Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:40:18.865Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revisiting the late Pleistocene mammal extinction record at Tight Entrance Cave, southwestern Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

J. Tyler Faith  and
James F. O'Connell
J. Tyler Faith*
Affiliation:
Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, 2110 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052 USA
James F. O'Connell
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 270 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. Fax: + 1 202 994 6097. E-mail address:tfaith@gwu.edu (J. T. Faith).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Tight Entrance Cave (TEC) in southwestern Australia provides a Pleistocene sequence documenting the extinction of 14 large mammal species. This record has been interpreted as indicating that extinctions did not occur during or before the penultimate glacial maximum (PGM) and that humans played a primary role in the extinctions. However, it remains possible that the majority of extinct megafauna persisted no later than the PGM. The TEC extinctions correspond with vegetation change, a cooling/drying trend, increased biomass burning, and increasingly unstable small mammal communities. The initiation of these trends predates human arrival on the continent and implies environmentally mediated extinctions.

Keywords

Quaternary extinctionsMegafaunaCimate changeFireOverkillSahul
Type
Short Paper
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , November 2011 , pp. 397 - 400
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ayliffe, L.K., Prideaux, G.J., Bird, M.I., Grün, R., Roberts, R.G., Gully, G.A., Jones, R., Fifield, L.K., and Cresswell, R.G. Age constraints on Pleistocene megafauna at Tight Entrance Cave in southwestern Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 27, (2008). 1784–1788.Google Scholar
Barnosky, A.D., Koch, P.L., Feranec, R.S., Wing, S.L., and Shabel, A.B. Assessing the causes of late Pleistocene extinctions on the continents. Science 306, (2004). 70–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barry, J.C., Morgan, M.E., Flynn, L.J., Pilbeam, D., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Raza, S.M., Khan, I.A., Badgley, C., Hicks, J., and Kelley, J. Faunal and environmental change in the late Miocene Siwaliks of Northern Pakistan. Paleobiology 28, (2002). 1–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowman, D.M.J.S., Murphy, B.P., and McMahon, C.R. Using carbon isotope analysis of the diet of two introduced Australian megaherbivores to understand Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. Journal of Biogeography 37, (2010). 499–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brook, B.W., Bowman, D.M.J.S., Burney, D.A., Flannery, T.F., Gagan, M.K., Gillespie, R., Johnson, C.N., Kershaw, P., Magee, J.W., Martin, P.S., Miller, G.H., Peiser, B., and Roberts, R.G. Would the Australian megafauna have become extinct if humans had never colonized the continent? Comments on “A review of the evidence for a human role in the extinction of Australian megafauna and an alternative explanation”. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, (2007). 560–564.Google Scholar
Cohen, T.J., Nanson, G.C., Jansen, J.D., Jones, B.G., Jacobs, Z., Treble, P., Price, D.M., May, J.-H., Smith, A.M., Ayliffe, L.K., and Hellstrom, J.C. Continental aridification and the vanishing of Australia's megalakes. Geology 39, (2011). 167–170.Google Scholar
Faith, J.T., and Surovell, T.A. Synchronous extinction of North America's Pleistocene mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, (2009). 20641–20645.Google Scholar
Fiedel, S. Sudden deaths: the chronology of terminal Pleistocene megafaunal extinction. Haynes, G.A. American megafaunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene. (2009). Springer, Dordrecht. 21–37.Google Scholar
Field, J., Fillios, M., and Wroe, S. Chronological overlap between humans and megafauna in Sahul (Pleistocene Australia–New Guinea): a review of the evidence. Earth Science Reviews 89, (2008). 97–115.Google Scholar
Field, J., Wroe, S., Trueman, C.N., Garvey, J., and Wyatt-Spratt, S. Looking for an archaeological signature in Australian Megafaunal extinctions. Quaternary International (2011). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.04.013 Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K. Deciphering North American Pleistocene extinctions. Journal of Anthropological Research 63, (2007). 185–213.Google Scholar
Grayson, D.K., and Meltzer, D.J. A requiem for North American overkill. Journal of Archaeological Science 30, (2003). 585–593.Google Scholar
Grün, R., Eggins, S., Aubert, M., Spooner, N., Pike, A.W.G., and Müller, W. ESR and U-series analyses of faunal material from Cuddie Springs, NSW, Australia: implications for the timing of the extinction of the Australian megafauna. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, (2010). 596–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, G. The catastrophic extinction of North American mammoths and mastodonts. World Archaeology 33, (2002). 391–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C. Australia's Megafaunal Extinctions. (2006). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Johnson, C.N. Determinants of loss of mammal species during the late Quaternary 'megafauna' extinctions: life history and ecology, but not body size. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 269, (2002). 2221–2227.Google Scholar
Johnson, C.N. What can data on the late survival of Australian megafauna tell us about the cause of their extinction?. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, (2005). 2167–2172.Google Scholar
Kershaw, A.P., van der Kaars, S., and Moss, P.T. Late Quaternary Milankovitch-scale climatic change and variability and its impact on monsoonal Australasia. Marine Geology 201, (2003). 81–95.Google Scholar
Kershaw, P., Moss, P., and van der Kaars, S. Causes and consequences of long-term climatic variability on the Australian continent. Freshwater Biology 48, (2003). 1274–1283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koch, C.F. Prediction of sample size effects on the measured temporal and geographic distribution patterns of species. Paleobiology 13, (1987). 100–107.Google Scholar
Koch, P.L., and Barnosky, A.D. Late Quaternary extinctions: state of the debate. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 37, (2006). 215–250.Google Scholar
Ludwig, A.J., and Reynolds, J.F. Statistical Ecology: A Primer on Methods and Computing. (1988). Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Lyman, R.L. Determining when rare (zoo-)archaeological phenomena are truly absent. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 2, (1995). 369–424.Google Scholar
Marean, C.W., Abe, Y., Frey, C.J., and Randall, R.C. Zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the Die Kelders Cave 1 Layers 10 and 11 Middle Stone Age larger mammal fauna. Journal of Human Evolution 38, (2000). 197–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, P.S. Prehistoric overkill: the global model. Martin, P.S., and Klein, R.G. Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. (1984). University of Arizona Press, Tucson. 354–403.Google Scholar
Martin, P.S. Twilight of the Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions and the Rewilding of North America. (2005). University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, G.H., Fogel, M.L., Magee, J.W., Gagan, M.K., Clark, S.J., and Johnson, B.J. Ecosystem collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a human role in megafaunal extinction. Science 309, (2005). 287–290.Google Scholar
Miller, G.H., Magee, J.W., Johnson, B.J., Fogel, M.L., and Spooner, N.A. Pleistocene extinction of Genyornis newtoni: human impact on Australian megafauna. Science 283, (1999). 205–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mooney, S.D., Harrison, S.P., Bartlein, P.J., Daniau, A.L., Stevenson, J., Brownlie, K.C., Buckman, S., Cupper, M., Luly, J., Black, M., Colhoun, E., D'Costa, D., Dodson, J., Haberle, S., Hope, G.S., Kershaw, P., Kenyon, C., McKenzie, M., and Williams, N. Late Quaternary fire regimes of Australasia. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, (2011). 28–46.Google Scholar
Murphy, B.P., Williamson, G.J., and Bowman, D.M.J.S. Did central Australian megafaunal extinction coincide with abrupt ecosystem collapse or gradual climate change?. Global Ecology and Biogeography (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2011.00668.x Google Scholar
O'Connell, J.F., and Allen, J. Dating the colonization of Sahul (Pleistocene Australia–New Guinea): a review of recent research. Journal of Archaeological Science 31, (2004). 835–853.Google Scholar
Price, G.J., and Webb, D.S. Late Pleistocene sedimentology, taphonomy and megafauna extinction on the Darling Downs, southeastern Queensland. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 53, (2006). 947–970.Google Scholar
Price, G.J., Webb, G.E., Zhao, J., Feng, Y.-x., Murray, A.S., Cooke, B.N., Hocknull, S.A., and Sobbe, I.H. Dating megafaunal extinction on the Pleistocene Darling Downs, eastern Australia: the promise and pitfalls of dating as a test of extinction hypotheses. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, (2011). 899–914.Google Scholar
Prideaux, G.J. Systematics and evolution of the sthenurine kangaroos. University of California Publications in Geological Sciences vol. 146, (2004). University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Prideaux, G.J., Gully, G.A., Couzens, A.M.C., Ayliffe, L.K., Jankowski, N.R., Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R.G., Hellstrom, J.C., Gagan, M.K., and Hatcher, L.M. Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, (2010). 22157–22162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prideaux, G.J., Long, J.A., Ayliffe, L.K., Hellstrom, J.C., Pillans, B., Boles, W.E., Hutchinson, M.N., Roberts, R.G., Cupper, M.L., Arnold, L.J., Devine, P.D., and Warburton, N.M. An arid-adapted middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from south-central Australia. Nature 445, (2007). 422–425.Google Scholar
Roberts, R.G., Flannery, T.F., Ayliffe, L.K., Yoshida, H., Olley, J.M., Prideaux, G.J., Laslett, G.M., Baynes, A., Smith, M.A., Jones, R., and Smith, B.L. New ages for the last Australian megafauna: continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago. Science 292, (2001). 1888–1892.Google Scholar
Thompson, J.C. Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age faunal assemblage from Pinnacle Point Cave 13B, Western Cape, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 59, (2010). 321–339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trueman, C.N.G., Field, J.H., Dortch, J., Charles, B., and Wroe, S. Prolonged coexistence of humans and megafauna in Pleistocene Australia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102, (2005). 8381–8385.Google Scholar
Wroe, S., and Field, J. A review of the evidence for a human role in the extinction of Australian megafauna and an alternative interpretation. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, (2006). 2692–2703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar