Humans wiped out Australia's Megabeasts... according to dung fungus

Adam Khor

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/03/22/dung-fungus-reveal-that-humans-not-climate-change-killed-australia%E2%80%99s-giant-beasts/#more-6607

Wibbs

We've done that pretty much everywhere. Except Africa. Sure sign we kicked off there without recourse to DNA or fossil evidence, the locals were used to us.

Adam Khor

Wibbs wrote: »

We've done that pretty much everywhere. Except Africa. Sure sign we kicked off there without recourse to DNA or fossil evidence, the locals were used to us.

Even so, some African beasts did go extinct at the time, didn´t they? What with all those elephant and rhino species, the giant zebra and hartebeest and the sabercats...

Rubecula

Adam Khor wrote: »

Even so, some African beasts did go extinct at the time, didn´t they? What with all those elephant and rhino species, the giant zebra and hartebeest and the sabercats...

I think perhaps the sabrecats may be a bad example Adam. They have evolved and gone extinct many times over the history of mamalians. The do well for a while and then overspecialise themselves into extinction (apparently). It seems to be pretty cyclic although I really have no idea why.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

I think perhaps the sabrecats may be a bad example Adam. They have evolved and gone extinct many times over the history of mamalians. The do well for a while and then overspecialise themselves into extinction (apparently). It seems to be pretty cyclic although I really have no idea why.

Hmm I think I should specify; I mean true sabercats (Metailurines and Machairodontines), not the false sabercats like Nimravids and Barbourofelids. But I don´t remember which ones were present in Africa during the late Pleistocene so, I better shut up...

Mickeroo

A study has shown that the introduction of humans to Australia caused the extinction of a huge range of flamin' massive animals which had managed to survive 100,000 years of climate change:

The basis for the charge rests on two mud cores—one stretching from around 130,000 years ago to 24,000 years ago and the other ranging from roughly 50,000 years ago 3,000 years ago. The long core reveals how the local environment reacted to two previous periods of cooling and drying. Judging by the Sporormiella fungus—which only releases its spores when in the dung of plant-eating animals—big animals fared well during these climatic changes, munching happily on the changing vegetation of the area.

That changed roughly 41,000 years ago, when the number of spores in the core "dropped almost to zero," the researchers wrote. The record in mud also notes an increase in charcoal from large-scale fires and new types of vegetation—eucalyptus trees and the like with grasses beneath, much as seen today. A shift in climate could alter plant populations, but this vegetation change actually precedes by roughly 10,000 years the most recent climate shift within the core's age, to cooler and drier conditions. "Climate change played no role in megafaunal extinction in Australia," Johnson concludes.

More here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hunters-killed-off-big-animals-australia

Wibbs

The "large-scale fires" are one clue. It seems early Aussies lit same to flush out animals from cover. The "at one with nature, isn't it amazing" Aborigines that followed didn't change because of some esoteric spiritual stuff, it was a case of having to as their environment changed. This notion of the "Noble savage at one with nature" has long had currency in western thinking and has often clouded the reality of the past. American plains Indians used to stampede herds of buffalo off cliffs and leave many carcasses to rot. "Dancing with wolves" it wasn't. In Europe we had a similar set of extinctions not solely related to climate. Interestingly this only happens with moderns. Neandertals didn't appear to have much of an impact even over 300,000 years. Down to numbers probably. Eden only really ever existed in our imaginations. In the real Eden we ate the snake.

Adam Khor

Wibbs wrote: »

Eden only really ever existed in our imaginations. In the real Eden we ate the snake.

Titanoboa thinks we should be thankful the snake of Eden wasn´t her