14C dating put its age at between 28,000 and 32,000 years old. All three measures converged on a date between 61,000 and 62,000 years. While this date is still controversial, it could help explain the extinction of megafauna on the Australian continent around that time. If this date holds up, it will have a profound impact on the most extreme late-bloomer theories. Those who argued for a 40,000-year date for the evolution of language will have to explain how this universal human skill reached isolated Australia.
Aborigines are fully modern humans with very sophisticated languages.
In other words, the latest date for late-bloomer theories would have to be somewhere around 70,000 years ago. And there is a good chance that this date will be pushed back further. They displaced the local Neanderthal population 35,000 to 30,000 years ago and began to leave the legacy of symbolic artefacts that were part of what came to be known as the Palaeolithic revolution. One new technology associated with this advance is the use of bone for tools. Our understanding of prehistory is plagued not only by the difficulty of dating, but also by a bias towards studying the European past.