A new study published in the journal Archaeology in Oceania has found that we might have been a bit premature deciding that all areas of Australia and Papua New Guinea lost their megafauna by 40,000 years ago.
A team including Flinders University in Adelaide and Australian National University researchers, used new dating methods and analysis to discover that, in a forest in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, at what’s known as the Nombe rockshelter site, megafauna survived much longer, even with humans making occasional visits.
In particular, the researchers found in this small oasis, two species of kangaroo that could have survived 20,000 years ago. Read more about the story here.
Cosmos Magazine science journalist Jacinta Bowler talked to researchers at the Flinders University Palaeontology Lab in the video above to understand what the team found.
Originally published by Cosmos as Ancient kangaroos might have lived in PNG for 20,000 years post megafauna extinction
Jacinta Bowler
Jacinta Bowler is a science journalist at Cosmos.
They were published in the Best Australian Science Writing 2023.
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