Hunting that was widely practiced by the Homo sapiens at the initial stage

Hunting that was widely practiced by the Homo sapiens at the initial stages of their development is considered to be one of the main causes of animal extinction (University of Exeter, 2008). The findings of scholars from the University of Exeter seem to prove that hunting, but not climate change or any other naturally conditioned factors, caused the extinction of giant marsupials, also known as the Austronesian megafauna (University of Exeter, 2008). Prior scholarly views on climate change as the main extinction cause were based on the data that giant marsupials in the Austronesian continent became extinct 46,000 years ago, while humans came to the continent only 43,000 years ago.

However, recent research proved that some marsupial species were observed in the continent 41,000 years ago, i. e. 2,000 years after the Homo sapiens arrived. At the same time, the climate did not change essentially during those years, while hunting became used extensively, which allows scholars to argue about hunting as the major extinction factor (University of Exeter, 2008).