Fed: Climate not humans killed Australian mega fauna, scientists

AAP General News (Australia)
08-12-2006
Fed: Climate not humans killed Australian mega fauna, scientists

Scientists say giant Australian marsupials the size of four-wheel drives .. are more
likely to have been killed off by drought than human hunters.

The extinction of the giant kangaroos .. marsupial lions .. and wombat-like diprotodons
.. which roamed Australia in prehistoric times .. has long been debated.

Many believe they were killed off by humans .. but state-of-the-art dating techniques
have shown the mega-fauna were extinct for 10 thousand years before humans came onto the
scene.

A team of scientists .. led by the University of Melbourne's MATT CUPPER .. made the
discovery at the Lake Menindee archeological site in NSW.

Their findings will be published in the international journal Quaternary Research this month.

AAP RTV jmw/srp/bart

KEYWORD: MEGAFAUNA (MELBOURNE)

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