However, the warm Australian climate means that genetic material is quickly broken down and so the researchers turned to another key component of eggs, their proteins.Īncient proteins were extracted from three eggshell fragments, and then compared to similar proteins from living birds. Initially, scientists had hoped to extract ancient DNA from the eggshell to identify the species. How did Genyornis newtoni become extinct? newtoni has always been considered as a strong candidate, some scientists have argued that the shape and thickness of the shell matched better with the extinct giant malleefowl Progura.Īfter years of arguments from both sides, the debate has now been brought to a close. Eggs weighing around 1.5 kilogrammes have been found, but identifying the bird that laid them had been something of a challenge. Excavations across Australia have revealed thousands of eggshell fragments dating back over 55,000 years. The disappearance of these animals occurred so quickly that little evidence of humans interacting with these megafauna remains in the fossil record today.īut there is an exception. The influence of humans, be it through hunting the animals directly or burning their habitats, is believed to have contributed to the rapid extinction of some of these giants. Today, Australia is home to no native animal larger than 40 kilogrammes. However, within the next 20,000 years or so most of these species would go extinct. These included a giant kangaroo known as Procoptodon, a lion-like marsupial called Thylacoleo, and the giant wombat-like Diprotodon. When humans arrived in Australia at least 65,000 years ago, there would have been many large animals roaming the continent.
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The changing climate is believed to have played a role in the extinction of megafauna, but that is not the full story. Over the past 60,000 years animals such as the woolly mammoths of Europe and the giant ground sloths of the Americas were amongst a whole menagerie of giant creatures which vanished. At various times this created land bridges connecting Australia to New Guinea and the Aru Islands Regency in the north and Tasmania in the south, which all together formed a landmass known as Sahul.Īside from changes in the climate, the Pleistocene is also known for the disappearance of large animals, known as megafauna.
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What caused the extinction of Australia's megafauna?ĭuring the Pleistocene, between around 2.6 million to 12,000 years ago, a series of ice ages caused the sea levels to rise and fall. The findings of the study were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Overexploitation of the eggs by humans may well have contributed to Genyornis extinction.' 'This implies that the first humans did not necessarily hunt these enormous birds, but did routinely raid nests and steal their giant eggs for food. 'However, eggshell fragments with unique burn patterns consistent with human activity have been found at different places across the continent. 'There is no evidence of Genyornis butchery in the archaeological record,' Gifford says.
newtoni may have been caused by unsustainable egg collecting, an issue that still affects birds today. While some of these eggshells have been attributed to emus, the identity of others which suddenly vanish from the fossil record around 50,000 years ago has been the subject of heated debate.Īn international team of scientists have now confirmed the identity of the mystery egg-layer as Genyornis newtoni, an extinct flightless bird which measured over two metres tall.Ĭo-author Prof Gifford Miller says that their findings suggests that the extinction of G. Thousands of eggshell fragments dating back to the Pleistocene have been found across Australia, with evidence that they had been cooked. The mystery of what some of the first Australians may have been eating for breakfast has been solved.
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