Re: Article: 'Fires wiped out' ancient mammals


"Robert Karl Stonjek" <rstonjek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:damps1$1f9n$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 'Fires wiped out' ancient mammals
> By Helen Briggs
> BBC News science reporter
>
> The first humans to arrive in Australia destroyed the pristine landscape,
> probably by lighting huge fires, the latest research suggests.
> The evidence, published in Science magazine, comes from ancient eggshells.
>
> These show birds changed their diets drastically when humans came on the
> scene, switching from grass to the type of plants that thrive on scrubland.
>
> The study supports others that have blamed humans for mass extinctions
> across the world 10-50,000 years ago.
>
> Many scientists believe the causes are actually more complex and relate to
> climate changes during that period, but, according to Dr Marilyn Fogel, of
> the Carnegie Institution in Washington, US, chemical clues gleaned from the
> eggshells suggest otherwise.
>
> "Humans are the major suspect," she said. "However, we don't think that
> over-hunting or new diseases are to blame for the extinctions, because our
> research sees the ecological transition at the base of the food chain.
>
> "Bands of people set large-scale fires for a variety of reasons including
> hunting, clearing and signalling other bands.
>
> "Based on the evidence, human-induced change in the vegetation is the best
> fit to explain what happened at that critical juncture."
>
> Full Text at the BBC
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4660691.stm
>
> Posted by
> Robert Karl Stonjek
>

Hmmm. So the only large fauna that remained in Australia were the ones
capable of stamping out the fires... ;-)


.

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