Why were we so good at adapting while our primate relatives faced extinction?

  Host: Associate Professor Kira Westaway

  Thursday 18 September 2025, 6.15pm – 7.30pm 

  Macquarie University

Overview

As our planet faces the prospect of a sixth mass extinction, it is a compelling time to understand why some primate species die out, while others thrive. Looking at the fate of primates in the past can help us start to establish what drives extinction and helps adaption. Dating, in all its different forms, is the key to understanding the fate of the primates because without a robust timeline, we end up looking for clues at the wrong time.   

In this talk, I will review attempts we have made to define the fate of four well-known primates: Homo floresiensis (the ‘Hobbit’), in Flores, Indonesia; Homo erectus in Ngandong, Java; Gigantopithecus blacki in southern China; and Homo sapiens in Tam Pa Ling, Laos. I will outline our dating strategy for each area and explain what these resulting timelines tell us about their collective fates. These examples suggest that whether large or small, around for a long time or a short time, certain primate species traits can make them vulnerable to climatic and environmental changes. A robust dating context helps us to pin-point these potential changes and lets us assess primate’s responses from a behavioural perspective, and consider the implications for the fate of primates in the future.

Biography

Associate Professor Kira Westaway is a geochronologist recognised for her use of luminescence dating to establish when modern humans dispersed across Southeast Asia en route to Australia. She establishes robust timelines by dating early human and faunal evidence in cave sites across southern and Southeast Asia. As part of an international research team, she provided chronological control for the ‘Hobbit’ discovery at Liang Bua cave, western Flores, Indonesia. She led the team that established chronologies for modern human arrival at the site of Lida Ajer in Sumatra and Tam Pa Ling in northern Laos. 

More recently, she established a timeline for the extinction of Homo erectus at Ngandong in Java, and the presence of Denisovans at Cobra Cave in northern Laos. She also led research to understand why the king of all primates, Gigantopithecus blacki, went extinct in southern China. This research has important implications for understanding megafaunal extinction in Asia and Australia. She is currently leading an international team attempting to bust the myths surrounding human dispersals through China and Southeast Asia.

Contact Us

For more details about the series, contact us at fse.outreach@mq.edu.au.