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The radiocarbon (14C) dating of contaminated old wood has been seen as a challenge requiring many lengthy procedures, often using strong alkali extractions and carbon-containing solvents. Introduced here is a novel protocol called 2chlorOx, a twice-repeated sequence of alkaline hypochlorite and acidic chlorite oxidations, which is shown to work well for 14C and 13C measurements on both 50,000 BP wood samples, producing results superior to those from conventional acidic chlorite or acidic dichromate oxidations. The 2chlorOx method employs only inorganic reagents, many samples can be completed in less than one day under normal laboratory conditions, and cellulose prepared in this way is usually paper-white in color.

2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.

The study of palaeo-chronologies using fossil data provides evidence for past ecological and evolutionary processes, and is therefore useful for predicting patterns and impacts of future environmental change. However, the robustness of inferences made from fossil ages relies heavily on both the quantity and quality of available data. We compiled Quaternary non-human vertebrate fossil ages from Sahul published up to 2013. This, the FosSahul database, includes 9,302 fossil records from 363 deposits, for a total of 478 species within 215 genera, of which 27 are from extinct and extant megafaunal species (2,559 records). We also provide a rating of reliability of individual absolute age based on the dating protocols and association between the dated materials and the fossil remains. Our proposed rating system identified 2,422 records with high-quality ages (i.e., a reduction of 74%). There are many applications of the database, including disentangling the confounding influences of hypothetical extinction drivers, better spatial distribution estimates of species relative to palaeo-climates, and potentially identifying new areas for fossil discovery.

Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions impoverished mammalian diversity worldwide. The causes of these extinctions in Australia are most controversial but essential to resolve, because this continent-wide event presaged similar losses that occurred thousands of years later on other continents. Here we apply a rigorous metadata analysis and new ensemble-hindcasting approach to 659 Australian megafauna fossil ages. When coupled with analysis of several high-resolution climate records, we show that megafaunal extinctions were broadly synchronous among genera and independent of climate aridity and variability in Australia over the last 120,000 years. Our results reject climate change as the primary driver of megafauna extinctions in the world's most controversial context, and instead estimate that the megafauna disappeared Australia-wide similar to 13,500 years after human arrival, with shorter periods of coexistence in some regions. This is the first comprehensive approach to incorporate uncertainty in fossil ages, extinction timing and climatology, to quantify mechanisms of prehistorical extinctions.

2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.

The study of palaeo-chronologies using fossil data provides evidence for past ecological and evolutionary processes, and is therefore useful for predicting patterns and impacts of future environmental change. However, the robustness of inferences made from fossil ages relies heavily on both the quantity and quality of available data. We compiled Quaternary non-human vertebrate fossil ages from Sahul published up to 2013. This, the FosSahul database, includes 9,302 fossil records from 363 deposits, for a total of 478 species within 215 genera, of which 27 are from extinct and extant megafaunal species (2,559 records). We also provide a rating of reliability of individual absolute age based on the dating protocols and association between the dated materials and the fossil remains. Our proposed rating system identified 2,422 records with high-quality ages (i.e., a reduction of 74%). There are many applications of the database, including disentangling the confounding influences of hypothetical extinction drivers, better spatial distribution estimates of species relative to palaeo-climates, and potentially identifying new areas for fossil discovery.

Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions impoverished mammalian diversity worldwide. The causes of these extinctions in Australia are most controversial but essential to resolve, because this continent-wide event presaged similar losses that occurred thousands of years later on other continents. Here we apply a rigorous metadata analysis and new ensemble-hindcasting approach to 659 Australian megafauna fossil ages. When coupled with analysis of several high-resolution climate records, we show that megafaunal extinctions were broadly synchronous among genera and independent of climate aridity and variability in Australia over the last 120,000 years. Our results reject climate change as the primary driver of megafauna extinctions in the world's most controversial context, and instead estimate that the megafauna disappeared Australia-wide similar to 13,500 years after human arrival, with shorter periods of coexistence in some regions. This is the first comprehensive approach to incorporate uncertainty in fossil ages, extinction timing and climatology, to quantify mechanisms of prehistorical extinctions.

The study of palaeo-chronologies using fossil data provides evidence for past ecological and evolutionary processes, and is therefore useful for predicting patterns and impacts of future environmental change. However, the robustness of inferences made from fossil ages relies heavily on both the quantity and quality of available data. We compiled Quaternary non-human vertebrate fossil ages from Sahul published up to 2013. This, the FosSahul database, includes 9,302 fossil records from 363 deposits, for a total of 478 species within 215 genera, of which 27 are from extinct and extant megafaunal species (2,559 records). We also provide a rating of reliability of individual absolute age based on the dating protocols and association between the dated materials and the fossil remains. Our proposed rating system identified 2,422 records with high-quality ages (i.e., a reduction of 74%). There are many applications of the database, including disentangling the confounding influences of hypothetical extinction drivers, better spatial distribution estimates of species relative to palaeo-climates, and potentially identifying new areas for fossil discovery.

2016 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.

Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions impoverished mammalian diversity worldwide. The causes of these extinctions in Australia are most controversial but essential to resolve, because this continent-wide event presaged similar losses that occurred thousands of years later on other continents. Here we apply a rigorous metadata analysis and new ensemble-hindcasting approach to 659 Australian megafauna fossil ages. When coupled with analysis of several high-resolution climate records, we show that megafaunal extinctions were broadly synchronous among genera and independent of climate aridity and variability in Australia over the last 120,000 years. Our results reject climate change as the primary driver of megafauna extinctions in the world's most controversial context, and instead estimate that the megafauna disappeared Australia-wide similar to 13,500 years after human arrival, with shorter periods of coexistence in some regions. This is the first comprehensive approach to incorporate uncertainty in fossil ages, extinction timing and climatology, to quantify mechanisms of prehistorical extinctions.

In the Spotlight report "New Information from Ancient Genomes" by Sandra J. Ackerman (September-October), I question the statement on page 327 that Eske Willerslev's data "constitute a strong case that climate change-not hunting-caused the last great extinction." Others argue that the extinction of the megafauna caused changes in the vegetation, not the other way around.

Confidence in fossil ages is a recognized constraint for understanding changes in archaeological and palaeontological records. Poor estimates of age can lead to erroneous inferences-such as timing of species arrival, range expansions and extinctions-preventing robust hypothesis testing of the causes and consequences of past events. Therefore, age reliability must be demonstrated before patterns and mechanisms are inferred. Here we present a generalized quality-rating scheme based on a two-stage set of objective criteria: first, our method assesses the reliability of an age regarding the dating procedure, and second, if the age is based on association, it assesses the confidence in its association with the target vertebrate fossil. We developed this quality rating specifically for Australian applications, but it could be applied to other regions and to longer timescales with some modification. Our method ranks ages in four categories of reliability (A* and A are reliable; B and C are unreliable). In our case study of the late Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul, accounting for reliability (i.e., accepting only reliable ages) reduced the number of useful records within chronologies by 70%; for most species, this greatly affects any inferences regarding the timing and possible drivers of extinction. Our method provides a simple, replicable and general tool for assessing the age quality of dated fossils, as well as provides a guide for selecting useful protocols and samples for dating.

Bones from extinct Australian marsupials found at Spring Creek, Victoria, and in the Mowbray Swamp, Tasmania, have yielded scattered and anomalously young radiocarbon ages measured on collagen, gelatin or ultrafiltered gelatin. We resampled previously dated material from those two sites and from Mt Cripps, Tasmania, as well as a control sample from Zaglik, Russia, to compare chronologies based on XAD-2 purified total amino acid fractions and collagen purified by ultrafiltration (UF) or less rigorous methods. Our age from the control site bone gave a similar infinite age, while six out of seven other comparisons yielded radiocarbon ages on total amino acid fractions older than those previously measured on collagen or gelatin. The Palorchestes from Spring Creek yielded a date of >53500 BP.

In the Spotlight report "New Information from Ancient Genomes" by Sandra J. Ackerman (September-October), I question the statement on page 327 that Eske Willerslev's data "constitute a strong case that climate change-not hunting-caused the last great extinction." Others argue that the extinction of the megafauna caused changes in the vegetation, not the other way around.

Confidence in fossil ages is a recognized constraint for understanding changes in archaeological and palaeontological records. Poor estimates of age can lead to erroneous inferences-such as timing of species arrival, range expansions and extinctions-preventing robust hypothesis testing of the causes and consequences of past events. Therefore, age reliability must be demonstrated before patterns and mechanisms are inferred. Here we present a generalized quality-rating scheme based on a two-stage set of objective criteria: first, our method assesses the reliability of an age regarding the dating procedure, and second, if the age is based on association, it assesses the confidence in its association with the target vertebrate fossil. We developed this quality rating specifically for Australian applications, but it could be applied to other regions and to longer timescales with some modification. Our method ranks ages in four categories of reliability (A* and A are reliable; B and C are unreliable). In our case study of the late Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul, accounting for reliability (i.e., accepting only reliable ages) reduced the number of useful records within chronologies by 70%; for most species, this greatly affects any inferences regarding the timing and possible drivers of extinction. Our method provides a simple, replicable and general tool for assessing the age quality of dated fossils, as well as provides a guide for selecting useful protocols and samples for dating.

Confidence in fossil ages is a recognized constraint for understanding changes in archaeological and palaeontological records. Poor estimates of age can lead to erroneous inferences-such as timing of species arrival, range expansions and extinctions-preventing robust hypothesis testing of the causes and consequences of past events. Therefore, age reliability must be demonstrated before patterns and mechanisms are inferred. Here we present a generalized quality-rating scheme based on a two-stage set of objective criteria: first, our method assesses the reliability of an age regarding the dating procedure, and second, if the age is based on association, it assesses the confidence in its association with the target vertebrate fossil. We developed this quality rating specifically for Australian applications, but it could be applied to other regions and to longer timescales with some modification. Our method ranks ages in four categories of reliability (A* and A are reliable; B and C are unreliable). In our case study of the late Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul, accounting for reliability (i.e., accepting only reliable ages) reduced the number of useful records within chronologies by 70%; for most species, this greatly affects any inferences regarding the timing and possible drivers of extinction. Our method provides a simple, replicable and general tool for assessing the age quality of dated fossils, as well as provides a guide for selecting useful protocols and samples for dating.

Bones from extinct Australian marsupials found at Spring Creek, Victoria, and in the Mowbray Swamp, Tasmania, have yielded scattered and anomalously young radiocarbon ages measured on collagen, gelatin or ultrafiltered gelatin. We resampled previously dated material from those two sites and from Mt Cripps, Tasmania, as well as a control sample from Zaglik, Russia, to compare chronologies based on XAD-2 purified total amino acid fractions and collagen purified by ultrafiltration (UF) or less rigorous methods. Our age from the control site bone gave a similar infinite age, while six out of seven other comparisons yielded radiocarbon ages on total amino acid fractions older than those previously measured on collagen or gelatin. The Palorchestes from Spring Creek yielded a date of >53500 BP.

The most enduring and high-profile scientific debate in Australian prehistory is that surrounding the loss of more than 50 species of endemic, large-bodied vertebrates (megafauna) and the timing of these extinctions (1). Wroe et al. (2) present a personal perspective on some of the available literature to reject the scenario of rapid, continent-wide losses, and downplay any role for human agency. They contend that different species of megafauna went extinct progressively during the Middle and Late Pleistocene, with many "disappearing" long before human hunters arrived, leaving climate change as the alternative explanation. However, these conclusions rely on a biased selection of data and disregard several underlying geochronological constraints.

Lima-Ribeiro and Diniz-Filho (2013) present a new compilation and analysis of the chronologies of human arrival and megafaunal extinction throughout the Americas. They find that in many places megafauna were apparently extinct before humans arrived; in many others, megafauna coexisted with humans for thousands of years before going extinct. They conclude that human impact made at most a minor and geographically restricted contribution to megafaunal extinction. We argue that Lima-Ribeiro and Diniz-Filho's (2013) conclusions are unreliable because they have not adequately accounted for uncertainties and biases that affect the estimation of extinction dates from fossil data and human-arrival dates from archeological data. We re-analyze their data taking these problems into account, and reach the opposite conclusion to theirs: extinction consistently followed human arrival with a delay of around one or two thousand years, in agreement with the overkill model of megafaunal extinction

The most enduring and high-profile scientific debate in Australian prehistory is that surrounding the loss of more than 50 species of endemic, large-bodied vertebrates (megafauna) and the timing of these extinctions (1). Wroe et al. (2) present a personal perspective on some of the available literature to reject the scenario of rapid, continent-wide losses, and downplay any role for human agency. They contend that different species of megafauna went extinct progressively during the Middle and Late Pleistocene, with many "disappearing" long before human hunters arrived, leaving climate change as the alternative explanation. However, these conclusions rely on a biased selection of data and disregard several underlying geochronological constraints.

Lima-Ribeiro and Diniz-Filho (2013) present a new compilation and analysis of the chronologies of human arrival and megafaunal extinction throughout the Americas. They find that in many places megafauna were apparently extinct before humans arrived; in many others, megafauna coexisted with humans for thousands of years before going extinct. They conclude that human impact made at most a minor and geographically restricted contribution to megafaunal extinction. We argue that Lima-Ribeiro and Diniz-Filho's (2013) conclusions are unreliable because they have not adequately accounted for uncertainties and biases that affect the estimation of extinction dates from fossil data and human-arrival dates from archeological data. We re-analyze their data taking these problems into account, and reach the opposite conclusion to theirs: extinction consistently followed human arrival with a delay of around one or two thousand years, in agreement with the overkill model of megafaunal extinction

Lima-Ribeiro and Diniz-Filho (2013) present a new compilation and analysis of the chronologies of human arrival and megafaunal extinction throughout the Americas. They find that in many places megafauna were apparently extinct before humans arrived; in many others, megafauna coexisted with humans for thousands of years before going extinct. They conclude that human impact made at most a minor and geographically restricted contribution to megafaunal extinction. We argue that Lima-Ribeiro and Diniz-Filho's (2013) conclusions are unreliable because they have not adequately accounted for uncertainties and biases that affect the estimation of extinction dates from fossil data and human-arrival dates from archeological data. We re-analyze their data taking these problems into account, and reach the opposite conclusion to theirs: extinction consistently followed human arrival with a delay of around one or two thousand years, in agreement with the overkill model of megafaunal extinction

The most enduring and high-profile scientific debate in Australian prehistory is that surrounding the loss of more than 50 species of endemic, large-bodied vertebrates (megafauna) and the timing of these extinctions (1). Wroe et al. (2) present a personal perspective on some of the available literature to reject the scenario of rapid, continent-wide losses, and downplay any role for human agency. They contend that different species of megafauna went extinct progressively during the Middle and Late Pleistocene, with many "disappearing" long before human hunters arrived, leaving climate change as the alternative explanation. However, these conclusions rely on a biased selection of data and disregard several underlying geochronological constraints.

Excerpt: Using lakes and dry basins for discerning the patterns of climatic change faces a number of challenges. Study of the Willandra basins (Figures 1 and 2) involves reconstruction of their environmental history and its relationship to controlling climatic change.... This paper reviews new evidence and revises previous interpretations, with special relevance to a new understanding of glacial maximum environments and their expression within the Willandra system.

Recent discussion on the late Pleistocene extinction of the Australian megafauna has revolved around interpretation of several key fossil sites in Tasmania. It has been suggested that humans did not arrive in Tasmania until after the megafauna became extinct, or did not hunt now extinct megafauna, and therefore that humans cannot be implicated in the extinctions. Radiocarbon results from these sites indicate that the youngest extinct megafauna are close to charcoal ages from the oldest archaeological deposits, although difficulties have arisen in establishing chronologies because most relevant sites have ages near the limit for radiocarbon analysis. We report a series of new radiocarbon ages, d13C, d15N and C:N ratios on collagen and dentine fractions from skeletal remains in the Mount Cripps karst area and the Mowbray Swamp, both in northwestern Tasmania, and discuss the reliability of ages from these and other sites.We also report the discovery of an articulated Simosthenurus occidentalis skeleton at Mt Cripps, that represents only the second directlydated extinct megafaunal taxon with a reliable ageTasmania, but the presence of archaeological evidence and megafauna with the same age at the same site has not yet been demonstrated. At least two megafaunal taxadthe nowextinct Protemnodon anak and a giant Pleistocene form of the extant Macropus giganteusdwere still present in Tasmania after 43 ka, when human crossing of the Bassian landbridge from mainland Australia first became sustainable.

Excerpt: Using lakes and dry basins for discerning the patterns of climatic change faces a number of challenges. Study of the Willandra basins (Figures 1 and 2) involves reconstruction of their environmental history and its relationship to controlling climatic change.... This paper reviews new evidence and revises previous interpretations, with special relevance to a new understanding of glacial maximum environments and their expression within the Willandra system.

Recent discussion on the late Pleistocene extinction of the Australian megafauna has revolved around interpretation of several key fossil sites in Tasmania. It has been suggested that humans did not arrive in Tasmania until after the megafauna became extinct, or did not hunt now extinct megafauna, and therefore that humans cannot be implicated in the extinctions. Radiocarbon results from these sites indicate that the youngest extinct megafauna are close to charcoal ages from the oldest archaeological deposits, although difficulties have arisen in establishing chronologies because most relevant sites have ages near the limit for radiocarbon analysis. We report a series of new radiocarbon ages, d13C, d15N and C:N ratios on collagen and dentine fractions from skeletal remains in the Mount Cripps karst area and the Mowbray Swamp, both in northwestern Tasmania, and discuss the reliability of ages from these and other sites.We also report the discovery of an articulated Simosthenurus occidentalis skeleton at Mt Cripps, that represents only the second directlydated extinct megafaunal taxon with a reliable ageTasmania, but the presence of archaeological evidence and megafauna with the same age at the same site has not yet been demonstrated. At least two megafaunal taxadthe nowextinct Protemnodon anak and a giant Pleistocene form of the extant Macropus giganteusdwere still present in Tasmania after 43 ka, when human crossing of the Bassian landbridge from mainland Australia first became sustainable.

Excerpt: Using lakes and dry basins for discerning the patterns of climatic change faces a number of challenges. Study of the Willandra basins (Figures 1 and 2) involves reconstruction of their environmental history and its relationship to controlling climatic change.... This paper reviews new evidence and revises previous interpretations, with special relevance to a new understanding of glacial maximum environments and their expression within the Willandra system.

Recent discussion on the late Pleistocene extinction of the Australian megafauna has revolved around interpretation of several key fossil sites in Tasmania. It has been suggested that humans did not arrive in Tasmania until after the megafauna became extinct, or did not hunt now extinct megafauna, and therefore that humans cannot be implicated in the extinctions. Radiocarbon results from these sites indicate that the youngest extinct megafauna are close to charcoal ages from the oldest archaeological deposits, although difficulties have arisen in establishing chronologies because most relevant sites have ages near the limit for radiocarbon analysis. We report a series of new radiocarbon ages, d13C, d15N and C:N ratios on collagen and dentine fractions from skeletal remains in the Mount Cripps karst area and the Mowbray Swamp, both in northwestern Tasmania, and discuss the reliability of ages from these and other sites.We also report the discovery of an articulated Simosthenurus occidentalis skeleton at Mt Cripps, that represents only the second directlydated extinct megafaunal taxon with a reliable ageTasmania, but the presence of archaeological evidence and megafauna with the same age at the same site has not yet been demonstrated. At least two megafaunal taxadthe nowextinct Protemnodon anak and a giant Pleistocene form of the extant Macropus giganteusdwere still present in Tasmania after 43 ka, when human crossing of the Bassian landbridge from mainland Australia first became sustainable.

Excerpt: Using lakes and dry basins for discerning the patterns of climatic change faces a number of challenges. Study of the Willandra basins (Figures 1 and 2) involves reconstruction of their environmental history and its relationship to controlling climatic change.... This paper reviews new evidence and revises previous interpretations, with special relevance to a new understanding of glacial maximum environments and their expression within the Willandra system.

Excerpt: Using lakes and dry basins for discerning the patterns of climatic change faces a number of challenges. Study of the Willandra basins (Figures 1 and 2) involves reconstruction of their environmental history and its relationship to controlling climatic change.... This paper reviews new evidence and revises previous interpretations, with special relevance to a new understanding of glacial maximum environments and their expression within the Willandra system.

Recent discussion on the late Pleistocene extinction of the Australian megafauna has revolved around interpretation of several key fossil sites in Tasmania. It has been suggested that humans did not arrive in Tasmania until after the megafauna became extinct, or did not hunt now extinct megafauna, and therefore that humans cannot be implicated in the extinctions. Radiocarbon results from these sites indicate that the youngest extinct megafauna are close to charcoal ages from the oldest archaeological deposits, although difficulties have arisen in establishing chronologies because most relevant sites have ages near the limit for radiocarbon analysis. We report a series of new radiocarbon ages, d13C, d15N and C:N ratios on collagen and dentine fractions from skeletal remains in the Mount Cripps karst area and the Mowbray Swamp, both in northwestern Tasmania, and discuss the reliability of ages from these and other sites.We also report the discovery of an articulated Simosthenurus occidentalis skeleton at Mt Cripps, that represents only the second directlydated extinct megafaunal taxon with a reliable ageTasmania, but the presence of archaeological evidence and megafauna with the same age at the same site has not yet been demonstrated. At least two megafaunal taxadthe nowextinct Protemnodon anak and a giant Pleistocene form of the extant Macropus giganteusdwere still present in Tasmania after 43 ka, when human crossing of the Bassian landbridge from mainland Australia first became sustainable.

Research into the palaeoenvironmental history of New Caledonia was begun independently by Hope and Stevenson in the early 1990s. While the original work of Hope and colleagues was centred around questions of the long-term vegetation dynamics of maquis and rainforest within the ultramafic terrain of New Caledonia (Hope and Pask 1998; Read et al. 2000), Stevenson and colleagues were exploring questions of human impact and the detection of initial human settlement (Stevenson and Dodson 1995; Stevenson 1998; Stevenson et al. 2001; Stevenson 2004). Hope and Stevenson later came together to work on the longest record so far recovered from the tropical southwest Pacific, Lake Xere Wapo in southwest New Caledonia. Having published the initial findings from this site (Stevenson and Hope 2005), a major problem remained, that of a robust chronology. The 12 m core XW-B reached radiocarbon background shortly after 300 cm, had several significant age inversions and had what appeared to be a very shallow Holocene sequence of fewer than 20 cm. Stevenson and Hope revisited Lake Xere Wapo in 2005, collecting new material for further dating aimed at untangling the chronology. Results from this new dating program are reported here, with a summary of previous radiocarbon determinations.

Italian translation of the book: Tuniz, C., Gillespie, R. & Jones, C. (2009). The Bone Readers: Atoms, Genes and the Politics of Australia's Deep Past. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. ISBN:9781741147285. Who owns the past? Scientists are reconstructing human prehistory with ever more refined techniques at a time when Indigenous people are demanding ownership of it, and when many archaeologists are challenging the primacy of scientific evidence. 'The bone readers' examines the most controversial issues in Australian pre-history. With a razor sharp eye and a fine sense of irony, the authors explain which hypotheses don't have legs and expose the implications for the politics of the present. They examine the facts and myths about first human arrival in Australia and later waves of arrivals, the implications of the discovery of Homo floresiensis (hobbits), sensitivities around the demise of megafauna, rock art dating, and what DNA tells us about ownership of human remains. Findings in Australia have implications for the history of the human species throughout the world, and they show how they can throw light on human lineages and animal extinctions elsewhere. Throughout they explain the complexities of scientific techniques for the general reader. This book sets the record straight for readers puzzled by the myriad claims and counterclaims. Not shy of controversy, it is bound to stir debate.

Research into the palaeoenvironmental history of New Caledonia was begun independently by Hope and Stevenson in the early 1990s. While the original work of Hope and colleagues was centred around questions of the long-term vegetation dynamics of maquis and rainforest within the ultramafic terrain of New Caledonia (Hope and Pask 1998; Read et al. 2000), Stevenson and colleagues were exploring questions of human impact and the detection of initial human settlement (Stevenson and Dodson 1995; Stevenson 1998; Stevenson et al. 2001; Stevenson 2004). Hope and Stevenson later came together to work on the longest record so far recovered from the tropical southwest Pacific, Lake Xere Wapo in southwest New Caledonia. Having published the initial findings from this site (Stevenson and Hope 2005), a major problem remained, that of a robust chronology. The 12 m core XW-B reached radiocarbon background shortly after 300 cm, had several significant age inversions and had what appeared to be a very shallow Holocene sequence of fewer than 20 cm. Stevenson and Hope revisited Lake Xere Wapo in 2005, collecting new material for further dating aimed at untangling the chronology. Results from this new dating program are reported here, with a summary of previous radiocarbon determinations.

Italian translation of the book: Tuniz, C., Gillespie, R. & Jones, C. (2009). The Bone Readers: Atoms, Genes and the Politics of Australia's Deep Past. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. ISBN:9781741147285. Who owns the past? Scientists are reconstructing human prehistory with ever more refined techniques at a time when Indigenous people are demanding ownership of it, and when many archaeologists are challenging the primacy of scientific evidence. 'The bone readers' examines the most controversial issues in Australian pre-history. With a razor sharp eye and a fine sense of irony, the authors explain which hypotheses don't have legs and expose the implications for the politics of the present. They examine the facts and myths about first human arrival in Australia and later waves of arrivals, the implications of the discovery of Homo floresiensis (hobbits), sensitivities around the demise of megafauna, rock art dating, and what DNA tells us about ownership of human remains. Findings in Australia have implications for the history of the human species throughout the world, and they show how they can throw light on human lineages and animal extinctions elsewhere. Throughout they explain the complexities of scientific techniques for the general reader. This book sets the record straight for readers puzzled by the myriad claims and counterclaims. Not shy of controversy, it is bound to stir debate.

Italian translation of the book: Tuniz, C., Gillespie, R. & Jones, C. (2009). The Bone Readers: Atoms, Genes and the Politics of Australia's Deep Past. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. ISBN:9781741147285. Who owns the past? Scientists are reconstructing human prehistory with ever more refined techniques at a time when Indigenous people are demanding ownership of it, and when many archaeologists are challenging the primacy of scientific evidence. 'The bone readers' examines the most controversial issues in Australian pre-history. With a razor sharp eye and a fine sense of irony, the authors explain which hypotheses don't have legs and expose the implications for the politics of the present. They examine the facts and myths about first human arrival in Australia and later waves of arrivals, the implications of the discovery of Homo floresiensis (hobbits), sensitivities around the demise of megafauna, rock art dating, and what DNA tells us about ownership of human remains. Findings in Australia have implications for the history of the human species throughout the world, and they show how they can throw light on human lineages and animal extinctions elsewhere. Throughout they explain the complexities of scientific techniques for the general reader. This book sets the record straight for readers puzzled by the myriad claims and counterclaims. Not shy of controversy, it is bound to stir debate.

Research into the palaeoenvironmental history of New Caledonia was begun independently by Hope and Stevenson in the early 1990s. While the original work of Hope and colleagues was centred around questions of the long-term vegetation dynamics of maquis and rainforest within the ultramafic terrain of New Caledonia (Hope and Pask 1998; Read et al. 2000), Stevenson and colleagues were exploring questions of human impact and the detection of initial human settlement (Stevenson and Dodson 1995; Stevenson 1998; Stevenson et al. 2001; Stevenson 2004). Hope and Stevenson later came together to work on the longest record so far recovered from the tropical southwest Pacific, Lake Xere Wapo in southwest New Caledonia. Having published the initial findings from this site (Stevenson and Hope 2005), a major problem remained, that of a robust chronology. The 12 m core XW-B reached radiocarbon background shortly after 300 cm, had several significant age inversions and had what appeared to be a very shallow Holocene sequence of fewer than 20 cm. Stevenson and Hope revisited Lake Xere Wapo in 2005, collecting new material for further dating aimed at untangling the chronology. Results from this new dating program are reported here, with a summary of previous radiocarbon determinations.

Research into the palaeoenvironmental history of New Caledonia was begun independently by Hope and Stevenson in the early 1990s. While the original work of Hope and colleagues was centred around questions of the long-term vegetation dynamics of maquis and rainforest within the ultramafic terrain of New Caledonia (Hope and Pask 1998; Read et al. 2000), Stevenson and colleagues were exploring questions of human impact and the detection of initial human settlement (Stevenson and Dodson 1995; Stevenson 1998; Stevenson et al. 2001; Stevenson 2004). Hope and Stevenson later came together to work on the longest record so far recovered from the tropical southwest Pacific, Lake Xere Wapo in southwest New Caledonia. Having published the initial findings from this site (Stevenson and Hope 2005), a major problem remained, that of a robust chronology. The 12 m core XW-B reached radiocarbon background shortly after 300 cm, had several significant age inversions and had what appeared to be a very shallow Holocene sequence of fewer than 20 cm. Stevenson and Hope revisited Lake Xere Wapo in 2005, collecting new material for further dating aimed at untangling the chronology. Results from this new dating program are reported here, with a summary of previous radiocarbon determinations.

Italian translation of the book: Tuniz, C., Gillespie, R. & Jones, C. (2009). The Bone Readers: Atoms, Genes and the Politics of Australia's Deep Past. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. ISBN:9781741147285. Who owns the past? Scientists are reconstructing human prehistory with ever more refined techniques at a time when Indigenous people are demanding ownership of it, and when many archaeologists are challenging the primacy of scientific evidence. 'The bone readers' examines the most controversial issues in Australian pre-history. With a razor sharp eye and a fine sense of irony, the authors explain which hypotheses don't have legs and expose the implications for the politics of the present. They examine the facts and myths about first human arrival in Australia and later waves of arrivals, the implications of the discovery of Homo floresiensis (hobbits), sensitivities around the demise of megafauna, rock art dating, and what DNA tells us about ownership of human remains. Findings in Australia have implications for the history of the human species throughout the world, and they show how they can throw light on human lineages and animal extinctions elsewhere. Throughout they explain the complexities of scientific techniques for the general reader. This book sets the record straight for readers puzzled by the myriad claims and counterclaims. Not shy of controversy, it is bound to stir debate.

We report ciirbon isotope measurements on pre-bomb museum samples of freshwater mussel shells collected alive from riverine locations in New South Wales. Australia. The calculated reservoir ages, rimglng from -60 to +112 years, are much smaller than those for Australian marine shells and not considered significant for the radiocarbon dating of Late Pleistocene freshwater shells from the Murray-Darling Ba,sin.

A catastrophic bolide impact at 12.9 ka has been proposed by Firestone and colleagues to explain Younger Dryas cooling and megafauna extinction in North America. Radiocarbon dating of carbon spherules supposedly formed during this ET event do not support the hypothesis.

A catastrophic bolide impact at 12.9 ka has been proposed by Firestone and colleagues to explain Younger Dryas cooling and megafauna extinction in North America. Radiocarbon dating of carbon spherules supposedly formed during this ET event do not support the hypothesis.

We report ciirbon isotope measurements on pre-bomb museum samples of freshwater mussel shells collected alive from riverine locations in New South Wales. Australia. The calculated reservoir ages, rimglng from -60 to +112 years, are much smaller than those for Australian marine shells and not considered significant for the radiocarbon dating of Late Pleistocene freshwater shells from the Murray-Darling Ba,sin.

A catastrophic bolide impact at 12.9 ka has been proposed by Firestone and colleagues to explain Younger Dryas cooling and megafauna extinction in North America. Radiocarbon dating of carbon spherules supposedly formed during this ET event do not support the hypothesis.

We report ciirbon isotope measurements on pre-bomb museum samples of freshwater mussel shells collected alive from riverine locations in New South Wales. Australia. The calculated reservoir ages, rimglng from -60 to +112 years, are much smaller than those for Australian marine shells and not considered significant for the radiocarbon dating of Late Pleistocene freshwater shells from the Murray-Darling Ba,sin.

Who owns the past? Scientists are reconstructing human prehistory with ever more refined techniques at a time when Indigenous people are demanding ownership of it, and when many archaeologists are challenging the primacy of scientific evidence. 'The bone readers' examines the most controversial issues in Australian pre-history. With a razor sharp eye and a fine sense of irony, the authors explain which hypotheses don't have legs and expose the implications for the politics of the present. They examine the facts and myths about first human arrival in Australia and later waves of arrivals, the implications of the discovery of Homo floresiensis (hobbits), sensitivities around the demise of megafauna, rock art dating, and what DNA tells us about ownership of human remains. Findings in Australia have implications for the history of the human species throughout the world, and they show how they can throw light on human lineages and animal extinctions elsewhere. Throughout they explain the complexities of scientific techniques for the general reader. This book sets the record straight for readers puzzled by the myriad claims and counterclaims. Not shy of controversy, it is bound to stir debate.

The Bone Readers are a dedicated group of scholars who study the earliest human remains, their chemistry and DNA, their extinct floral and faunal contemporaries, and the geologic layers in which they were found. Their research leads them to theories about modern human origins that continually challenge conventional wisdom and cherished beliefs— about "Eve ," Neanderthals, "hobbits," and the Bering Straits, among others. Two leading Bone Readers and a science writer have penned a literate, authoritative summary of the current questions and the minefield of academic politics that surround it. Ideal for students in human origins or biological anthropology courses, and a delightful read.

Who owns the past? Scientists are reconstructing human prehistory with ever more refined techniques at a time when Indigenous people are demanding ownership of it, and when many archaeologists are challenging the primacy of scientific evidence. 'The bone readers' examines the most controversial issues in Australian pre-history. With a razor sharp eye and a fine sense of irony, the authors explain which hypotheses don't have legs and expose the implications for the politics of the present. They examine the facts and myths about first human arrival in Australia and later waves of arrivals, the implications of the discovery of Homo floresiensis (hobbits), sensitivities around the demise of megafauna, rock art dating, and what DNA tells us about ownership of human remains. Findings in Australia have implications for the history of the human species throughout the world, and they show how they can throw light on human lineages and animal extinctions elsewhere. Throughout they explain the complexities of scientific techniques for the general reader. This book sets the record straight for readers puzzled by the myriad claims and counterclaims. Not shy of controversy, it is bound to stir debate.

A catastrophic bolide impact at 12.9 ka has been proposed by Firestone and colleagues to explain Younger Dryas cooling and megafauna extinction in North America. Radiocarbon dating of carbon spherules supposedly formed during this ET event do not support the hypothesis.