1 At some point in Australia's history, 85% of this so called megafauna became extinct.
 2 For more than a century, the timing of this extinction has been controversial.
 3 However, new discoveries have been made that may pinpoint this demise more precisely.
 4 A  new discovery has started to shed more light on the question.
 5 That is until 50,000 years ago, give or take five thousand years.
 6 This has provided the best evidence yet of an extinction date …
 7 for this giant animal and the other megafauna.
 8 There is a suggestion that it may have been due to changes in climate which the emus,
 9 for whatever reason, were able to survive, but which the genyornis couldn't.
10 Could humans have killed off the megafauna?
11 It's true that humans are known to have had quite a severe impact on flightless birds in particular.
12 In that case, it was due to people hunting the birds and starting fires.