A new paper involving Environment Institute members Alan Cooper and Nicolas Rawlence, from the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, as well as Richard Gillespie (University of Wollongong/Australian National University), Aaron Camens (The University of Adelaide), Trevor Worthy (University of New South Wales), Craig Reid (Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery), Fiona Bertuch and Vladimir Levchenko (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) has recently been published in the Journal Quaternary Science Reviews.

Alan Cooper, Director of ACAD and one of the contributing academics

The paper is titled ‘Man and megafauna in Tasmania: closing the gap’ and reports on a series of new radiocarbon ages and C:N ratios on collagen and dentine fractions from skeletal remains in the Mount Cripps karst area and the Mowbray Swamp and discusses the reliability of ages from these and other sites. The study also reports the discovery of an articulated Simosthenurus occidentalis skeleton at Mt Cripps, that represents only the second directly-dated extinct megafaunal taxon with a reliable age <50 ka cal BP from Tasmania.

Read and dowload the paper to find out more and read about the findings.