Scientists find the true cause of the giant animal extinction in Australia

The Australian continent is a "strange" continent surrounded by the ocean and completely separated from other continents. The independent geography has created a unique ecological environment with very exotic plant and animal species, the most famous of which is the marsupial. It is difficult to understand that the largest animal on the Australian continent today is the Kangaroo, but their weight does not exceed 90 kg and there are no giant animals on a large area of ​​this land. In fact, just 50,000 years ago, the continent of Australia still has many different beasts, including many giant animals but they disappeared in a short time, leaving a mystery for human!

Australia is the smallest continent in the world but the 6th largest country in total area, due to its large size and isolation, Australia is also assigned the name "island continent".

Kangaroo kangaroo, the name is very familiar to a lot of people. This is considered to be the largest modern mouse in the world and lives mainly in Australia. They are classified as marsupials of the Macropods family (big-legged family). This is the only mouse line not classified as a mouse or rodent set.

In a recent groundbreaking study, scientists may have identified the cause of the extinction of giant animals on the Australian continent.

About 42,000 years ago, giant animals wandered across the Australian continent, including mammals weighing the equivalent of trucks, females up to 2 meters tall and wingspan of over 7 meters. But today all of them are extinct. For decades, scientists have been debating whether the extinction of the species was due to human action.

Diprotodon (bipolar) is the largest ever known marsupial. It lived from about 1.6 million years ago until extinction almost 50,000 years ago. Diprotodon fossils found in the main island of Australia, including complete skulls and bones, as well as foot and hair marks . The largest specimen is about hippo in size: 3 meters long from nose to tail, standing 2 meters high to shoulder and weighing about 2,786 kg. Ancient Aboriginal rock paintings in Quinkan (Queensland, Australia) are thought to paint Diprotodon. They live in open forests, grasslands, and grasslands, they can live near water, eat leaves and grass. Diprotodon's closest surviving relatives are wombat and koala.

Procoptodon is a giant short-faced kangaroo that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene, and is one of the largest marsupials ever to exist, standing up to a height of about 3 m. They weigh about 200–240 kg.

Ancient lizard - "Australian dragon".

Recently, a team of the Australian Center for Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) published their findings, scientists analyzed fossil data, recreated and described the survey information. as ancient aborigines in Southeast Australia. Based on these data, the team developed a complex mathematical model and then applied relevant data to the model to explain regional changes in human coexistence and Australian giant animal.

The results of this study show that climate change and human impact in Australia have contributed to the extinction of giant animals, at least in southeastern Australia. As the climate warms, freshwater resources become extremely valuable to animals and humans and contribute to the extinction of giant animals on the continent.

"Scientists are looking to dig deeper into what has caused the extinction of large animals," said Dr. Frederik Saltré, head of the Global Ecological Laboratory (Flinders University). Australia. There has been a lot of debate about this extinction event, because this is one of the earliest extinction events that occurred after Homo sapiens left Africa. "

The migration route of Homo sapiens, they have been in the Australian continent 50,000 years ago.

Aboriginal people living in Australia.

Based on an analysis of more than 10,000 fossils and complex models, the team came to a conclusion and published it in the journal Nature Communications in a study titled "Human-Climate Interaction and Excellence." strain of large animals in Southeast Australia ".

Researchers have relied on complete fossils of giant animals and various human archaeological evidence to map the extinction model of large animals in Australia. It is followed by using complex mathematical models to test the impact of many factors including climate, water resources, ancient human activities to analyze data.

The results of the study show that it is clear that Australia's extinction event is the result of a combination of many factors related to climate change, freshwater depletion and human activities in common. school with animals.

Today's Australian continent is full of deserts and cannot support the survival of large animals.

Professor Cory Bradshaw, a researcher at the Global Ecological Laboratory at Flinder University, said: "The species extinction area model can explain our hypothesis about the process and causes of extinction. gigantic animals. Freshwater resources are important not only for humans, but also for large animals. Water availability also increases the chances of humans encountering large animals. "

Water resources have attracted large animals and provided opportunities for their encounters with humans.

In Australia at the end of the Pleistocene, the climate became drier, forests and meadows continued to shrink, resulting in a reduction in the number of large animals, a shrinking habitat and even a continental divide. . At the same time, people migrated to the Australian continent resulting in competition for water and habitat.

They also kill and affect the number of large animals on this continent, eventually causing the extinction of the Australian giant animal.

This also happened on other continents on Earth in the late Pleistocene. Although humans played a big part in the event of the giant animal extinction in Australia, the number of giant animals at this time has been greatly reduced, so people only put a mark on it. end them instead of the "withering" of nature.

Diagram of the reduction of large numbers of animals in Australia