Hunting for food was probably only one of the ways in which humans caused extinction. The ancestors of the Australian aborigines probably upset the overall ecological balance in several other ways. For instance, they may have used fire to clear and manage their landscape in order to benefit some species at the expense of others (contrary to popular perception, many hunter–gatherers actively managed their territories). The eucalyptus, which is rare in fossil records till 45,000 years ago, suddenly became very common at the expense of other plant species. In turn, this would have upset the whole
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