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Gigantism is a common phenomenon observed in murids from islands, particularly the Indonesian islands belonging to the Lesser Sunda chain. Rats in this island group are often considerably larger than their continental sister taxa and have been reported from the islands of Timor, Sumba, and Flores. Here, we describe the first record of a giant rat from the island of Alor, at the northeastern end of the Lesser Sundas. Alormys aplini gen. et sp. nov. is described from isolated molars and a partial lower jaw from excavations in the twilight zone of Makpan Cave, a lava tube cave situated on the southwestern margin of the island. Speleological and taphonomic information suggests that these remains were deposited as a result of owl activities. Alormys aplini is characterized by its large size relative to members of Rattus and a relatively unspecialized, moderately hypsodont dentition. Among the larger rodents of the Lesser Sunda chain, Alormys most closely resembles Milimonggamys and Papagomys. Carbon and oxygen isotope analysis indicates that it consumed C3 plants almost exclusively. Its extinction in the late Holocene appears coeval with the disappearance of Timor’s and Sumba’s giant rats and may be related to increased aridity and deforestation on these islands. Keywords: Gigantism, Island rule, Muridae, Nusa Tenggara

Significance We provide global assessment of the possible link between Pleistocene hominin arrival and island extinction. The existing records on islands around the world do not support a significant and detrimental impact on island biotas following island colonization prior to the Holocene. This suggests that models using island extinctions as evidence in support of anthropogenic megafaunal overhunting, or as extensions of continental-level extinctions, need to be reconsidered., The arrival of modern humans into previously unoccupied island ecosystems is closely linked to widespread extinction, and a key reason cited for Pleistocene megafauna extinction is anthropogenic overhunting. A common assumption based on late Holocene records is that humans always negatively impact insular biotas, which requires an extrapolation of recent human behavior and technology into the archaeological past. Hominins have been on islands since at least the early Pleistocene and Homo sapiens for at least 50 thousand y (ka). Over such lengthy intervals it is scarcely surprising that significant evolutionary, behavioral, and cultural changes occurred. However, the deep-time link between human arrival and island extinctions has never been explored globally. Here, we examine archaeological and paleontological records of all Pleistocene islands with a documented hominin presence to examine whether humans have always been destructive agents. We show that extinctions at a global level cannot be associated with Pleistocene hominin arrival based on current data and are difficult to disentangle from records of environmental change. It is not until the Holocene that large-scale changes in technology, dispersal, demography, and human behavior visibly affect island ecosystems. The extinction acceleration we are currently experiencing is thus not inherent but rather part of a more recent cultural complex.

Chinchilla in the Western Downs Region of Queensland is home to the Chinchilla Rifle Range, a palaeontological site that has produced a significant well-preserved Pliocene vertebrate assemblage. Here, we describe and discuss the histology of a crocodile tooth recovered from the ca 3.5-million-year-old Chinchilla Sand deposit in the Rifle Range. The tooth is from the posterior jaw and likely belongs to a species of Paludirex. We discuss the tooth micro-morphology in relation to what is known about tooth histology in extant and extinct crocodylians with brevirostine and platyrostral skull morphology. We hypothesised that there should be several similarities in the tooth micro-structures between related extinct and extant taxa. We found that the Chinchilla Sand fossil tooth is characterised by thin enamel that is likely prismless but shows incremental striations (also seen in dentine), similar to other crocodylians. This short study highlights the importance of microscopic techniques applied to fossil material. With further fossil evidence emerging from Chinchilla, and application of three-dimensional microscopy techniques to understand the nature of Paludirex enamel prisms, a better understanding of reptile palaeobiology can be developed for Queensland and Australia.

The nature of human dispersals out of Africa has remained elusive because of the poor resolution of paleoecological data in direct association with remains of the earliest non-African people. Here, we report hominin and non-hominin mammalian tracks from an ancient lake deposit in the Arabian Peninsula, dated within the last interglacial. The findings, it is argued, likely represent the oldest securely dated evidence for Homo sapiens in Arabia. The paleoecological evidence indicates a well-watered semi-arid grassland setting during human movements into the Nefud Desert of Saudi Arabia. We conclude that visitation to the lake was transient, likely serving as a place to drink and to forage, and that late Pleistocene human and mammalian migrations and landscape use patterns in Arabia were inexorably linked., peer-reviewed

Human ribs are thought to be less affected by mechanical strain at the microscopic level than limb bones, implying that rib remodelling better reflects bone physiological homeostasis. Here, we test the hypothesis that rib tissue will be well vascularized and thus enhance susceptibility to metabolic influence. An intra-skeletal comparison of bone vascular canal density was conducted using a macropod animal model adapted to bipedal habitual hopping. The right humerus, ulna, radius, femur, tibia, fibula, a mid-thoracic and upper-thoracic rib of an eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) were sectioned at the midshaft, from which histological sections were prepared. Bone vascularity from a maximum of 12 mm

Southeast Asia has emerged as an important region for understanding hominin and mammalian migrations and extinctions. High-profile discoveries have shown that Southeast Asia has been home to at least five members of the genus Homo1–3. Considerable turnover in Pleistocene megafauna has previously been linked with these hominins or with climate change4, although the region is often left out of discussions of megafauna extinctions. In the traditional hominin evolutionary core of Africa, attempts to establish the environmental context of hominin evolution and its association with faunal changes have long been informed by stable isotope methodologies5,6. However, such studies have largely been neglected in Southeast Asia. Here we present a large-scale dataset of stable isotope data for Southeast Asian mammals that spans the Quaternary period. Our results demonstrate that the forests of the Early Pleistocene had given way to savannahs by the Middle Pleistocene, which led to the spread of grazers and extinction of browsers—although geochronological limitations mean that not all samples can be resolved to glacial or interglacial periods. Savannahs retreated by the Late Pleistocene and had completely disappeared by the Holocene epoch, when they were replaced by highly stratified closed-canopy rainforest. This resulted in the ascendency of rainforest-adapted species as well as Homo sapiens—which has a unique adaptive plasticity among hominins—at the expense of savannah and woodland specialists, including Homo erectus. At present, megafauna are restricted to rainforests and are severely threatened by anthropogenic deforestation. Stable isotope data for Southeast Asian mammals across the Quaternary period shed light on environmental change from the Early Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch, contextualizing hominin evolution and megafauna extinction in the region.

© 2018, The Author(s). Context: The heterogeneous mosaic nature of African savannah vegetation is a key aspect of its ecology. This study evaluates mosaic distributions and characteristics across sub-Saharan Africa, investigating the environmental drivers of mosaic formation. Objectives: This study was designed to determine: (1) on a continental scale, how frequent are mosaics in savannahs? and (2) what are the key environmental drivers in the formation of mosaics? Methods: Landsat ETM+ satellite imagery was used to generate land-cover maps for 39 sample areas across sub-Saharan Africa. The spatial complexity of land-cover mosaics at 4628 savannah sub-sites was quantified, and modelled using random forests to identify the relative importance of environmental variables driving mosaic presence. Results: Only six sub-sites constituted a single land-cover class, illustrating that mosaic habitats are abundant at the scale analysed (19.6 km2), although mosaic characteristics varied considerably. Results indicate precipitation is most important in influencing mosaic complexity, followed by evapotranspiration, temperature, lithology and distance to rivers. Fire and ecosystem engineer presence are of lesser importance at this study scale. Conclusions: Mosaics are ubiquitous in the African savannahs studied, their presence influenced by multiple environmental drivers, with water being key. The lower importance of fire and large mammal disturbance is likely resulting from these highly individualistic site-based process varying between sites, resulting in no single, coherent, across-Africa disturbance signal, and/or lack of detail in available data at this scale. Therefore, large-scale determinants of savannah mosaics appear climate-driven. Under future global warming scenarios, African savannahs are likely to become more homogenous.

Traditional fish vertebrae identification relies on the availability of comprehensive reference collections that include every element from the neural spine for each taxon. In regions with great taxonomic diversity, such as the Indo-Pacific, the identification of fish vertebrae to species is difficult. This results in taxonomic lists with many skeletal elements identified only to family. However family level identifications often tell us little about the environmental preferences of the fish and thus, by inference, human fishing practices. Here we apply geometric morphometrics (GM) to examine shape variations within vertebrae in modern specimens of a variety of pelagic and reef species to determine if this method can be used to reliably inform on habitat preferences. Digitized vertebral elements of reef (Acanthuridae, Balistidae, Labridae, Lethrinidae, Lutjanidae and Serranidae) and pelagic/open water (Scombridae and Carangidae) families were scored using 2D landmarks. These were subjected to Generalized Procrustes Analysis and discriminatory multivariate analyses (Linear Discriminant Analysis and Discriminant Function Analysis) in order to assess whether shape can be used to differentiate habitats. Our results suggest that geometric morphometrics do allow the differentiation of habitat in vertebrae and provide an alternative method for the classification of archaeological fish assemblages. These analyses were applied to a sample of archaeological fish remains from a site in Alor Island (Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia) and compared with the results of an earlier traditional comparative icthyoarchaeological analysis. We found that the main component of the Pleistocene marine human diet comprised reef species, with the sporadic addition of open water species, supporting the pattern recorded with traditional analyses. This methodology could be widely applied to archaeological fish material from across the Indo-Pacific allowing a greater number of bones in assemblages to contribute to insights into human exploitation of coastal habitats and fishing techniques over time.

The transition from hunting and gathering to food producing economies in Arabia took the form of a shift to mobile pastoralism. Domestic livestock appears to have been introduced in the 7th millennium BCE (Drechsler 2007), when northern Arabia experienced ameliorated environments during the Holocene wet phase (Engel et al. 2012; Dinies et al. 2015). However, crop cultivation and other features traditionally 2 used to define the Neolithic do not seem to have been practised until the Bronze Age (see for example Magee 2014, Preston et al. 2012). This is in stark contrast to the Fertile Crescent, where the Neolithisation process was set in motion by increasingly sedentary groups, culminating in the control and domestication of both plants and animals (Bar-Yosef 2001). The architectural remains of sedentary communities - dwellings, storage facilities, and communal property - are highly visible in the archaeological record and have become iconic for the Neolithic of the Levant. In the ecologically more marginal areas of the Jordanian Badia, Neolithic communities adapted other economic strategies. Here, settlements were occupied seasonally, and subsistence was based on caprine herding, supplemented by hunting and opportunistic agriculture. Nevertheless, architectural remains attest to the construction and use of substantial dwellings throughout the Neolithic (Henry et al. 2003, Martin & Edwards 2013; Rollefson et al. 2014; 2016)., peer-reviewed

Oldowan sites in primary geological context are rare in the archaeological record. Here we describe the depositional environment of Oldowan occurrences at Kanjera South, Kenya, based on field descriptions and granulometric analysis. Excavations have recovered a large Oldowan artefact sample as well as the oldest substantial sample of archaeological fauna. The deposits at Kanjera South consist of 30 m of fluvial, colluvial and lacustrine sediments. Magneto- and biostratigraphy indicate the Kanjera South Member of the Kanjera Formation was deposited during 2.3–1.92 Ma, with 2.0 Ma being a likely age for the archaeological occurrences. Oldowan artefacts and associated fauna were deposited in the colluvial and alluvial silts and sands of beds KS1–3, in the margins of a lake basin. Field descriptions and granulometric analysis of the sediment fine fraction indicate that sediments from within the main archaeological horizon were emplaced as a combination of tractional and hyperconcentrated flows with limited evidence of debris-flow deposition. This style of deposition is unlikely to significantly erode or disturb the underlying surface, and therefore promotes preservation of surface archaeological accumulations. Hominins were repeatedly attracted to the site locale, and rapid sedimentation, minimal bone weathering and an absence of bone or artefact rounding further indicate that fossils and artefacts were quickly buried.

The significance of the role of birds in hominin evolution in Island Southeast Asia is not clear. Few avian vertebrate deposits have been recovered from archaeological or fossil sites in the region, and their association with either hominin or natural deposition in caves and rock shelters complicates their usefulness in hominin behavioural and palaeoecological reconstructions. In this paper, we assess the taphonomic history of the Pleistocene avian vertebrate remains recovered from Laili Cave, Timor-Leste, dated to between ca. 44.6 to 11.2 ka and in association with abundant lithic material. We use avian taxonomic composition, skeletal element abundance, and bone surface modification data to determine the agent of avian skeletal deposition. Our analyses indicate that the small grassland and woodland birds (quail, buttonquail, song birds), which dominate the assemblage, were deposited by avian predators (probably barn owls) throughout the sequence. Humans possibly hunted the small quantity of larger birds (imperial pigeon, duck). The bird remains suggest that grasslands, woodland savannahs, wetlands, and forest environments were present locally during the Pleistocene.

The analysis of fish remains from Island Southeast Asian archaeological assemblages constitutes one of the main ways to examine human subsistence in the region. Methodological difficulties, however, such as the lack of diagnostic features permitting taxonomic and anatomical identification of fish bones, often results in only a small fraction of a fish assemblage analysed. Taphonomic processes are often not explicitly considered in many aquatic zooarchaeological analyses, leading to a dearth of information on how post-depositional processes may have affected the preservation of fish remains. Here we examine different methodological approaches to the analysis of fish elements recovered from an archaeological site in Indonesia, Tron Bon Lei (Alor, East Nusa Tenggara). We compare the results obtained through more traditional icthyoarchaeology methods, where only specific diagnostic bones are included in the analysis, to those attained when every bone recovered from the site is considered. In doing so, we also describe the entire archaeological sequence of Tron Bon Lei, which had previously only been partly presented. The analysis of the entire archaeological deposit confirms that the Alor inhabitants were intensively exploiting marine resources, while the contribution of terrestrial vertebrates to diet was very limited. Small individuals of inshore ray-finned fishes are more abundant in every layer, with limited evidence of fishing of larger individuals. Nevertheless, larger individuals and open water bony fishes are better represented in the late Pleistocene layers than in the late Holocene deposits. These results suggest changes in sea level may be the main factor responsible for these variations, although the role played by changes in fishing technology and human-induced resource depression needs to be considered. Our results show that analysis of the entirety of an assemblage allows for stronger inferences to be drawn about skeletal representation and taphonomic processes, and thus better informs human maritime subsistence strategies during the late Quaternary in Island Southeast Asia.

Fish-hooks discovered among grave goods associated with an adult female burial at the Tron Bon Lei rockshelter on the island of Alor in Indonesia are the first of their kind from a Pleistocene mortuary context in Southeast Asia. Many of the hooks are of a circular rotating design. Parallels found in various other prehistoric contexts around the globe indicate widespread cultural convergence. The association of the fish-hooks with a human burial, combined with the lack of alternative protein sources on the island, suggest that fishing was an important part of the cosmology of this community. The Tron Bon Lei burial represents the earliest-known example of a culture for whom fishing was clearly an important activity among both the living and the dead.

The thousands of islands east of Huxley’s Line have never formed a single land mass or been connected to Sunda or Sahul. The earliest records of hominins in this area are stone tools recovered from Pleistocene deposits on Flores and Sulawesi. Subsistence by these hominins as well as the later subsistence patterns exhibited by Homo floresiensis suggest that exploitation of marine resources was, at best, rare and opportunistic. Likewise, the fragmentary hominin remains recovered from Late Pleistocene deposits from Callao Cave in the Philippines exploited large game at the expense of marine resources. In contrast, the earliest zooarchaeological records of modern humans are dominated by marine fish and shellfish and include the earliest evidence of pelagic fishing using shell tools, implying complex fish-capture technology. Pleistocene lithic assemblages on these islands are unspecialized, indicating reduction of predominantly locally available stone to produce flakes and irregularly retouched pieces. By the ...

Caves have been an important source of vertebrate fossils for much of Southeast Asia, particularly for the Quaternary. Despite this importance, the mechanisms by which vertebrate remains accumulate and preserve in Southeast Asian caves has never been systematically reviewed or examined. Here, we present the results of three years of cave surveys in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, describing cave systems and their attendant vertebrate accumulations in diverse geological, biogeographical, and environmental settings. While each cave system is unique, we find that the accumulation and preservation of vertebrate remains are highly dependent on local geology and environment. These factors notwithstanding, we find the dominant factor responsible for faunal deposition is the presence or absence of biological accumulating agents, a factor directly dictated by biogeographical history. In small, isolated, volcanic islands, the only significant accumulation occurs in archaeological settings, thereby limiting our understanding of the palaeontology of those islands prior to human arrival. In karstic landscapes on both oceanic and continental islands, our understanding of the long-term preservation of vertebrates is still in its infancy. The formation processes of vertebrate-bearing breccias, their taphonomic histories, and the criteria used to determine whether these represent syngenetic or multiple deposits remain critically understudied. The latter in particular has important implications for arguments on how breccia deposits from the region should be analysed and interpreted when reconstructing palaeoenvironments.

Genetic evidence for anatomically modern humans (AMH) out of Africa before 75 thousand years ago (ka)1 and in island southeast Asia (ISEA) before 60 ka (93–61 ka)2 predates accepted archaeological records of occupation in the region3. Claims that AMH arrived in ISEA before 60 ka (ref. 4) have been supported only by equivocal5 or non-skeletal evidence6. AMH evidence from this period is rare and lacks robust chronologies owing to a lack of direct dating applications7, poor preservation and/or excavation strategies8 and questionable taxonomic identifications9. Lida Ajer is a Sumatran Pleistocene cave with a rich rainforest fauna associated with fossil human teeth7,10. The importance of the site is unclear owing to unsupported taxonomic identification of these fossils and uncertainties regarding the age of the deposit, therefore it is rarely considered in models of human dispersal. Here we reinvestigate Lida Ajer to identify the teeth confidently and establish a robust chronology using an integrated dating approach. Using enamel–dentine junction morphology, enamel thickness and comparative morphology, we show that the teeth are unequivocally AMH. Luminescence and uranium-series techniques applied to bone-bearing sediments and speleothems, and coupled uranium-series and electron spin resonance dating of mammalian teeth, place modern humans in Sumatra between 73 and 63 ka. This age is consistent with biostratigraphic estimations7, palaeoclimate and sea-level reconstructions, and genetic evidence for a pre-60 ka arrival of AMH into ISEA2. Lida Ajer represents, to our knowledge, the earliest evidence of rainforest occupation by AMH, and underscores the importance of reassessing the timing and environmental context of the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa.

SUMMARYExtinctions have altered island ecosystems throughout the late Quaternary. Here, we review the main historic drivers of extinctions on islands, patterns in extinction chronologies between islands, and the potential for restoring ecosystems through reintroducing extirpated species. While some extinctions have been caused by climatic and environmental change, most have been caused by anthropogenic impacts. We propose a general model to describe patterns in these anthropogenic island extinctions. Hunting, habitat loss and the introduction of invasive predators accompanied prehistoric settlement and caused declines of endemic island species. Later settlement by European colonists brought further land development, a different suite of predators and new drivers, leading to more extinctions. Extinctions alter ecological networks, causing ripple effects for islands through the loss of ecosystem processes, functions and interactions between species. Reintroduction of extirpated species can help restore ecosystem function and processes, and can be guided by palaeoecology. However, reintroduction projects must also consider the cultural, social and economic needs of humans now inhabiting the islands and ensure resilience against future environmental and climate change.

Mid-latitude dune fields offer significant records of human occupations in southwest Asia, reflecting human responses to past climate changes. Currently arid, but episodically wetter in the past, the Nefud desert of northern Saudi Arabia provides numerous examples of human-environment interactions and population movements in the desert belt. Here we describe results from interdisciplinary surveys in the western Nefud that targeted palaeolake deposits identified using satellite imagery. Surveys indicate the presence of thousands of discrete palaeolakes and palaeowetlands, providing valuable palaeoenvironmental records, and numerous archaeological and palaeontological assemblages. Geomorphological investigations suggest that many further deposits remain buried. Forty-six prehistoric archaeological sites have been identified in association with freshwater deposits, spanning the Lower Palaeolithic to the pre-Islamic Holocene. Lower Palaeolithic sites appear concentrated close to raw material sources near the Nefud fringe, despite the presence of freshwater and fauna deeper in the dune field. Middle Palaeolithic occupations extend more broadly, and by the early Holocene humans were at least periodically occupying areas deep in the desert. We present the first records of Neolithic sites in this dune field, including substantial hearth complexes distributed relatively deep within the dunes, potentially indicating increased mobility during this period. Later Holocene sites with stone structures are present around the dune fringes. Our results indicate that, during wet periods of the Pleistocene and Holocene, water in the western Nefud may have been more readily available than elsewhere in northern Arabia due to the high density of depressions where wetlands can form. The high frequency of lakes or marshes appears to have facilitated human occupations and dispersal through the region.

We report on tetrapod (Reptilia, Amphibia, Mammalia, Aves) vertebrates recovered during excavations at Tron Bon Lei rockshelter on the south coast of Alor Island, eastern Indonesia. These include both archaeological specimens recovered from a 1 m² test pit dating from ∼21 kya cal BP to the late Holocene, and a modern eastern barn owl deposit recovered nearby. To discern between the depositional processes that accumulated the small numbers of micro- and macrovertebrate remains from the archaeological deposits, the taphonomic signature of the natural assemblage was quantified and compared to the archaeological record. The taphonomic data indicates that the tetrapod archaeofaunal remains are a combination of barn owl predation of microfauna and human predation of larger fauna. This approach provides new information on human-tetrapod interactions on Alor in Wallacea during the late Quaternary, including an apparent increase in cave site use and hunting intensity during the Pleistocene-Holocene transit...

The palaeogeography of the Wallacea Archipelago is a significant factor in understanding early modern human colonization of Sahul (Australia and New Guinea), and models of colonization patterns, as well as archaeological survey and site interpretation, are all heavily dependent on the specific palaeogeographic reconstruction employed. Here we present five reconstructions for the periods 65, 60, 55, 50, and 45 000 years ago, using the latest bathometric chart and a sea-level model that is adjusted to account for the average uplift rate known from Wallacea. Using this data we also reconstructed island areal extent as well as topography for each time period. These reconstructions were then used to estimate visibility for each island in the archipelago, and finally to model how intervisible each island was during the period of likely human colonization. Our models provide the first evidence for intervisibility between Timor and Australia at ca. 65–62 ka and 47–12 ka, the second of which is notable for its overlap with the oldest radiocarbon dates from Timor-Leste and Australia. Based on intervisibility alone, however, our study suggests that the northern route into Papua New Guinea was the most parsimonious route for first modern human entry into Sahul. Our study provides archaeologists with an important baseline from which to conduct physical surveys, interpret archaeological data, and theorize the colonization of Wallacea and Sahul. © 2017 The Authors. Archaeological Prospection Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Drivers of Late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions are relevant to modern conservation policy in a world of growing human population density, climate change, and faunal decline. Traditional debates tend toward global solutions, blaming either dramatic climate change or dispersals of Homo sapiens to new regions. Inherent limitations to archaeological and paleontological data sets often require reliance on scant, poorly resolved lines of evidence. However, recent developments in scientific technologies allow for more local, context-specific approaches. In the present article, we highlight how developments in five such methodologies (radiocarbon approaches, stable isotope analysis, ancient DNA, ancient proteomics, microscopy) have helped drive detailed analysis of specific megafaunal species, their particular ecological settings, and responses to new competitors or predators, climate change, and other external phenomena. The detailed case studies of faunal community composition, extinction chronologies, and demographic trends enabled by these methods examine megafaunal extinctions at scales appropriate for practical understanding of threats against particular species in their habitats today.

The Pig-footed Bandicoot, Chaeropus ecaudatus, an extinct arid-adapted bandicoot, was named in 1838 based on a specimen without a tail from the Murray River in New South Wales. Two additional species were later named, C. castanotis and C. occidentalis, which have since been synonymised with C. ecaudatus. Taxonomic research on the genus is rather difficult because of the limited material available for study. Aside from the types of C. castanotis and C. occidentalis housed at the Natural History Museum in London, and the type of C. ecaudatus at the Australian Museum in Sydney, there are fewer than 30 other modern specimens in other collections scattered around the world. Examining skeletal and dental characters for several specimens, and using a combination of traditional morphology, morphometrics, palaeontology and molecular phylogenetics, we have identified two distinct species, C. ecaudatus and C. yirratji sp. nov., with C. ecaudatus having two distinct subspecies, C. e. ecaudatus and C. e. occidentalis. We use palaeontological data to reconstruct the pre-European distribution of the two species, and review the ecological information known about these extinct taxa.

Despite its largely hyper-arid and inhospitable climate today, the Arabian Peninsula is emerging as an important area for investigating Pleistocene hominin dispersals. Recently, a member of our own species was found in northern Arabia dating to ca. 90 ka, while stone tools and fossil finds have hinted at an earlier, middle Pleistocene, hominin presence. However, there remain few direct insights into Pleistocene environments, and associated hominin adaptations, that accompanied the movement of populations into this region. Here, we apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis to fossil mammal tooth enamel (n = 21) from the middle Pleistocene locality of Ti’s al Ghadah in Saudi Arabia associated with newly discovered stone tools and probable cutmarks. The results demonstrate productive grasslands in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula ca. 300–500 ka, as well as aridity levels similar to those found in open savannah settings in eastern Africa today. The association between this palaeoenvironmental information and the earliest traces for hominin activity in this part of the world lead us to argue that middle Pleistocene hominin dispersals into the interior of the Arabian Peninsula required no major novel adaptation. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of mammal teeth associated with stone tools and cut-marked bone dated to between 300,000 and 500,000 years ago reveals that, at the time of the earliest-known hominin presence, the Arabian peninsula was home to productive grasslands similar to modern-day African savannahs.

Ecological processes operating across the spatial scale can be equivalently found operating across the temporal scale. Such processes may affect community structure and species richness relationships in ways that can be analysed using the fossil record. The best studied involve the combination of the Species-Area-Relationship and the Species-Time-Relationship into a single space-time equivalence of species richness. This equivalence has been recorded in modern and fossil systems, providing insights into underlying ecological processes controlling species turnover through space and time. The analysis of space-time equivalence has received less attention for community structure, and we outline a framework wherein this could be examined. The inclusion of fossil data to investigations into space-time equivalence are important for revealing emergent properties of ecosystems that are not possible using only modern ecological data. They reveal complexities in the nature of the equivalence across distinct geographical and temporal thresholds and are impacted by environmental heterogeneity. In particular, the examination of space-time equivalence for Quaternary systems highlights the uniqueness of the Holocene with respect to the Pleistocene. Understanding how and why species are found together across large spatial and temporal scales can provide information important for conservation efforts; however, the few cases of space-time equivalence reported using fossil records indicates that this remains a poorly studied area in palaeoecology.

The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) is equipped with a set of physiological and morphological adaptations suited to a fossorial lifestyle. These allow wombats to engage in efficient scratch-digging and maintaining a low basal metabolic rate while living underground. While bone microstructure has been described for several subterranean animals, wombat bone histology has received very little attention to date. Here, we present preliminary insights into bone histology in modern adult V. ursinus (Mt Fairy, New South Wales) and Pleistocene fossil Vombatus sp. (Bakers Swamp, New South Wales) midshaft humeri. The modern sample was well preserved, allowing us to identify varying bone tissue types (woven, parallel-fibred, lamellar). The sample showed vascularity composed of primary and secondary osteons, and simple longitudinal and radial vessels. We also observed evidence for Haversian remodelling (i.e. localised replacement of pre-existing bone) and coarse compact cancellous bone within the inner cortex of the diaphysis. The fossil histology was poorly preserved, but likely showed bone matrix organisation similar to the modern specimen. We use these preliminary data to discuss hypotheses for wombat forelimb biomechanical and physiological microscopic adaptation to a burrow environment. We encourage future intraskeletal examination of microstructure in wombat populations to better inform their ecological adaptations and behaviour in palaeontological contexts.

International audience; We report archaeological findings from a significant new cave site on Alor Island, Indonesia, with an in situ basal date of 40,208-38,454 cal BP. Twenty thousand years older than the earliest Pleistocene site previously known from this island, Makpan retains dense midden deposits of marine shell, fish bone, urchin and crab remains, but few terrestrial species; demonstrating that protein requirements over this time were met almost exclusively from the sea. The dates for initial occupation at Makpan indicate that once Homo sapiens moved into southern Wallacea, settlement of the larger islands in the archipelago occurred rapidly. However, the Makpan sequence also suggests that the use of the cave following initial human arrival was sporadic prior to the terminal Pleistocene about 14,000 years ago, when occupation became intensive, culminating in the formation of a midden. Like the coastal sites on the larger neighbouring island of Timor, the Makpan assemblage shows that maritime technology in the Pleistocene was highly developed in this region. The Makpan assemblage also contains a range of distinctive personal ornaments made on Nautilus shell, which are shared with sites located on Timor and Kisar supporting connectivity between islands from at least the terminal Pleistocene. Makpan's early inhabitants responded to sea-level change by altering the way they used both the site and local resources. Marine food exploitation shows an initial emphasis on sea-urchins, followed by a subsistence switch to molluscs, barnacles, and fish in the dense middle part of the sequence, with crabs well represented in the later occupation. This new record provides further insights into early modern human movements and patterns of occupation between the islands of eastern Nusa Tenggara from ca. 40 ka

The islands of Wallacea are remarkable on a world scale as settlement occurred by at least 43,000 cal BP and must have involved the use of watercraft. The majority of the islands are depauperate in terrestrial fauna and human subsistence must have focused on the marine environment. Although few islands have been archaeologically explored, some such as Timor have yielded abundant remains of pelagic and reef fishes, as well as the earliest evidence of fishhook manufacture, demonstrating that modern humans in this region were well equipped to undertake complex exploitation of the marine environment. However, a holistic understanding of human subsistence strategies on these islands from initial colonisation in the late Pleistocene through to the Recent remains elusive. Here, we present survey and excavation data from the site of Tron Bon Lei on the small island of Alor in Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. This study focuses on the terminal Pleistocene – early Holocene human fishing behaviour in the region, and specifically the zooarchaeological sequence from Tron Bon Lei dated to this period. The Holocene preference for reef fish relative to pelagic fish, observed in mid-to late Holocene occupation levels in East Timor, occurred earlier in Tron Bon Lei, suggesting a shift from the larger abundance of carnivore taxa observed in the late Pleistocene deposits. Comparisons with other archaeological deposits in Wallacea indicates that fishing was an important subsistence activity in Nusa Tenggara Timur, unlike more northern Wallacean islands where shellfish make up almost all zooarchaeological records. Tron Bon Lei confirms that the faunally limited nature of Alor spans the Holocene, and we find no evidence that terrestrial fauna made up a significant component of the subsistence activities undertaken at this site.

Nearly all primates are ecologically dependent on trees, but they are nonetheless found in an enormous range of habitats, from highly xeric environments to dense rainforest. Most primates have a relatively ‘generalised’ skeleton, enabling locomotor flexibility and facilitating other crucial functions, such as manual foraging and grooming. This paper explores the associations between habitat, locomotion and morphology in the forelimbs of cercopithecids (Old World monkeys), contextualising their skeletal ecomorphological patterns with those of other mammals, and complementing functional morphological analyses with phylogenetic comparative techniques. The ecomorphological signals present in the generalised primate postcranium, and how an ancestral arboreal ‘bauplan’ might be modified to incorporate terrestriality or exploit distinct arboreal substrates, are investigated. Analysis of ecomorphological variation in guenons indicates that terrestrial Chlorocebus species retain core elements of a general guenon form, with modifications for terrestriality that vary by species. Adaptation to different modes of arboreality has also occurred in Cercopithecus. The considerable morphological similarity in the guenons sampled emphasises the importance of generality in the primate postcranium – much forelimb variation appears to have emerged stochastically, with a smaller number of traits having a strong functional signal. Analysis of a broader sample of cercopithecids and comparison with felids, suids and bovids indicates that although the cercopithecid humerus has functional morphological signals that enable specimens to be assigned with a reasonable degree of certainty to habitat groups, there is considerable overlap in the specimens assigned to each habitat group. This probably reflects ecological dependence on trees, even in predominantly terrestrial species, as well as the multiple functions of the forelimb and, in some cases, wide geographic distributions that promote intraspecific variation. The use of phylogenetic correction reduced the discriminatory power of the models, indicating that, like allometry, phylogeny contains important ecomorphological information, and should not necessarily be factored out of analyses.

Wallacea is the transitional biogeographic zone between the continents of Sunda (Southeast Asia) and Sahul (Australian-New Guinea). It consists of a series of island chains unique in the region for never having been connected to either continent. Movement of early modern humans from Sunda to Sahul during the late Pleistocene required dispersal through Wallacea, and hence would have necessitated sea crossings. However, the archeological evidence for early modern humans in Wallacea is still a work in progress, and none of it pre-dates the archeological record from Sahul. While numerous models of this significant colonization event have been proposed, selecting the most likely model for first landfall in Sahul using current archeological evidence has proven difficult, if not impossible. Here the late Pleistocene archeological evidence of early modern humans from Wallacea and its neighbors are reviewed, and the key colonization models that have been proposed are explored. We consider the use of comput...

Fragmentary long bone material from fossil Carnivora is rarely considered to support palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. Here, we use morphometry of the radius in extant carnivorans of the dog family (Canidae) to reconstruct the palaeobiology of extinct canids from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania (Bed I and II) and Koobi Fora, Kenya. We use radius morphometrics to predict adaptation to prey size and introduce a new method for quantifying canid habitat adaptations based on the geographic distributions of the extant species sampled. Linear Discriminant Function Analyses (DFA) and cluster neighbour-joining algorithms are employed to investigate radial morphometrics as described by 29 linear measurements. Results of our analyses suggest that a phylogenetic signal is present in radial morphometrics, even if it does not allow us to accurately discriminate among genera. A binary prey size categorisation of “small-medium” versus “large” prey can be more accurately predicted than a habitat categorisation scheme (Open, Mixed, Closed). The East African fossil specimens examined show morphometric affinities with the golden jackal (Canis aureus) and coyote (Canis latrans) and are likely attributable to the genus Canis. Fragmentary fossil specimens from Olduvai Gorge are predicted as habitat generalists (Open for Bed I and Mixed for Bed II) adapted for hunting small-medium prey, whereas the specimen from Koobi Fora was predicted as inhabiting mixed habitats and adapted for killing large prey. This study supports the inclusion of fossil Canidae in palaeoecological analyses attempting to clarify the palaeoenvironment of early hominin fossil sites.

The species-level systematics of the marsupial family Phalangeridae, particularly Phalanger, are poorly understood, due partly to the family’s wide distribution across Australia, New Guinea, eastern Indonesia, and surrounding islands. In order to refine the species-level systematics of Phalangeridae, and improve our understanding of their evolution, we generated 36 mitochondrial ND2 DNA sequences from multiple species and sample localities. We combined our new data with available sequences and produced the most comprehensive molecular phylogeny for Phalangeridae to date. Our analyses (1) strongly support the monophyly of the three phalangerid subfamilies (Trichosurinae, Ailuropinae, Phalangerinae); (2) reveal the need to re-examine all specimens currently identified as ‘Phalanger orientalis’; and (3) suggest the elevation of the Solomon Island P. orientalis subspecies to species level (P. breviceps Thomas, 1888). In addition, samples of P. orientalis from Timor formed a clade, consistent with an introduction by humans from a single source population. However, further research on east Indonesian P. orientalis populations will be required to test this hypothesis, resolve inconsistencies in divergence time estimates, and locate the source population and taxonomic status of the Timor P. orientalis.

The migration of anatomically modern humans (AMH) from Africa to every inhabitable continent included their dispersal through Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) to Australia. Significantly, this involved overwater dispersal through the Lesser Sunda Islands between Sunda (continental Southeast Asia) and Sahul (Australia and New Guinea). However, the timing and direction of this movement is still debated. Here, we report on human skeletal material recovered from excavations at two rockshelters, known locally as Tron Bon Lei, on Alor Island, Indonesia. The remains, dated to the Late Pleistocene, are the first anatomically modern human remains recovered in Wallacea dated to this period and are associated with cultural material demonstrating intentional burial. The human remains from Tron Bon Lei represent a population osteometrically distinct from Late Pleistocene Sunda and Sahul AMH. Instead, morphometrically, they appear more similar to Holocene populations in the Lesser Sundas. Thus, they may represent the remains of a population originally from Sunda whose Lesser Sunda Island descendants survived into the Holocene.

The Sangihe-Talaud Archipelago represents a group of 77 remote islands located between the Philippines and North Sulawesi, in the northern sector of Wallacea. The Talaud Islands have a rich and significant archaeological record going back to the Pleistocene and are instrumental in understanding Pleistocene colonisation of small islands and later models of Austronesian language dispersal. Here we report on vertebrate material excavated from Leang Mande'et, a late Holocene rockshelter on Karakelang, the main island in the Talaud group. The site represents a periodically occupied shelter used for gardening. Fauna recovered predominately comprises murid elements, with at least four taxa (Rattus rattus, Rattus exulans and two Melomys species) found. The rodents show clear signs of being deposited by raptors rather than humans, unlike the small number of fish remains also recovered. DNA sequences from several Rattus rattus specimens are referrable to Rattus rattus complex lineage IV, a lineage with a southern Indochinese origins and broad modern representation through Indonesia and the Philippines. The lack of any Rattus rattus complex lineage II from Leang Mande’et suggests that the first agricultural inhabitants of this island did not come from Taiwan or northern Indochina, but rather that they either originated from the south or that, once established in the Talauds, opened up significant trade networks to the south and in the process acquired a significant pest.

Fossils from caves in the Manning Karst Region, New South Wales, Australia have long been known, but until now have never been assessed for their palaeontological significance. Here, we report on late Quaternary faunal records from eight caves in the region. Extinct Pleistocene megafaunal taxa are recognised in two systems and include giant echidnas (Tachyglossidae gen. et sp. indet.), devils (Sarcophilus laniarius), koalas (Phascolarctos stirtoni), marsupial ‘lions’ (Thylacoleo carnifex), and kangaroos (Macropus giganteus titan). Some caves contain skeletal remains of introduced exotics such as sheep and dogs, but also provide a rich record of small-bodied native species including Eastern Bettongs (Bettongia gaimardi), Eastern Chestnut Mice (Pseudomys gracilicaudatus), and White-footed Rabbit Rats (Conilurus albipes). These endemics are either locally extirpated or have suffered total extinction in the historic period. Their skeletal and dental remains were recorded as unmineralised surface specimens in the caves, indicating that they are recent in age. Extant populations have never been recorded locally, thus, their probable loss from the region in historic times had gone unnoticed in the absence of palaeo-evidence. Our findings suggest that the supposed habitat tolerances of such species have been substantially underestimated. It is highly likely that modern populations have suffered niche contraction since the time of European colonisation of the continent. The local extirpations of several species of digging mammal has likely led to decreased functionality of the current ecosystem.

Examining how 70,000 years of human interaction shaped orangutans provides insights into conservation in the Anthropocene., Conservation benefits from understanding how adaptability and threat interact to determine a taxon’s vulnerability. Recognizing how interactions with humans have shaped taxa such as the critically endangered orangutan (Pongo spp.) offers insights into this relationship. Orangutans are viewed as icons of wild nature, and most efforts to prevent their extinction have focused on protecting minimally disturbed habitat, with limited success. We synthesize fossil, archeological, genetic, and behavioral evidence to demonstrate that at least 70,000 years of human influence have shaped orangutan distribution, abundance, and ecology and will likely continue to do so in the future. Our findings indicate that orangutans are vulnerable to hunting but appear flexible in response to some other human activities. This highlights the need for a multifaceted, landscape-level approach to orangutan conservation that leverages sound policy and cooperation among government, private sector, and community stakeholders to prevent hunting, mitigate human-orangutan conflict, and preserve and reconnect remaining natural forests. Broad cooperation can be encouraged through incentives and strategies that focus on the common interests and concerns of different stakeholders. Orangutans provide an illustrative example of how acknowledging the long and pervasive influence of humans can improve strategies to preserve biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

Understanding the timing and character of the expansion of Homo sapiens out of Africa is critical for inferring the colonization and admixture processes that underpin global population history. It has been argued that dispersal out of Africa had an early phase, particularly ~130–90 thousand years ago (ka), that reached only the East Mediterranean Levant, and a later phase, ~60–50 ka, that extended across the diverse environments of Eurasia to Sahul. However, recent findings from East Asia and Sahul challenge this model. Here we show that H. sapiens was in the Arabian Peninsula before 85 ka. We describe the Al Wusta-1 (AW-1) intermediate phalanx from the site of Al Wusta in the Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia. AW-1 is the oldest directly dated fossil of our species outside Africa and the Levant. The palaeoenvironmental context of Al Wusta demonstrates that H. sapiens using Middle Palaeolithic stone tools dispersed into Arabia during a phase of increased precipitation driven by orbital forcing, in association with a primarily African fauna. A Bayesian model incorporating independent chronometric age estimates indicates a chronology for Al Wusta of ~95–86 ka, which we correlate with a humid episode in the later part of Marine Isotope Stage 5 known from various regional records. Al Wusta shows that early dispersals were more spatially and temporally extensive than previously thought. Early H. sapiens dispersals out of Africa were not limited to winter rainfall-fed Levantine Mediterranean woodlands immediately adjacent to Africa, but extended deep into the semi-arid grasslands of Arabia, facilitated by periods of enhanced monsoonal rainfall.

An obvious but key prerequisite to testing hypotheses concerning the role of humans in the extinction of late Quaternary ‘megafauna’ is demonstrating that humans and the extinct taxa overlapped, both temporally and spatially. In many regions, a paucity of reliably dated fossil occurrences of megafauna makes it challenging, if not impossible, to test many of the leading extinction hypotheses. The giant monitor lizards of Australia are a case in point. Despite commonly being argued to have suffered extinction at the hands of the first human colonisers (who arrived by 50 ka), it has never been reliably demonstrated that giant monitors and humans temporally overlapped in Australia. Here we present the results of an integrated U–Th and 14C dating study of a late Pleistocene fossil deposit that has yielded the youngest dated remains of giant monitor lizards in Australia. The site, Colosseum Chamber, is a cave deposit in the Mt Etna region, central eastern Australia. Sixteen new dates were generated and demonstrate that the bulk of the material in the deposit accumulated since ca. 50 ka. The new monitor fossil is, minimally, 30 ky younger than the previous youngest reliably dated record for giant lizards in Australia and for the first time, demonstrates that on a continental scale, humans and giant lizards overlapped in time. The new record brings the existing geochronological dataset for Australian giant monitor lizards to seven dated occurrences. With such sparse data, we are hesitant to argue that our new date represents the time of their extinction from the continent. Rather, we suspect that future fossil collecting will yield new samples both older and younger than 50 ka. Nevertheless, we unequivocally demonstrate that humans and giant monitor lizards overlapped temporally in Australia, and thus, humans can only now be considered potential drivers for their extinction.

The occupation of small islands presents particular challenges for people largely related to limited terrestrial resources and susceptibility to natural disasters. Nevertheless, the challenges and ...

The Pliocene fossil record of Australia has revealed the oldest known occurrences of modern peramelemorphian (bandicoot and bilbies) genera such as Perameles, cf. Peroryctes, and Chaeropus. Recent phylogenetic analyses based on morphology have questioned the previously accepted understanding about generic relationships of some of these Pliocene taxa. These doubts limit our ability to develop independent divergence models based on molecular data because they depend on fossil records in order to calibrate minimum rates of change. Hence, there is a need to critically review the Pliocene fossil record. To this end, we have examined Pliocene specimens of peramelemorphians in museum collections across Australia and performed a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis based on dental and cranial morphology to review and accordingly revise subfamilial taxonomy. As part of this revision, we describe here two new species, one from the Chinchilla Local Fauna (LF) in Queensland (Perameles wilkinsonorum, sp. nov.) and one from both the Big Sink LF in the Wellington Caves area and the Bow LF in New South Wales (Silvicultor karae, gen. et sp. nov.). We reassign the two ‘Peroryctes’ species from Hamilton LF, Victoria, to a new genus (Silvicultor). We summarize the distribution of peramelemorphians during the Pliocene and show how climate change appears to have shaped their subsequent Quaternary distribution. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP Citation for this article: Travouillon, K. J., J. Louys, G. J. Price, M. Archer, S. J. Hand, and J. Muirhead. 2017. A review of the Pliocene bandicoots of Australia, and descriptions of new genus and species. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2017.1360894.

International audience; The Wallacea Archipelago provides an extraordinary laboratory for the study of human colonisation and adaptation, yet few detailed archaeological studies have been conducted in the region that span the earliest phase of human settlement. Laili Cave, in northern Timor-Leste, preserves the oldest human occupation in this insular region with a cultural sequence spanning 11,200 to 44,600 cal BP. Small-bodied vertebrates and invertebrates were recovered to the lowest excavated levels, associated with highly concentrated stone artefacts. We report on human behavioural adaptations within the context of Pleistocene environments and changing landscapes using zooarchaeological, stone artefact, bathymetric, and experimental isotopic. analyses. Results indicate that Pleistocene humans used the abundant local chert liberally and engaged in mobile broad-spectrum exploitation of invertebrates and fishes from marine, estuarine, and freshwater environments within close proximity of Laili Cave. The faunal assemblage indicates heterogeneous but relatively stable environments during the late Pleistocene. Variability in subsistence strategies over time appears to be a response to changing landscapes and concomitant local resources. This record contrasts with marine specialisations evident from other sites in Timor-Leste and within the broader Wallacean region

In 2000, Paleontologia Electronica made history as the first journal to publish descriptions of new species in electronic format (Scott et al., 2000; see history in Louys et al., 2017a). In the years since, PE has published over 300 new fossil taxa, always open access and freely accessible online.

Alarm over the prospects for survival of species in a rapidly changing world has encouraged discussion of translocation conservation strategies that move beyond the focus of 'at-risk' species. These approaches consider larger spatial and temporal scales than customary, with the aim of recreating functioning ecosystems through a combination of large-scale ecological restoration and species introductions. The term 'rewilding' has come to apply to this large-scale ecosystem restoration program. While reintroductions of species within their historical ranges have become standard conservation tools, introductions within known paleontological ranges-but outside historical ranges-are more controversial, as is the use of taxon substitutions for extinct species. Here, we consider possible conservation translocations for nine large-bodied taxa in tropical Asia-Pacific. We consider the entire spectrum of conservation translocation strategies as defined by the IUCN in addition to rewilding. The taxa considered are spread across diverse taxonomic and ecological spectra and all are listed as 'endangered' or 'critically endangered' by the IUCN in our region of study. They all have a written and fossil record that is sufficient to assess past changes in range, as well as ecological and environmental preferences, and the reasons for their decline, and they have all suffered massive range restrictions since the late Pleistocene. General principles, problems, and benefits of translocation strategies are reviewed as case studies. These allowed us to develop a conservation translocation matrix, with taxa scored for risk, benefit, and feasibility. Comparisons between taxa across this matrix indicated that orangutans, tapirs, Tasmanian devils, and perhaps tortoises are the most viable taxa for translocations. However, overall the case studies revealed a need for more data and research for all taxa, and their ecological and environmental needs. Rewilding the Asian-Pacific tropics remains a controversial conservation strategy, and would be difficult in what is largely a highly fragmented area geographically.

Understanding the evolutionary history of the herbivore niche within African bovids has traditionally relied on examining anatomical adaptations to diet, particularly those related to digestive strategy. More recently, mesowear and stable isotope analyses have been used to great effect to reconstruct dietary preferences. We use these dietary proxies to construct a morphology-free dietary ecospace and examine the topology of the phylogenetic relationships of African bovids mapped onto this ecospace. The reconstructed dietary ecospace provides evidence for four distinct dietary classes: species with C3- or C4-dominated diets that produce low or high occlusal relief, likely related to diets high or low in abrasives, respectively. We detected no evidence for a discrete mixed feeder category; the species often categorized as such represent the end members of groups of species with either C3- or C4- dominated diets. Our analysis reveals high variability within the C4 grazing ecospace, and phylogenetic evidence indicates at least two pathways to grazing, likely related to the abrasive qualities of ingested food, which may be determined by the moisture content or the height of consumed grasses. These different pathways probably contribute to the high diversity of African grazers, both today and in the fossil record. C3 browsers (non-frugivores) also display a high degree of variation, but there are no species associated with highly abrasive diets and there is evidence for only a single evolutionary pathway. We find evidence for only one evolutionary route towards frugivory, which includes species with diets that produce both high and low occlusal reliefs. The cause of abrasive wear in frugivores may be related to grit and/or the hard parts of fruits, but this requires further examination.

Mesowear analysis is a form of dental wear analysis used to infer the diets of herbivorous mammal species. It makes use of percentage indices of blunt, round and sharp cusp shape and high occlusal relief to classify the diet of species into one of three categories: browser, grazer or mixed feeder. Previously, this form of analysis has been limited to placental mammals, restricting the use of such analyses in Australia where the dominant herbivorous mammalian fauna consist of marsupials. In order to address this limitation, mesowear variables of extant marsupials were examined to determine whether their diets can accurately be predicted using mesowear analyses. Discriminant Function Analysis of mesowear variables and analysis of variance (ANOVA) of univariate mesowear scores for marsupial species demonstrate that mesowear analysis can be used to classify marsupial diets. A dataset of 24 typical marsupial species considered to be representative of the three dietary categories with respect to mesowear was generated and significantly increased cross-validated classification levels from 74.4% to 100% for the second molar. Mesowear analysis for marsupial species is most effective for the second molar with high predictive power also being evident for the first and third molars. When mesowear analysis was applied to six Plio-Pleistocene macropods (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) from the Darling Downs region, southeast Queensland, all species were classified as mixed feeders with the exception of Protemnodon roechus which was classified as a grazer. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of mesowear analysis as a dietary proxy for herbivorous marsupial species.