4.7 Article

Late Holocene spread of pastoralism coincides with endemic megafaunal extinction on Madagascar

出版社

ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1204

关键词

extinction; megafauna; pastoralism; palaeoecology; radiocarbon; competition

资金

  1. National Science Foundation [2015213455, 1838393, 1749676]
  2. Royal Society [UF120473]
  3. Sigma Xi
  4. American Philosophical Society
  5. Society for Archaeological Science
  6. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
  7. PSU Energy and Environmental Sustainability Laboratories
  8. PSU Africana Research Center
  9. PSU Anthropology Department
  10. NSF Archaeometry Program [BCS-1460367]
  11. Pennsylvania State University
  12. Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci
  13. Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie [1749676, 1838393] Funding Source: National Science Foundation

向作者/读者索取更多资源

Recent studies suggest that competition between introduced livestock and endemic megafauna in Madagascar may have contributed to the late extinction of the endemic megafauna on the island. The overlap in diets and habitats of introduced and endemic herbivores, along with opportunistic hunting by humans and environmental changes, likely played a role in this competition.
Recently expanded estimates for when humans arrived on Madagascar (up to approximately 10 000 years ago) highlight questions about the causes of the island's relatively late megafaunal extinctions (approximately 2000-500 years ago). Introduced domesticated animals could have contributed to extinctions, but the arrival times and past diets of exotic animals are poorly known. To conduct the first explicit test of the potential for competition between introduced livestock and extinct endemic megafauna in southern and western Madagascar, we generated new radiocarbon and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from the bone collagen of introduced ungulates (zebu cattle, ovicaprids and bushpigs, n = 66) and endemic megafauna (pygmy hippopotamuses, giant tortoises and elephant birds, n = 68), and combined these data with existing data from endemic megafauna (n = 282, including giant lemurs). Radiocarbon dates confirm that introduced and endemic herbivores briefly overlapped chronologically in this region between 1000 and 800 calibrated years before present (cal BP). Moreover, stable isotope data suggest that goats, tortoises and hippos had broadly similar diets or exploited similar habitats. These data support the potential for both direct and indirect forms of competition between introduced and endemic herbivores. We argue that competition with introduced herbivores, mediated by opportunistic hunting by humans and exacerbated by environmental change, contributed to the late extinction of endemic megafauna on Madagascar.

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