DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.05.042
Scopus记录号: 2-s2.0-84973444014
论文题名: The timing and cause of megafauna mass deaths at Lancefield Swamp, south-eastern Australia
作者: Dortch J. ; Cupper M. ; Grün R. ; Harpley B. ; Lee K. ; Field J.
刊名: Quaternary Science Reviews
ISSN: 2773791
出版年: 2016
卷: 145 起始页码: 161
结束页码: 182
语种: 英语
英文关键词: ESR
; Extinctions
; Lancefield Swamp
; Macropods
; Megafauna
; OSL
; Pleistocene
; Taphonomy
Scopus关键词: Bone
; Deposits
; Drought
; Electron spin resonance spectroscopy
; Magnetic moments
; Paramagnetic resonance
; Extinctions
; Lancefield Swamp
; Macropods
; Megafauna
; Pleistocene
; Taphonomy
; Wetlands
; anthropogenic effect
; archaeological evidence
; carnivory
; chronology
; climate change
; electron spin resonance
; extinction
; fauna
; fluvial process
; fossil assemblage
; human settlement
; marsupial
; mass mortality
; paleoenvironment
; Pleistocene
; swamp
; taphonomy
; Australia
; New Guinea
; Centrostegia thurberi
; Macropus
; Macropus giganteus
英文摘要: Lancefield Swamp, south-eastern Australia, was one of the earliest sites to provoke interest in Pleistocene faunal extinctions in Sahul (Pleistocene Australia-New Guinea). The systematic investigation of the deposit in the early 1970s identified megafaunal remains dominated by the 100-200 kg kangaroo Macropus giganteus titan. Associated radiocarbon ages indicated that the species was extant until c.30,000 BP, suggesting significant overlap with human settlement of Sahul. This evidence was inconsistent with contemporary models of rapid human-driven extinctions. Instead, researchers inferred ecological tethering of fauna at Lancefield Swamp due to intense drought precipitated localised mass deaths, consistent with Late Pleistocene climatic variability. Later investigations in another part of the swamp, the Mayne Site, remote to the initial investigations, concluded that mass flow disturbed this area, and Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) analyses on megafauna teeth returned wide-ranging ages. To clarify site formation processes and dating of Lancefield Swamp, we excavated new test-pits next to previous trenches in the Classic and Mayne Sites. We compared absolute chronologies for sediments and teeth, sedimentology, palaeo-topography, taphonomy, and macropod age at death across the swamp. Luminescence dating of sediments and ESR analysis of teeth returned ages between c.80,000 and 45,000 years ago. We found no archaeological remains in the bone beds, and evidence of carnivore activity and fluvial action, in the form of reactivated spring flow. The latter disturbed limited parts of the site and substantial areas of the bone beds remained intact. The faunal assemblage is dominated by megafaunal adult Macropus, consistent with mass die-offs due to severe drought. Such droughts appear to have recurred over millennia during the climatic variability of Marine Isotope Stages 4 and 3. These events began tens of millennia before the first appearance of Aboriginal people in Sahul and only the very youngest fossil deposits could be coeval with the earliest human arrivals. Therefore, anthropogenic causes cannot be implicated in most if not all of mass deaths at the site. Climatic and environmental changes were the main factors in site formation and megafauna deaths at Lancefield Swamp. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/59539
Appears in Collections: 过去全球变化的重建
There are no files associated with this item.
作者单位: Department of Archaeology, A22, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Earth Environment, Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, M257, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, Australia; TrEnD Lab, Curtin University, Bentley, WA, Australia; Research Centre of Human Evolution, Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD, Australia; Department of Archaeology and History, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia; 35 Bon Accord Avenue, Bondi JunctionNSW, Australia; School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, Australia
Recommended Citation:
Dortch J.,Cupper M.,Grün R.,et al. The timing and cause of megafauna mass deaths at Lancefield Swamp, south-eastern Australia[J]. Quaternary Science Reviews,2016-01-01,145