The bone was previously thought, based on a study co-authored in 1980 by Professor Mike Archer, to show a cut indicative of human butchery. However, Professor Archer now acknowledges that more advanced technology and reanalysis show the original conclusion was mistaken. "As a scientist, it's not just my job but my responsibility to update the record when new evidence comes to light," he said.
"Back in 1980, we interpreted the cut as evidence of butchery because that was the best conclusion we could draw with the tools available at the time. Thanks to advances in technology, we can now see that our original interpretation was wrong."
Advanced 3D-scanning and radiometric dating methods revealed that the incision was made after the bone had already fossilized, invalidating it as evidence of hunting. "For decades, the Mammoth Cave bone was a 'smoking gun' for the idea that Australia's First Peoples hunted megafauna, but with that evidence now overturned, the debate about what caused the extinction of these giant animals is wide open again, and the role of humans is less clear than ever," Prof. Archer stated.
Additional analysis included a fossil tooth 'charm' of the extinct Zygomaturus trilobus, found far from its likely origin. According to Dr Kenny Travouillon from the Western Australian Museum, "The tooth's presence in the Kimberley, far from its likely origin in Mammoth Cave, suggests it may have been carried by humans or traded across vast distances. This implies a cultural appreciation or symbolic use of fossils long before European science did. You could say that First Peoples may have been the continent's - and possibly the world's - first palaeontologists."
While the researchers do not fully exclude the possibility of hunting, they caution that no direct evidence links First Peoples to megafauna extinction. "If humans really were responsible for unsustainably hunting Australia's megafauna, we'd expect to find a lot more evidence of hunting or butchering in the fossil record. Instead, all we ever had as hard evidence was this one bone - and now we have strong evidence that the cut wasn't made while the animal was alive," said Prof. Archer.
The disappearance of megafaunal species often coincides with significant climate changes, and evidence shows some species vanished before humans arrived, while others coexisted with humans for thousands of years. The first people in Australia to show interest in and collect fossils were likely Indigenous Australians, long before European settlers.
The research team plans further testing on Mammoth Cave bones and the fossil tooth charm, and urges additional studies at sites like Cuddie Springs, where controversial evidence suggests humans and megafauna may have coexisted for 30,000 years without evidence of butchering.
Research Report:Australia's First Peoples: hunters of extinct megafauna or Australia's first fossil collectors
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University of New South Wales
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