Australia lost more than 90% of its larger terrestrial vertebrates by around 40,000 years ago, with the notable exceptions of the kangaroo and the thylacine. A 2010 paper examining this issue showed that humans were likely to be one of the major factors in the extinction of many species in Australia although the authors of the research warned that one-factor explanations might be oversimplistic. The thylacine itself likely neared extinction throughout most of its range in mainland Australia by about 2,000 years ago.