News and Events

2006 Media Releases

Who killed Australia’s giant marsupials?

The fact that an animal’s remains are found in your hearth doesn’t mean you’ve made a meal of it…. That, at any rate, was the theory of La Trobe University archaeology PhD researcher, Jacqui Duncan.

Five years later, armed with the results of new field excavations at Lake Menindee and expert archaeological dating by University of Melbourne colleague, Dr Matt Cupper, the two scientists announced their evidence at a news conference held at the Museum of Melbourne this weekend, the start of Science Week.

Their controversial conclusions suggest that prehistoric humans might not have been responsible for the extinction of Australia’s giant marsupials some 50,000 years ago – creatures like the diprotodon weighing up to 2.5 tonnes or the giant kangaroo, a metre taller than today’s largest ‘big reds’.

Instead, they argue that starvation brought about by arid climates of the last ice age was a likely cause, casting doubt on the more popular alternative hypothesis which blames human hunters.

Ms Duncan says the archaeological site of the new research is a set of dunes at Lake Menindee, on the Darling River in NSW, called ‘Sunset Strip’.

‘The site, originally discovered in the 1930s, contains an extensive record of human occupation including hearths, human burials, middens, and stone scatters.

‘It also contains the remains of twelve extinct megafaunal species including five species of sthenurine or short-faced kangaroos, giant wombats, three large macropodines, marsupial “lions” and Diprotodons.’

This site was re-excavated by Ms Duncan in 2001 as part of her Masters research in archaeology. Dr Cupper conducted geomorphological investigations and dated the dune deposits that contained the megafaunal and cultural remains. The research was funded by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

‘Our aim was to determine whether human hunting or climate change caused the extinction of the megafauna at this site,’ Ms Duncan explains.

‘During the excavation a hearth – or ancient fireplace – was uncovered that contained the remains of a giant kangaroo-like marsupial, implying that humans cooked and consumed this megafaunal species.

‘Despite the discovery of this evidence, it is possible that the megafaunal bones are a secondary deposit, and that they are older than the hearth.

‘It may be that around 45,000 years ago people were camping on a dune which contained just below the surface 10,000 year old bones and when they dug the hearth, these ancient bones became mixed up with the hearth.

‘We determined that there is no evidence of humans butchering the marsupials. People were not even at the scene, with the oldest evidence of humans at the site at least 10,000 years after the giant mammals went extinct.

‘This seems likely because all of the other evidence uncovered during our investigation suggests that megafauna died of starvation from drought caused by climate change at around 55,000 years ago.

‘The results from this investigation also demonstrate that the human antiquity of the site extends to around 45,000 years ago, making it the oldest archaeological site in the Darling River region.’

Ms Duncan says while the finding that drought is the most likely cause of the giant marsupial deaths at Lake Menindee is significant, further research needs to be done at other sites ‘to confirm the real culprits of the continent-wide extinction of Australia’s megafauna’.

The study is to be published in the August issue of the international journal 'Quaternary Research'.

For further information:

Jacqui Duncan, Tel: (03) 9479 1386.