With the prospect of a sixth mass extinction event looming there has never been a more compelling time to understand species extinction, especially for primates. Looking to past unresolved extinctions is a good starting point to try and establish what drives extinction and when it occurs. Dating, in all its different forms, is the key to understanding species extinction because without a robust timeline we end up looking for clues at the wrong time.
In this talk, Dr Westaway will review three attempts we have made to define the extinction of three well-known primates; Homo floresiensis, in Flores Indonesia, Homo erectus in Ngandong Java and Gigantopithecus blacki in southern China. Dr Westaway will outline a dating strategy for each area and assess the implications of these resulting chronologies. These examples suggest that whether primates are large or small, whether they have been around for a long time or a short time, certain species' traits can make them vulnerable to climatic and environmental changes. A robust dating context helps us to pin-point these potential changes and allow us to assess primate response from a behavioural perspective. These findings have implications for primate survival in the future.
