Question

sporormielle fungus lives on herbivore dung in australia. the more dung there is in the landscape, the more fungus there is and the more fungal spores. a study found that sporormielle spore abundance dropped prior to a change in vegetation. so a change in climate and vegetation could not have caused the large herbivores to go extinct - they went extinct before the climate and vegetation changed in australia. instead, sporormielle spore abundance dropped (and hence large herbivore abundance dropped) around the time when the first humans appeared in australia. which hypothesis do these data support? group of answer choices climate change hypothesis overkill hypothesis

Answer 1

The data supports the overkill hypothesis, suggesting that human activity contributed to the extinction of large herbivores in Australia.

Step-by-step explanation:

The data suggests that the extinction of large herbivores in Australia is more likely to be caused by human activity rather than climate change. The study found that the decline in sporormielle spore abundance, which correlated with the disappearance of large herbivores, occurred around the time when the first humans appeared in Australia. This supports the overkill hypothesis, which suggests that human hunting contributed to the extinction of these large herbivores.