Scientists at Flinders University have carried out a study of the teeth of extinct fossil kangaroos from the Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Area in South Australia and compared them with living kangaroos. They used a scanning technique that revealed microscopic wear patterns on the teeth, which indicate what kind of food they were eating.
It had been assumed that the extinct kangaroos had died out because they were exclusively grazers and were unable to exploit other food sources during times of climate change. The results indicated the Naracoorte Cave kangaroos were eating a mixed diet of leaves and grasses, and would have been able to cope with changes in vegetation that occurred as the climate and environment changed.
This study is part of the ongoing research into the demise of the Australian megafauna, including giant kangaroos. The authors of the study commented: “Identifying what drove the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions on the continents remains one of the most contested topics in historical science. This is especially so in Australia, which lost 90% of its large species by 40,000 years ago, more than half of them kangaroos.”
According to Finders University News “While diet may still have played a role, determining extinction will likely involve better understanding other attributes, like body size and locomotion, and how these interacted with Pleistocene environments and the arrival of humans.”
The Editor’s Summary in Science, where the report was published, commented: “Thus, their demise was likely not driven by climate change, leaving humans as the probable cause.”
References: Flinders University 14 January 2025; ScienceDaily 9 January 2025; Science 9 January 2025, doi: 10.1126/science.adq4340
Editorial Comment: The demise of the Australian megafauna is a contested issue because it brings up two hotly debated issues – climate change and the role of aboriginal people.
This is an awkward debate because the climate change promoters have to explain what changed the climate when there was no modern industry, and the human intervention promoters have to admit that the Australian aboriginals could have hunted animals to extinction.
The climate in Australia has certainly changed. The fossil record indicates there was widespread lush vegetation and inland water in places that are now deserts, so the land would have supported an abundant population of large vegetarian animals. However, as Australia dried out the environment became harsher and less able to support giant animals.
As this was happening people were moving into Australia. After Noah’s flood God gave people permission to eat meat. Therefore, the incoming people hunted and killed the local wildlife for food. As the bigger ones are easier to find and slower on their feet, and provide more meat for the same effort, they would be prime targets.
Therefore, this is another issue where Creation Research can stand on the side and say you are both right, but also both wrong. The climate has changed, the environment has degenerated and people have hunted animals to extinction, but the root causes of these are human sin and God’s judgement, as clearly recorded in Genesis. Therefore, the debate will not be resolved unless people believe God’s word on the real history of the world.
Creation Research News 13 February 2025
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