Australian Megafauna
Extinct circa 35,000 BCE • Oceania
"All of those Australian/New Guinean giants (the so-called mega fauna) disappeared after the arrival of humans. While there has been controversy about the exact timing of their demise, several Australian archaeological sites, with dates extending over tens of thousands of years, and with prodigiously abundant deposits of animal bones, have been carefully excavated and found to contain not a trace of the now extinct giants over the last 35,000 years. Hence the mega fauna probably became extinct soon after humans reached Australia."
Michael J. Novacek, The Biodiversity Crisis: Losing What Counts (New York: New, 2001).
Image: Karora, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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