Man 'Not To Blame' For Extinction Of Giant Wombat

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5-31-2005 | Roger Highfield

[Darksheare]

Whooops, forgot to ping some people.
Sionnsar, Meeks, more big critters mentioned.
This time 'Diprotodon.'

(Plus man vindicated, possibly, of extincting said critters.)

[Nick Danger]

Man 'Not To Blame' For Extinction Of Giant Wombat

I always assumed this was caused by the Giant Wombat Eaters.

[Eaker]

I was in school that day. Just ask my mom.

[gundog]

The Brits still get credit for wiping out the Tasmanians, though, right?

[Grut]

Okay... quick, now: which one's the giant wombat...?

The Encyclopedia Britannica contains the following in its entry on wombats: " The genus wombat contains two species, the naked-nosed and the hairy-nosed wombat." I have long considered this the finest straight line in the English language....

[humblegunner]

I was in school that day.

Bull again.
I have pix of you slaughtering all kinds of cool Austrailian critters
40,000 years ago, 50,000 years ago and last July 4th weekend.

Eaker did it all and he needs to account for it, the meanie.

And when he goes deservedly to Eco-prison I'll oversee his chainsaw and keep it from doing harm.

[popdonnelly]

Thank God, I can finally stop feeling guilty about the extinction of the Giant Wombat.

[FreedomFarmer]

It was only a 125cc, but it ran like a stripped $$ ape.

[Frank_2001]

It's not man's fault? Whoa, that's a relief!;)

[humblegunner]

I can finally stop feeling guilty about the extinction of the Giant Wombat.

Can you really.. or are you just saying that?

[datura]

Chainsaw? Did I read CHAINSAW????? Check out this one!

Small Block Chainsaw

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

links could be dead...

Pleistocene Extinction of Genyornis newtoni:
Human Impact on Australian Megafauna
Gifford H. Miller, John W. Magee,
Beverly J. Johnson, Marilyn L. Fogel,
Nigel A. Spooner, Malcolm T. McCulloch,
Linda K. Ayliffe
Jan 8 1999
Abstract
Science, Volume 283, Number 5399 Issue of 8 Jan 1999, pp. 205 - 208

More than 85 percent of Australian terrestrial genera with a body mass exceeding 44 kilograms became extinct in the Late Pleistocene. Although most were marsupials, the list includes the large, flightless mihirung Genyornis newtoni. More than 700 dates on Genyornis eggshells from three different climate regions document the continuous presence of Genyornis from more than 100,000 years ago until their sudden disappearance 50,000 years ago, about the same time that humans arrived in Australia. Simultaneous extinction of Genyornis at all sites during an interval of modest climate change implies that human impact, not climate, was responsible.

Asteroids 'affected human evolution'
by Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

...according to Dr Benny Peiser, a social anthropologist at John Moores University in Liverpool, UK, and Michael Paine, an impact researcher from the Planetary Society in Australia, the most likely cause of hominid extinctions may be more than 20 globally devastating catastrophes that occurred over the last five million years... "Just over two million years ago an asteroid estimated to be 2 km (1.2 miles) in diameter struck the Southern Ocean, south west of Chile. Had it struck land the environmental consequences might have been much worse. If the collision had occurred a few hours earlier, southern Africa might have been wiped out, along with our ancestors."

[SunkenCiv]

"extinction was a gradual process"

Extinction is instantaneous, whatever its cause.

[Bernard Marx]

Will someone please inform the arrogant human-hating jerks like Jared Diamond? That's where he lost me in "Guns, Germs and Steel." What a crock! If humans did it why did we only go after the humungous-sized critters that could do us serious harm, while leaving most animals under 200 pounds alone? That's always seemed upside-down to me. Science marches on.

[blam]

"Will someone please inform the arrogant human-hating jerks like Jared Diamond? That's where he lost me in "Guns, Germs and Steel." "

His political correctness in the first part of the book pissed me off so I quit read it.

[LIConFem]

"Clearly, it was aboriginal CO2."

I think it was mass suicide. Can you imagine going through life with a schnoz like that??? OY!! ;o)

[who knows what evil?]

I'll bet that woodpecker in Arkansas knows where to find one.

[Bernard Marx]

Me too.

[SunkenCiv]

an update to a 2005 topic Blam started:

Climate change, not hunters, killed ancient Australia's giant kangaroos
University of Melbourne
August 16, 2006

Cold, arid climates of the last ice age have been identified as a likely cause, casting doubt on the alternative hypothesis which blames human hunters... The largest marsupials weighted up to 2.5 tonnes - heavier than a four wheel drive car. Giant kangaroos were at least 1 m taller than the biggest kangaroos today. "They all became extinct, with the red kangaroo the largest marsupial to survive beyond the ice age. The reason for their extinction has long been debated" said Dr Matt Cupper of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Dr Matt Cupper from the University of Melbourne and Ms Jacqui Duncan from La Trobe University revisited an archaeological site discovered at Lake Menindee on the Darling River in the 1930s where evidence of human hunting of the large animals had been argued to occur... "We determined that there is no evidence of humans butchering the marsupials. People were not even at the scene of the crime, with the oldest evidence of humans at the site at least 10,000 years after the giant mammals went extinct," said Ms Jacqui Duncan of the Archaeology Program at La Trobe University. "The animals probably died of starvation during drought around 55,000 years ago," she said.