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Last glacial megafaunal death assemblage and early human occupation at Lake Menindee, southeastern Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Matthew L. Cupper  and
Jacqui Duncan
Matthew L. Cupper*
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
Jacqui Duncan
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Victoria 3086, Australia
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: +61 3 8344 7761. E-mail address:cupper@unimelb.edu.au (M.L. Cupper).
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Abstract

The Tedford subfossil locality at Lake Menindee preserves a diverse assemblage of marsupials, monotremes and placental rodents. Of the 38 mammal taxa recorded at the site, almost a third are of extinct megafauna. Some of the bones are articulated or semi-articulated and include almost complete skeletons, indicating that aeolian sediments rapidly buried the animals following death. New optical ages show the site dates to the early part of the last glacial (55,700 ± 1300 yr weighted mean age). This is close to the 51,200–39,800 yr Australia-wide extinction age for megafauna suggested by Roberts et al. [2001, Science 292:1888–1892], but like all previous researchers, we cannot conclusively determine whether humans were implicated in the deaths of the animals. Although an intrusive hearth at the site dating to 45,100 ± 1400 yr ago is the oldest evidence of human occupation of the Darling River, no artifacts were identified in situ within the sub-fossil-bearing unit. Non-anthropogenic causes, such as natural senescence or ecosystem stress due to climatic aridity, probably explain the mortality of the faunal assemblage at Lake Menindee.

Keywords

Aeolian dunesAMS radiocarbon datingArchaeologyAustraliaClimate changeGeomorphologyLast glacial aridityMegafaunal extinctionMurray–Darling BasinOptically stimulated luminescence dating
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , September 2006 , pp. 332 - 341
Copyright
University of Washington

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