A bone fragment unearthed from an extinct giant kangaroo suggests the species survived until about 6,500 years ago in northern New Guinea – much more recent than previous estimates.
Laureate Research Fellow Dr Loukas Koungoulos, from The University of Western Australia’s School of Social Sciences, was lead author of the paper published in npj Biodiversity, which described a megafauna bone uncovered from an archaeological site in Sandaun Province on the north coast of New Guinea.
“The timing and causes of the extinction of Australia’s marsupial megafauna are heavily contested in the prehistory of Australia and New Guinea,” Dr Koungoulos said.
“In Australia, marsupial megafauna belonging to the giant kangaroo are thought to have become extinct about 40,000 years ago if not earlier.
“But in the New Guinea Highlands, there have been suggestions that some might have persisted until about 22,000 years ago, at the height of the last ice age.”
Archaeologists found a bone fragment, most likely belonging to one of the smaller forest-dwelling quadrupedal kangaroos in the genus Protemnodon, in a coastal rock shelter west of Vanimo in Papua New Guinea.
The finding suggests the species might have survived in that location up until about 6,500 years ago, due largely to the area’s rugged environment and low human population density.
“Fossils found in New Guinea increasingly suggest a staggered extinction process that took place later than in Australia,” Dr Koungoulos said.
“The species' disappearance from this region in New Guinea coincides with major environmental changes after the last ice age.
“Habitat loss likely placed many mammals at heightened risk of overhunting as local human populations grew at the same time.
“The combination of rapid habitat loss and the impact of an increased human population could have led to the eventual extinction, although in the broader scheme of things that was a relatively recent event.”
The study was co-authored by Research Associate Isaac Kerr from Flinders University and Professor Sue O’Connor from the Australian National University.