Trying times: Millennial to million year luminescence chronologies for improved reconstructions of Australian megafaunal extinctions

澳大利亚大型动物群灭绝的原因继续引起激烈争论，原因是古生物记录中的年代学差距、限制较差的古环境历史以及在人类到来之前关于大型动物群对气候变化的长期反应的数据有限。该项目将利用和推进新的发光测年方法，提供无与伦比的动物种群更替和环境变化的重建，时间跨度从千年到百万年。通过这项工作产生的年表将为正在进行的大型动物群辩论提供一个至关重要的新视角，并将被用来检验在地方、区域和大陆尺度上支持人为和气候驱动的物种灭绝假说的关键假设。

The causes of megafaunal extinction in Australia continue to be fiercely debated owing to chronological gaps in the palaeontological record, poorly constrained palaeoenvironmental histories and limited data on long-term faunal responses to climate change prior to human arrival. This project will utilise and advance new luminescence dating methods to provide unparalleled reconstructions of faunal turnover and environmental change over millennial to million year timescales. The chronologies generated through this work will provide a crucial new perspective on the ongoing megafaunal debate and will be used to test key assumptions underpinning anthropogenic- and climate-driven extinction hypotheses on local, regional and continental scales.