Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 22.10. Australia and New Guinea during the early Holocene. (After Williams,
2001a , fig.1.3B.)
A number of Australian workers at present reject climatic change as a causal agent
of extinction on the grounds that the animals had survived previous cold, dry glacial cli-
mates and that the extreme conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum some 20,000 years
ago post-dated the extinctions (Roberts et al., 2001 ; Johnson, 2005 ). Decimation from
hunting faces the immediate problem, discussed at length in Chapter 17 ,ofthetotal
lack of any discernible butchery sites. By default, the third hypothesis is accepted as
the cause, with the rider that burning may have altered the local hydrology sufficiently
to weaken the late Quaternary summer monsoon (Magee et al., 2004 ; Miller et al.,
2005 ), a view opposed by certain climate modellers and palynologists (Lynch et al.,
2007 ).
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search