SYDNEY, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Researchers in Australia have challenged a long-standing theory that Indigenous Australians hunted the continent's giant prehistoric animals to extinction, suggesting instead they may have been fossil collectors.
New technology has shown the incision marks likely made by humans on the fossilized bone of an ancient kangaroo were in fact made after the bone was fossilized, not while the animal was alive, according to a statement released Wednesday by Australia's University of New South Wales (UNSW).
The research, led by UNSW paleontologists, focuses on the fossilized tibia, or lower leg bone, of a now-extinct, giant "sthenurine" kangaroo, or short-faced kangaroo, found in Mammoth Cave in southwestern Australia around the time of the First World War, it said.
The bone was later determined to be hard evidence showing that Indigenous Australians hunted megafauna, according to the study published in the British journal Royal Society Open Science.
"Back in 1980, we interpreted the cut as evidence of butchery because that was the best conclusion we could draw with the tools available at the time. Thanks to advances in technology, we can now see that our original interpretation was wrong," said UNSW Professor Mike Archer, who was involved in the original study published in 1980.
New microCT scans and updated radiometric dating analyses revealed that the incision occurred long after fossilization, suggesting the bone may have been collected or used symbolically by early humans.
"This implies a cultural appreciation or symbolic use of fossils long before European science did," said Kenny Travouillon, study co-author from the Western Australian Museum.
"For decades, the Mammoth Cave bone was a 'smoking gun' for the idea that Australia's First Peoples hunted megafauna, but with that evidence now overturned, the debate about what caused the extinction of these giant animals is wide open again, and the role of humans is less clear than ever," Archer said.
Hard evidence is required to prove that Indigenous Australians' hunting contributed to megafauna extinction, the researchers said, adding significant climate change may have caused the demise of Australia's ancient megafauna. ■
