Table 1 Fossil records and archaeological evidence extracted from the FosSahul database used to infer ages for megafauna extinction and first human occurrence.

From: Climate change not to blame for late Quaternary megafauna extinctions in Australia

Genera

Species (n records/species)

Total records

Total time range (kyr±1 σ)

Congruus

C. kitchenerii (5)

5

63±9 – 136.8±2.6

Diprotodon

Indet. (20), D. optatum (9)

29

44.2±5.7 – 1018.5±122.5

Genyornis

G. newtoni (252)

252

35±0.4 – 139.9±0

Macropus

Indet. (15), M. ferragus (3), M. nov (8), M. pearsoni (1)

27

43.3±0.5 – 876±206

Megalibgwilia

Indet. (1), M. ramsayi (6)

7

56±4 – 136.8±2.6

Metasthenurus

M. newtonae (8)

12

56±4 – 535±49

Palorchestes

Indet. (1), P. azael (4)

5

56±4 – 257±21

Phascolonus

P. gigas (6)

8

46±6 – 122±22

Procoptodon

Indet. (1), P. browneorum (28), P. gilli (16), P. goliah (12)

57

40±0.2 – 535±49

Protemnodon

Indet. (6), P. anak (16), P. brehus (19), P. roechus (13)

54

40.8±0.3 – 535±49

Sarcophilus

S. laniarius (9)

12

46±6 – 535±49

Simosthenurus

Indet. (2), S. baileyi (1), S. maddocki (7), S. occidentalis (26), S. pales (11)

47

44.9±1.3 – 535±49

Sthenurus

Indet. (2), S. andersoni (13), S. atlas (2), S. stirlingi (1), S. tindalei (3)

21

52±8 – 535±49

Thylacinus

T. cynocephalus (35)

35

3.5±0.1 – 297±9

Thylacoleo

T. carnifex (37)

37

44.9±1.3 – 535±49

Zygomaturus

Z. trilobus (34)

34

44.9±1.3 – 535±49

Homo

H. sapiens (436)

436

0.07±0.04 – 55.5±8.2

  1. Indet, indeterminate species identification.
  2. Age reliability was assessed following established quality-rating criteria20 (see details in Methods). Genera with at least four reliably dated fossil records (the minimum number required to run ensemble-hindcasting models17) were used for extinction-window estimates (Fig. 1a – c); this resulted in the removal of seven genera (Borungaboodie, Progura, Propleopus, Troposodon, Varanus, Wonambi and Zaglossus) from our analyses.