Dr Gilbert Price

When facts get in the way of a good story: The saga of Australia’s megafaunal extinctions

Australia was once home to an incredibly diverse range of large-bodied Pleistocene megafauna, from massive wombat-like creatures, to kangaroos that were so big that they couldn’t hop, to land-based crocodiles and even ninja turtles (true!). The debate about the cause and timing of the extinction of these ‘Ice Age’ giants has become so nuanced and contrived that it has moved far beyond basic science. Having worked in the field for all of my academic career, this presentation will give a behind-the-scenes perspective of the debate, focussing on datasets, the peer-review process, and other direct one-on-one interactions that I have had with big personalities and big egos in the field.

Biography

Gilbert Price is a Senior Lecturer in Palaeontology at The University of Queensland. He is a vertebrate palaeoecologist and geochronologist, particularly interested in the evolution and emergence of our planet's unique ecosystems and fauna, and their response to prehistoric climatic changes. His major research focus has been on the development of palaeoecological models for Australia's Cenozoic, especially the Quaternary megafauna. Critically, this also involves the production of reliably-dated records for the fossils that he studies.