WORLD-leading paleontologists are digging deep underground in the Wellington Caves, searching for clues to what led to megafauna extinction -and maybe even if climate change played a role.
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Australia's first big megafauna discovery took place at the caves in 1830 when Thomas Mitchell found fossils of giant Australian animals including the diprotodon, a giant wombat-like creature and thylacoleo, a carnivorous marsupial, but as the team from Flinders University excavates in the floor of the Cathedral Cave, they aren’t looking for the next big fossil.
Instead they are looking to piece together an accurate timeline of events and paint a more comprehensive picture of the past.
The development of scientific dating techniques since the last excavation 30 years ago means more than half the story was missed, according to Dr Gavin Prideaux who is conducting the excavation.
“We might be able to get some insight into why the extinction of the megafauna occurred and if it is more consistent with climate change. Can we see evidence of major climate change when they go extinct?”
“One of the main ideas is that humans hunted the megafauna to extinction.”
They are currently digging two metres down and will be back in June to dig further, with the project expected to last at least two years.
Only two other excavations have taken place in Cathedral Cave - one in the 1880s by Edward Ramsay, then a century later another dig was conducted by Dr Lyndall Dawson and Dr Mike Augee.
