And Then There Were None?

The article discusses research that directly dates fossils of the last survivors of the Australian megafauna which supports the hypothesis that they were extinct 40 thousand years ago and no sooner. According to the authors, giant marsupials, reptiles, and flightless birds once inhabited Australia, with most of them extinct by the late Pleistocene period. Most other species of megafauna appeared to have survived until 51 to 40 thousand years ago until hunting by humans or changes in vegetation drove them to extinction. Topics include an in-depth examination of fossils from Cuddie Springs, New South Wales, using electron spin resonance (ESR) and uranium-series methods, and what caused the extinction of Australia’s megafauna.