In a new paper to be published in the prestigious international journal Science, a team of 11 researchers from Australia, France and the United States said they have studied 28 sites across the continent to determine the date the creatures became extinct, The Australian national newspaper said. The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers carried a similar report.
Researchers disagree on where Australia's Aborigines originated.
The research team, led by Richard Roberts of the University of Melbourne and Tim Flannery of the South Australian Museum, used several methods to date the sites containing fossilized remains of up to 55 prehistoric species. The researchers claim that the new dating discredits a widely accepted theory that climate change, particularly an ice age 23,000 years ago, caused the mass disappearance of Australia's largest animals, The Australian said. Roberts told The Australian. However, the report has been disputed by other Australian scientists who argue that it ignores an important fossil site in the nation's east, which has remains from giant animals believed to be 34,000 years old. Copyright 2001, The Associated Press.