linn Soc

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To determine accurately the rates of late Pleistocene megafaunal loss, it is fundamentally important to have accurate taxonomic information for every species. In Australia, accurate taxonomic information is lacking for several Pleistocene groups, including the largest marsupial ever to live, Diprotodon Owen, 1838. Diprotodon taxonomy has been complicated by early nomenclatural problems and by the occurrence of two distinct size classes of individuals that do not reflect an ontogenetic series. Traditionally, the two size classes have been regarded as separate species. However, a taxonomic investigation of large samples (> 1000 teeth) of Diprotodon material from several different fossil localities in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria suggests that there is little evidence for the discrimination of more than one morphospecies. Thus, Diprotodon is here considered a monotypic genus and the single morphospecies, D. optatum Owen, 1838 is considered to have been highly sexually dimorphic. By drawing analogy with extant sexually dimorphic megaherbivores and marsupials, the large form was probably male, and the small form was probably female. Diprotodon optatum probably moved in small, gendersegregated herds, and exhibited a polygynous breeding strategy. As a single morphospecies, D. optatum had a near-continental geographical distribution, similar to that of extant megaherbivores, possibly indicating its niche as a habitat generalist.

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“…This poor bone preservation is in sharp contrast with other organic materials within the site: there is some charcoal, well-preserved unburnt macro plant debris and pollen throughout the sequence, plant roots below the bone bed were post-bomb modern. Recent studies using AAR and ESR methods on extinct marsupial teeth from Lancefield Swamp yielded age estimates in the range 38-60 ka (van Huet et al 1998), significantly older than the original charcoal dates would suggest for the archaeology. 2.…”

Section: People and Megafaunamentioning

confidence: 99%

Dating the First Australians

Gillespie¹

2002

Radiocarbon

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ABSTRACT. The dating of selected archaeological and megafaunal sites from the Australian region is reviewed, with emphasis on recent work at some of the oldest sites. Improved chemical procedures with decreased analytical background for 14 C analysis, combined with new luminescence dating methods, has confirmed many of the results processed decades ago and significantly increased the maximum age for some others. The oldest occupation horizons in four different regions reliably dated by defendable multi-method results are in the range 42-48,000 calendar years ago, overlapping with the age range for similarly well-dated undisturbed sites containing the youngest extinct megafauna. There is less secure evidence suggesting some archaeology may be earlier and some megafauna may have survived later than this period. INTRODUCTIONEstimates of the time since humans first occupied the extended Late Pleistocene continent Sahul (sometimes called Greater Australia or Meganesia) have steadily increased since systematic archaeological excavation and radiocarbon dating became established in the 1960s. Jones (1968) considered 30,000 BP a reasonable estimate for the earliest arrivals, based on the available evidence showing 3 or 4 sites with 14 C dates of more than 20,000 BP. In the second edition of The Prehistory of Australia (Mulvaney 1975) an appended date list documented four sites in Australia and one in New Guinea with 14 C results older than 25,000 BP. The current edition (Mulvaney and Kamminga 1999) provides an overview of the hundreds of dates now accumulated for Late Pleistocene archaeological sites in Sahul. Some of the robust debate about claims for earliest occupation of the region is presented in Murray (1998).Traditional 14 C dating using radiometric counting has become less important in Sahul, as elsewhere, since accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) laboratories began to take on large workloads from the mid 1980s. In many situations this new measurement technology also allowed better pretreatment chemistry to be applied in the isolation and decontamination of specific sample components. At about the same time newer thermoluminescence (TL), optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), electron spin resonance (ESR), amino acid racemization (AAR), and uranium-thorium series (U/Th) dating methods began to make significant contributions to archaeology and the earth sciences. These and other techniques operate under different rules and on different materials to 14 C. An "archaeological event" such as a fire may sensibly be 14 C dated using charcoal, whereas luminescence methods on quartz sand are likely to be dating an "environmental event" such as exposure to sunlight, not necessarily directly associated with the target archaeological event. However, since everyone should eventually get the same answer to questions like "when did humans first colonize Australia" or "when did the megafauna become extinct" there are some instructive examples of cross-dating with different numerical methods.Projects such as dating the first Au...

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Age of the Lancefield megafauna: A reappraisal

Cited by 19 publications

References 11 publications

New Ages for the Last Australian Megafauna: Continent-Wide Extinction About 46,000 Years Ago

New Ages for the Last Australian Megafauna: Continent-Wide Extinction About 46,000 Years Ago

Taxonomy and palaeobiology of the largest-ever marsupial, Diprotodon Owen, 1838 (Diprotodontidae, Marsupialia)

Dating the First Australians

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