Disappearing Megafauna by Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change

This course explores the complex relationship between early Aboriginal communities and Australia's ancient megafauna. Spanning tens of thousands of years, students will delve into how Aboriginal peoples adapted to changing environments, such as rising seas and expanding deserts, and how these adaptations impacted the landscapes and ecosystems around them. Key topics will include the reverence of certain animals as totems, the hunt for survival, and the extinction of iconic species like the giant kangaroo, Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo. Through archaeological discoveries and scientific analysis, students will investigate the role human settlement and hunting practices may have played in these extinctions. Comparisons with other global extinction events will shed light on how the arrival of humans in Australia coincided with significant ecological shifts. The course will also examine the unique position of Australia in the broader context of evolutionary biology, exploring the role of geographic isolation, Wallace’s Line, and the eventual introduction of species like the dingo. Additionally, it will address how Aboriginal peoples’ survival strategies—firestick farming, hunting, and shifting dietary practices—might have reshaped the very fauna they relied upon, leading to megafaunal extinctions during the Pleistocene era. In summary, students will gain an understanding of how Indigenous survival strategies coexisted with, and eventually contributed to, significant ecological transformations in ancient Australia. IN DEVELOPMENT: COURSE OVERVIEW ONLY