Hunters or collectors? New evidence challenges claim Australia’s First Peoples sent large animals extinct
- Written by Mike Archer, Professor, Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, UNSW Sydney

Tens of thousands of years ago, Australia was still home to enigmatic megafauna – large land animals such as giant marsupial wombats, flightless birds, and short-faced giant kangaroos known as sthenurines.
Then they gradually went extinct. What killed them?
There has...