Johnson C N, Alroy J, Beeton N J, Bird M I, Brook B W, Cooper A, Gillespie R, Herrando-Pérez S, Jacobs Z, Miller G H, Prideaux G J, Roberts R G, Rodríguez-Rey M, Saltré F, Turney C S M, Bradshaw C J A
School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 55, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, New South Wales 2109, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2016 Feb 10;283(1824). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2399.
During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.
在更新世期间，澳大利亚和新几内亚拥有丰富的大型脊椎动物群落。这些动物为何消失，这个问题已经争论了一个多世纪，至今仍存在争议。此前对这个问题的综合性综述通常严重侧重于特定类型的证据，比如灭绝时间和人类到来的时间，并且常常忽略可能导致对这些证据产生误解的不确定性和偏差。在这里，我们审视了与此问题相关的各种证据，并得出结论：尽管仍存在许多知识空白，但多条独立的证据链都指向人类的直接影响是最有可能的灭绝原因。
