New ages for the last Australian megafauna: Continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago

All Australian land mammals, reptiles, and birds weighing more than 100 kil ograms, and six of the seven genera with a body mass of 45 to 100 kilograms , perished in the Late Quaternary. The timing and causes of these extinctio ns remain uncertain. We report burial ages for megafauna from 28 sites and infer extinction across the continent around 46,400 years ago (95% confiden ce interval, 51,200 to 39,800 years ago). Our results rule out extreme arid ity at the Last Glacial Maximum as the cause of extinction, but not other c limatic impacts; a "blitzkrieg" model of human-induced extinction: or an ex tended period of anthropogenic ecosystem disruption.