KIN 4520 Chapter : Lect 1 Intro
15 Mar 2019
School
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Ecosystem collapse in pleistocene australia and a human role in megafaunal extinction. This article talks about how the change of an australian ecosystem 45 . 50,000 years ago caused the extinction of certain megafauna. The main cause of the ecosystem change is the introduction of humans. By collecting eggshells from certain birds and teeth from wombats, studies were made regarding dietary shifts in carbon3 based plants to carbon4 based plants. The giant flightless bird genyornis newtoni became extinct due to this shift in plant availability. The shift was caused by humans introducing fire into areas earlier than normal. The fire created nutrients not normally available to certain areas and promoted the growth of carbon4 plants. The extinction also has to do with browsing versus grazing eating strategies.
