New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia

Bowler, J. M.; Johnston, Harry; Olley, Jon; Prescott, J.R.; Roberts, Richard G.; Shawcross, Wilfred; Spooner, Nigel A.

doi:10.1038/nature01383

Cited by 621 publications

(404 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…14 C dates have been compared to these methods at many archaeological sites in Australia with varying degrees of success (Turney et al 2001;Gillespie 2002;Bowler et al 2003;Stone and Cupper 2003). Cave sediments in Western Australia's Devil's Lair produced strong correlation between 14 C dates of charcoal, and OSL and ESR ages for sediments (Turney et al 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary ¹⁴C Dates on Bulk Soil Organic Matter from the Black Creek Megafauna Fossil Site, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

2004

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Radiocarbon age determinations and stratigraphy suggest that the deposits in Black Creek Swamp on Kangaroo Island record 3 phases of deposition and associated soil development which spanned at least the last 20,000 yr. Four new 14C age determinations on bulk soil organic matter and their stratigraphic context are presented in this paper. Three of these age determinations (FP6: 15,687 ± 110 BP [WK11487]; FP7: 16,326 ± 385 BP [WK11488]; and FP8: 17,618 ± 447 BP [WK11489]), are from the organic-rich fossil layer located 45–75 cm below the current floodplain surface. The fourth, a much younger date, FP5: 5589 ± 259 BP (WK11486), was obtained from the base of the overlying modern soil. The dates for the fossil layer increase systematically with depth and correlate well with 5 previous 14C dates (Hope et al., unpublished), ranging between 15,040 ± 120 BP and 19,000 ± 310 BP. This suggests that the data set represents a possible minimum age of the bulk organic matter, and considering the high organic matter contents of approximately 8%, has implications for the age of the megafauna buried in this layer. The overlying modern soil, with its much younger date, contains lower levels of organic matter (3–7%) and gastropods not seen in the fossil layer. This suggests a substantial change in environmental conditions probably due to an alteration in the floodplain drainage conditions. This chronological and sedimentalogical discontinuity indicates that 2 distinct depositional regimes existed and were separated by up to 10,000 14C yr. A calcareous, sandy silt deposit underlying the fossil layer is a calcarenite deposit with low total organic content and is considered the base of the section; it suggests a third separate depositional episode. As such, the Black Creek Swamp in the southwest corner of Kangaroo Island formed intermittently over at least the last 20,000 yr during 3 distinct depositional phases, one of which was the formation of the fossil-laden, organic-rich floodplain surface, which has a possible minimum age of approximately 15,000 to 19,000 BP.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary ¹⁴C Dates on Bulk Soil Organic Matter from the Black Creek Megafauna Fossil Site, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

2004

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“…Further west of the Great Dividing Range, the semiarid region of the Willandra Lakes has produced evidence for human occupation of similar antiquity (e.g. Bowler et al 2003). These sites have all been published in considerable detail, and the associations are clear.…”

Section: Eastern Mainland Australia During the Pleistocenementioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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terra australis 32Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2009. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Among saltbush greyer than seaweed we boardwalk the yeasting waves of the old golden-perch pond. List of volumes in Terra AustralisRabbit dung dots a lake bottom dry since their coming -only once, last century, after seven inches of rain a farmer had to rescue his sheep by boat.The roo bounces down-slope, a brown branch crackling.The professor's eye, noting the local runoff and what the westerlies do, observes seas that rush in and out of a continent's middle, salt lakes spreading and emptying, hills pimpling up and down with cartoon-like speed, or gullying themselves into extinction, rainforests and deserts zipping back and forth like Tom and Jerry. A human mouse plague swiftly swarms, perhaps soon gone.Impermanent planet. Impermanent surface. All under air and water. The lunette is a wave, a dumper of sand, a collapsing tower in the mad rabbit years when its top blew off and old bones winked through, with a vault's worth of fine stone cores.Once so simply mislaid in sand, now so obligingly sluiced out to the un-subincised world that smiles at stone knives. terra australis 32Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes v You might as well offer your table knife to a carpenter.Cane grass and the Dreamtime's stone fight the eroding rivulets together. In today's rare downpour each lost core, or blunted scraper crowns some tiny eroding hillock, plops its anchor in the dissolving silts.The bettong whose skin took off the stone tool's edge has vanished -sacrifice to future fertility.Through the softening soil Homo sapiens's skeleton bumps up like a carp's back.Waits for the wind to shave it off in pieces.A D-section and a ti...

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“…Australasia was reached at least 220 50,000 years ago, and the North American continent rather more recently. 50,51 The pattern 221 of dispersal has clearly contributed to contemporary human diversity, mediated by the 222 regional geographical routes taken, contrasting selective pressures, and periodic local 223 isolations, all of which have promoted inter-group differences and some genetic 224 diversification. 52,53 Despite this, our species is characterised by remarkably high levels of 225 genetic unity, 54 fundamentally linked with our high levels of phenotypic plasticity.…”

Section: The Emergence Of Population Variability 215mentioning

confidence: 99%

Body composition and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes: an evolutionary perspective

Wells

2017

Eur J Clin Nutr

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1Type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing in prevalence worldwide, in concert with epidemics of 2 obesity and sedentary behaviour that are themselves tracking economic development. 3Within this broad pattern, susceptibility to diabetes varies substantially in association with 4 ethnicity and nutritional exposures through the life-course. An evolutionary perspective may 5 help understand why humans are so prone to this condition in modern environments, and 6 why this risk is unequally distributed. A simple conceptual model treats diabetes risk as the 7 function of two interacting traits, namely 'metabolic capacity' which promotes glucose 8 homeostasis, and 'metabolic load' which challenges glucose homoeostasis. This conceptual 9 model helps understand how long-term and more recent trends in body composition can 10 then be considered to have shaped variability in diabetes risk. Hominin evolution appears to 11 have continued a broader trend evident in primates, towards lower levels of muscularity. In 12 addition, hominins developed higher levels of body fatness, especially in females in relative 13 terms. These traits most likely evolved as part of a broader reorganisation of human life 14 history traits in response to growing levels of ecological instability, enabling both survival 15 during tough periods and reproduction during bountiful periods. Since the emergence of 16Homo sapiens, populations have diverged in body composition in association with 17 geographical setting and local ecological stresses. These long-term trends in both metabolic 18 capacity and adiposity help explain the overall susceptibility of humans to diabetes in ways 19 that are similar to, and exacerbated by, the effects of nutritional exposures during the life-20 course. 21

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New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia

Cited by 621 publications

References 26 publications

Preliminary ¹⁴C Dates on Bulk Soil Organic Matter from the Black Creek Megafauna Fossil Site, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Preliminary ¹⁴C Dates on Bulk Soil Organic Matter from the Black Creek Megafauna Fossil Site, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Body composition and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes: an evolutionary perspective

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New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia

Cited by 621 publications

References 26 publications

Preliminary 14C Dates on Bulk Soil Organic Matter from the Black Creek Megafauna Fossil Site, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Preliminary 14C Dates on Bulk Soil Organic Matter from the Black Creek Megafauna Fossil Site, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Body composition and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes: an evolutionary perspective

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Preliminary ¹⁴C Dates on Bulk Soil Organic Matter from the Black Creek Megafauna Fossil Site, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia

Preliminary ¹⁴C Dates on Bulk Soil Organic Matter from the Black Creek Megafauna Fossil Site, Rocky River, Kangaroo Island, South Australia