NSW: Animal extinctions due to humans not climate change: study

AAP General News (Australia)
08-12-2008
NSW: Animal extinctions due to humans not climate change: study

A study looking into the extinction of Australia's prehistoric animals has dismissed
scientific beliefs climate change caused their disappearance.

The first findings of the study suggests over-hunting by humans delivered the final
blow to Tasmania's giant prehistoric animals .. known as megafauna.

The discovery was made by a team of Australian and British experts .. including Professor
RICHARD ROBERTS and Dr ZENOBIA JACOBS from Wollongong University's school of earth and
environmental sciences.

Giant kangaroos and marsupial rhinos and leopards are said to have survived in Tasmania
up to two thousand years after the first human settlers arrived.

The new study has found there was no dramatic change in the Tasmanian climate at the time.

The findings have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences of the United States.

AAP RTV stu/evt/crh/tm

KEYWORD: EXTINCTION (SYDNEY)

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