According to new research, a giant kangaroo that used to roam on four legs in the remote forests of thePNG may have been around 20,000 years ago.
New techniques have been used to re-examine bones from the rich Nombe Rock Shelter fossil site in Chimbu Province in a bid to better understand the fascinating natural history of the country.
Several large mammal species, including the extinct thylacine and a panda-like marsupial (called Hulitherium tomasettii), are thought to have lived in the PNG Highlands when people first arrived.
One of the two large extinct kangaroo species may have persisted in the region for another 40,000 years.
"If these megafaunal species did indeed survive in thePNG Highlands for much longer than their Australian equivalents, then it may have been because people only visited the Nombe area infrequently and in low numbers until after 20,000 years ago," says ANU Professor of Archaeological Science Tim Denham, co-
The remains of extinct megafaunal species, most of them unique to New Guinea, can be found at the Nombe rock shelter.
"Newguinea is a forested, mountainous, northern part of the formerly more extensive Australian continent called 'Sahul' but our knowledge of its faunal and human history is poor compared with that of mainland Australia," says Professor Denham who initially undertook fieldwork in thePNG Highlands in 1990.
According to Professor Prideaux, the latest Nombe study is consistent with evidence from Kangaroo Island, which was published in the Journal of Quaternary Science.
Many assumptions about extinction timelines have been harmful.
Professor Prideaux says that this generalization is not based on very much actual evidence. It is more harmful than helpful to know what happened to the large mammals, birds and reptiles that lived on the continent when people first arrived.
nomadic groups of Highlands peoples would have rarely visited the Nombe rock shelter in the past.
The most intensive phase of fieldwork was conducted in 1971 and 1980 by Dr. Mary-Jane Mountain, who is also an author. The first detailed description and interpretation of the Nombe site was the result of her initial research.
Megafauna at the site may have survived for tens of millennia after human colonization, but this has only been confirmed with the advent of new techniques in archaeology.
Professor Prideaux says these new applications of modern analytical techniques, or new excavations at the Nombe site, will confirm timelines of late surviving megafauna.
The newest research was published in Archaeology.
More information: Gavin J. Prideaux et al, Re‐evaluating the evidence for late‐surviving megafauna at Nombe rockshelter in the New Guinea highlands, Archaeology in Oceania (2022). DOI: 10.1002/arco.5274Evidence for late-surviving megafauna was reexamined by Matthew C. Mcdowell and his team in the Journal of Quaternary Science. It was published in the journal jqs.2789.
Journal information: Journal of Quaternary Science
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