Ancient humans not to blame for mass island extinction
4 May 2021
Human arrival had minimal impacts on biodiversity loss.
An international research team has debunked a popular theory that ancient humans caused mass animal and plant extinctions on newly inhabited islands.
Archaeologists and palaeontologists, including from Griffith University and The Australian National University (ANU), compared records of human arrival and extinctions on islands spanning the past 2.6 million years, finding little overlap between the two events.
Co-researcher and ANU Professor Sue O'Connor said the evidence did not reveal early modern humans to be the destructive agents that "they're often portrayed to be".