Overview
- Published in Royal Society Open Science, the reanalysis overturns a decades-old claim that a Mammoth Cave tibia was a 'smoking gun' for human butchery.
- MicroCT scans and microscopic work revealed shrinkage cracks and impact patterns showing the V-shaped notch formed after fossilization, likely during extraction from the cave.
- An X-ray study of a diprotodontid tooth charm matched Mammoth Cave specimens, supporting Indigenous collection and long-distance transport or trade of fossils.
- Lead author Michael Archer acknowledges the 1980 interpretation was wrong and notes that millions of megafauna fossils in Australian collections show no unambiguous evidence of killing by humans.
- Researchers welcome a narrative shift toward recognizing symbolic use and trade, while experts such as Michelle Langley emphasize that whether First Peoples hunted megafauna remains unresolved.