Additional AMS radiocarbon dates for Wet Cave and the timing of megafaunal extinctions in the Naracoorte region of South Australia

Abstract

Previously published AMS radiocarbon ages for charcoal obtained from a stratigraphic profile at Wet Cave (5U10), Naracoorte World Heritage Area, southeastern South Australia (Pate et al. 2002), suggested that a range of megafauna disappeared from the site by ca. 45,000 years ago. The Wet Cave radiocarbon chronology provided additional data to support claims for a continentwide extinction of megafauna in Australia by about 46,000 years ago (See Miller et al. 1999, 2005; Roberts et al. 2001, Johnson & Prideaux 2004, Johnson 2005). Here we report an additional eight AMS radiocarbon ages for charcoal from the same stratigraphic sequence at Wet Cave in order to provide other researchers with access to the expanded dataset.