DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.08.013
Scopus记录号: 2-s2.0-84939825843
论文题名: Temporal overlap of humans and giant lizards (Varanidae; Squamata) in Pleistocene Australia
作者: Price G.J. ; Louys J. ; Cramb J. ; Feng Y.-X. ; Zhao J.-X. ; Hocknull S.A. ; Webb G.E. ; Nguyen A.D. ; Joannes-Boyau R.
刊名: Quaternary Science Reviews
ISSN: 2773791
出版年: 2015
卷: 125 起始页码: 98
结束页码: 105
语种: 英语
英文关键词: Dating
; Megafauna
; Megafauna extinction hypotheses
; Monitor lizards
; Pleistocene
Scopus关键词: Geochronology
; Continental scale
; Dating
; Eastern Australia
; Megafauna
; Monitor lizards
; Pleistocene
; Temporal overlap
; Testing hypothesis
; Deposits
; biochronology
; cave deposit
; continental shelf
; dating method
; extinction
; fossil record
; human activity
; hypothesis testing
; lizard
; Pleistocene
; spatiotemporal analysis
; taxonomy
; Australia
; Squamata
; Varanidae
; Varanus
英文摘要: An obvious but key prerequisite to testing hypotheses concerning the role of humans in the extinction of late Quaternary 'megafauna' is demonstrating that humans and the extinct taxa overlapped, both temporally and spatially. In many regions, a paucity of reliably dated fossil occurrences of megafauna makes it challenging, if not impossible, to test many of the leading extinction hypotheses. The giant monitor lizards of Australia are a case in point. Despite commonly being argued to have suffered extinction at the hands of the first human colonisers (who arrived by 50 ka), it has never been reliably demonstrated that giant monitors and humans temporally overlapped in Australia. Here we present the results of an integrated U-Th and 14C dating study of a late Pleistocene fossil deposit that has yielded the youngest dated remains of giant monitor lizards in Australia. The site, Colosseum Chamber, is a cave deposit in the Mt Etna region, central eastern Australia. Sixteen new dates were generated and demonstrate that the bulk of the material in the deposit accumulated since ca. 50 ka. The new monitor fossil is, minimally, 30 ky younger than the previous youngest reliably dated record for giant lizards in Australia and for the first time, demonstrates that on a continental scale, humans and giant lizards overlapped in time. The new record brings the existing geochronological dataset for Australian giant monitor lizards to seven dated occurrences. With such sparse data, we are hesitant to argue that our new date represents the time of their extinction from the continent. Rather, we suspect that future fossil collecting will yield new samples both older and younger than 50 ka. Nevertheless, we unequivocally demonstrate that humans and giant monitor lizards overlapped temporally in Australia, and thus, humans can only now be considered potential drivers for their extinction. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/59835
Appears in Collections: 过去全球变化的重建
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作者单位: School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia; Queensland Museum, PO Box 3300, Brisbane, QLD, Australia; Southern Cross GeoScience, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia; Department of Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History, and Languages, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Recommended Citation:
Price G.J.,Louys J.,Cramb J.,et al. Temporal overlap of humans and giant lizards (Varanidae; Squamata) in Pleistocene Australia[J]. Quaternary Science Reviews,2015-01-01,125