Australia's Mammal Extinctions: A 50 000 Year HistoryOf the forty mammal species known to have vanished in the world in the last 200 years, almost half have been Australian. Our continent has the worst record of mammal extinctions, with over 65 mammal species having vanished in the last 50 000 years. It began with the great wave of megafauna extinctions in the last ice age, and continues today, with many mammal species vulnerable to extinction. The question of why mammals became extinct, and why so many