A giant marsupial that roamed prehistoric Australia 25 million years ago is so different from its wombat cousins that scientists have had to create a new family to accommodate it.
A study of the fossil teeth of megafauna from Cuddie Springs in NSW suggests that climate change had a significant impact on the diets of these giants and may well have been a primary factor in their extinction.
Abrupt warming that closely resembles the rapid man-made warming occurring today has repeatedly played a key role in mass extinction events of large animals, the megafauna, in the Earth’s past, new research shows.
New advances in ancient DNA, carbon dating and climate reconstruction finally provide some answers on megafauna extinction, write Chris Turney and Alan Cooper.
Most species of gigantic animals that once roamed Australia had already disappeared by the time people arrived, a major review of the available evidence has concluded.
