Rextinct is a new R package that estimates extinction dates using radiocarbon-dated fossils. It implements CRIWM, a method that accounts for gaps in the fossil record and dating uncertainty. Unlike older tools, it doesn’t assume fossil ages are evenly spread or errors are normally distributed, making it more accurate and flexible. Rextinct helps scientists track when species disappeared—and understand why.

Over the last 60,000 years, Sahul witnessed the first wave of global megafauna extinctions. The causes have long been debated: climate change, human impact, or a combination of both.We have mapped extinction and human arrival patterns across south-eastern Australia, revealing that in about 80% of the region, humans and megafauna coexisted for millennia. Extinction patterns were best explained by human presence and water access, with arid regions driving additional losses.

For over 3.5 billion years, life on Earth has evolved through a balance of species emergence and extinction. But when extinctions outpace the formation of new species, mass extinction events occur. Earth has experienced five such events since the Cambrian period. Today, driven by human activity (including habitat loss, pollution, and climate change) species are disappearing at rates up to 10,000 times higher than normal, signalling that a sixth mass extinction may already be