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Meiolaniid or horned turtles are members of the extinct Pleistocene megafauna of Australia and the southwest Pacific. The timing and causes of their extinction have remained elusive. Here we report the remains of meiolaniid turtles from cemetery and midden layers dating 3,100/3,000 calibrated years before present to approximately 2,900/2,800 calibrated years before present in the Teouma Lapita archaeological site on Efate in Vanuatu. The remains are mainly leg bones; shell fragments are scant and there are no cranial or caudal elements, attesting to off-site butchering of the turtles. The new taxon differs markedly from other named insular terrestrial horned turtles. It is the only member of the family demonstrated to have survived into the Holocene and the first known to have become extinct after encountering humans.

Tne Green an0 Go oen Bell Frog L,ror,a aurea has ~noergone a oramat c pop, a1 on dccl ne n Nea S o~h Wales Dur~ng I n s I me !he spec es stalus in I n s stale nas cnanged from oe ng common n lne 1960s lo endangered n 1992 To assess lne presenl pop^ at on numoers an0 env ronmenta pressures, 31 sites within the Greater Sydney region and 61 sites from regional areas of New South Wales were s~rveyed Tne sles conslsled ot prevlo~s y known 0-1 no onger ,sea ocalllles pi or lo I 990 as we1 as more recent y d scovereo ocal lles S nce 1990, only 38 loca I es nave been recorded for Green ana Go oen Eel FrWs 19 01 these are in !he Grealer Svdnev re9 on S nce tne 1960s Green and Golden Bell Frogs have-disappeared completely from all-highianz areas above 250 m a.s.1. Coastal populations have been reduced in number and are more isolated from other extant populations. Manv of the extant sites are new sites loost 19901 for this soecies and occur in hiahlv disturbed ~,~ ~~ ~ ~~~~~ , ~~~-. envronmenls The ecolog ca n cne of m s specles 1s d sc-ssed n tne gnt of new observal ons on tnese irogs Tne n l r o a~c l on of Mosq-lo Fish Garno~sra no lo rook^ may oe one of the factors m ttng tne recogcry ot Green ano Golaen Be1 Frog pop~lal~ons n New Souln Wales.