AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY Published Quarterly by the Australian Museum, College Street, Sydney
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VOL. 17, NO. 10 JUNE I 5, 1973
CONTENTS PAGE
THE FossiL LAKE-FAUNA OF KooNWARRA, VICTORIA - Michael Waldman 3 17
MORE RICE AND LESS FISH-SOME PROBLEMS OF THE " GREEN REVOLUTION"-Timothy P. Moulton 322 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGY OF FLINDERS ISLAND- Judy Birmingham 328
LAPITA POTTERY AND THE ORIGINS OF POLYNESIAN CULTURE-Roger Green 332
INTERSPECIFIC R ELATIONSHIPS AMONG F OSSIL SPECIES- John Pickell 338
LARGE FRESHWATER LEECH- Laurence R. Richardson 344
NEw BooKS REVIEWED 347
M EET OuR CONTRIBUTORS 348
e FRONT COVER: This dance mask from New Ireland represented a deceased person and was used in ceremonials honouring the dead. Such masks often carried the names of particular persons. They arc of tatanua type. one of several carved forms known popularly as malanggan carvings. The head consists of a carved wooden frame, with the face painted in red, white and black and with seashell opercula as eyes. The hair is in three sections: human hair on one sid<>, off-white stringy plant fibres on the other, and a crest of light-brown coconut fibres in the centre. A short piece of bark cloth hangs around the nape of the neck. The height of the mask is about 32 centimetres (about 121- inches). The mask was purchased in 1884 from Captain Thomas Farrell. Its registered number in the Australian Museum's Anthropology Department is E. 1182. BACK COVER: This X-ray photo of a Calliaster starfish was taken at the Australian Museum to ascertain whether X-ray could show the internal struct!lres of starfish. Some of the structures are clearly shown. [Photos by C. V. Turner.] J
Koomvarria, a newly discovered teleost fish, probably descended from the archaeomaenids, an extinct Australia n fish family.
THE FOSSIL LAKE-FAUNA OF KOONWARRA, VICTORIA By MICHAEL WALDMAN Geology Teacher, Stowe School, Buckingham, England
N 1962 a road-gang straightening a bend succeeding three years. Mr P. M. Duncan, I in the South Gippsland Highway near of Morwell, also collected many specimens, Koonwarra, Victoria, removed part of a which he generously made available for study. hillside and, while so doing, found fossil Not only were fish found in the deposit, but fish. A large collection was made immedi also many arthropods, plant remains, and ately by the University of Melbourne, and in three feathers, all in a beautiful state of 1965 I began to study the fish and the preservation. palaeoecology of the deposit in the Zoology D epartment of Monash University, Freshwater deposits Melbourne. The fossils and the rocks in which they were embedded would, I hoped, The Koonwarra fi sh-bed sediments are a give all the necessary clues in reconstructing part of a great thickness (perhaps as much as a picture of the original environment. It 20,000 feet) of freshwater deposits of soon became apparent that more material Cretaceous age which cover several areas of was needed, and, with the help of a bulldozer southern Victoria. and several Monash University zoology At that time, large areas of what is now undergraduates, a new exposure was made southeastern Australia were submerged and many more fossils were collected in the beneath fresh waters. We may imagine this
Australian Natural History Page 317 Wadeichthys (top), a member of the extinct Australian fish family Archaeomaenidae, preserved on the same bedding plane as Leptofepis (bottom).
~:' ' .<\ lL ' 1, region as having been an area of fairly under flood conditions. Such sediments do low-lying land with occasional ranges of hills. not preserve fossils well, because the The lowlands would have supported very organisms usually disintegrate before being large numbers of streams, rivers, and lakes, buried, and their fragmentary remains go and somewhere in this environment the unnoticed. In such an area, however, there Koonwarra biota lived, died, and was were undoubtedly quiet backwaters, billa preserved. bongs, and many ponds and lakes of various Only scanty macro-fossil remains were sizes, all characterized by having compara known in the Victorian Cretaceous before tively still-water conditions. Sediment would the Koonwarra find. Among these were a be deposited gently in such areas without dinosaur claw and a lungfish tooth from Cape much disturbance by flowi ng water. When Paterson, as well as a few molluscs, two an animal died, it would be entombed quietly partial skeletons of fish, and a turtle, all from in the bottom-mud and be covered by more western Victoria. sediment But why is the Koonwarra deposit so exceptional? Why are the rest of the Special kind of environment Victorian Cretaceous deposits not filled with The Koonwarra deposit, however, fossils of these types? The lack of exposures represents a fossilized still-water environment may have something to do with it, much of of a very special kind. It is made up of very this part of Victoria being good farmland fine-grained particles of silt and clay which without much rock outcrop. A second have been deposited in thin, paired layers. feature is that finds are often not reported to These pairs of layers are caused by differences institutions such as museums and universities. in sedimentation during spring-summer and At Koonwarra, for example, we were told autumn-winter, and are known as varves. of someone finding fossil fish on his property They only appear in situations of great "many years ago" while building a dam, but stillness of water, usually in deep lakes where none of these specimens were ever kept or they remain undisturbed. donated to museums. The fauna is usually preserved completely, Neither of these ideas, however, satis with fish, insects, and other organisms being factorily accounts for the rarity of fossils. found in an undamaged state. This initially For the probable answer, we must examine seems to tie in with the varves being laid the nature of the sediment from which down in deep water. There is, however, the rock was formed. It is generally coarse, strong evidence of mass-mortality, with many sandy material, often showing evidence of organisms being preserved together in the having been deposited in river channels or same layer, and this mortality occurs many
Page 318 June, 1973 by the author, that does fulfil all the require ments, is that based on a phenomenon common in cold regions and known as "winterkill".
Paradoxical situation At Koonwarra we have an apparently paradoxical situation where the evidence seems to point to both shallow and deep water conditions simultaneously. But if we look carefully at the e:vidence for deep water, we see that it hinges mainly on the presence of the varves and the complete state of the fossils. If we can provide a suitable environ ment in shallow water to satisfy these factors, then there is no conflict of evidence. Consider a shallow arm of a lake isolated from the main body of water by a submarine bar or similar obstacle, the whole lying among the foothills of a range in Victoria about 135,000,000 years ago. In the spring, this body of water would be populated with a wide variety of aquatic life, with terrestrial Varves from part of the Koonwarra fish-bed. The light, thick bands are those life falling in and being blown in from the of spring-summer and the dark, thin land. Spring floods would bring sandy bands are representative of autumn- sediment into both main lake and arm, and as winter. summer wore on and the volume of river-flow diminished, the sediment would become finer. times. In addition, we can tell from their With the coming of autumn, this decrease in scales that the great majority of the fish are grain-size would continue, with terrestrial only about one year old. They are buried in organisms drifting in occasionally, until the same layers of sediment as complete and winter conditions ensued with the eventual undamaged terrestrial insects. Young fish freezing over of the lake arm. The ice usually live in the shallows, and land insects would effectively isolate the arm and during are usually found in concentration close to the winter the oxygen in this ice-topped the shore of a water-body, so there seems to aquarium would be exhausted, thereby killing be a conflict with the deep-water idea, all the exygen-breathing organisms. These particularly as only a few older fish have been would sink down into the bottom-mud to be found. There is no trace left in the rock of covered by the last and finest suspended the mysterious cause of death, but we do sediment. Next spring the ice would melt, know that the dead fish always appear in the the entombed year-old fish and other aquatic very fine-grained part of each layer-pair of life would be replaced by a live fauna from sediment. This means that they were always the main lake as the water-level rose to spring killed off at the same time in each year floods, and the whole cycle would then be that is, during the winter. repeated. There are no geological traces to indicate This theory fits all the known geological that the fish-bed ever dried out, and so we facts, including the recurrent mass-mortality cannot use desiccation as a theory to account of the whole aquatic fauna, the presence of for the mass-mortality. Besides, this would varves, the perfect preservation, and the be much more likely to have occurred in the presence of mainly year-old fish in the summer than in the winter. death-assemblage. How, then, can we account for this highly unus1:1 al faunal preservation? There are Preserved fish several theories, many of which do not agree Among the fish preserved at Koonwarra with all the geological facts, but one, favoured are: Ceratodus, a lungfish much like the
Australian Natural History Page 319 I modern Australian genus; Coccolepis, the always the chance of finding a complete bird, last known genus of a group of extinct however, and this would be very exciting, as predatory fish, the palaeoniscoids; and we know little of Cretaceous bird-life. Leptolepis, a rather herring-like early teleost. The arthropod fauna is beautifully There are also two new genera- Wadeichthys, preserved in the fine layers of the varves, a primitive member of an exti nct Australian with a wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial' fish family, the archaeomaenids, and forms being represented. These are to be Koomvarria, a teleost fish probably derived described by E. F. Riek, of the CSIRO. from the archaeomaenids. T he insect fauna includes mayflies, stone.fl.ies, Coccolepis and Leptolepis are known in dragonflies, bugs, beetles, scorpion flies, and both marine and freshwater deposits of also two fleas. The fleas indicate that Jurassic and Cretaceous age in the Northern mammals may have lived in the vicinity of the Hemisphere. Possibly these genera resembled lake. Lower Cretaceous mammals are some modern fish in being able to live in both extremely rare and are unknown in Australia. salt and fresh waters, or perhaps different It would be a discovery of the greatest species lived in different environments. It importance if such mammals were fo und at must also be remembered that the continents Koonwarra. Many tiny crustaceans at that time were very close together, probably (conchostracans and anostracans) are known making aquatic migration very much simpler from the deposit, as well as a limulid than at present. arachnoid ("king-crab"), found, incidentally, by two schoolboys out fossil-hunting. The beds contain a good deal of plant Superbly preserved feathers material (to be described by J. G. Douglas, Apart from the fish, the beds are of the Mines Department of Victoria), over remarkable for other superbly preserved thirty species of plants being known from remains. Among these are three feathers, the site. Plants have been of great help in but unfortunately these tell us little about the the accurate dating of the Victorian birds from which they came. There is Cretaceous.
A slightly damaged specimen of the palaeoniscoid fish Cocco/epis. Note the streamlined form and large jaws of this predator.
Page 320 June, 1973 Leptolepis koonwarri, a species with a herring-like appearance, although probably not on the main line of herring evolution.
The Koonwarra fish-bed is the richest site Talent, J. A., 1965 : " A New Species of of Cretaceous freshwater fossi ls known in Conchostracan from the Lower Cretaceous of Victoria." Proceedings of the Royal Society of the Southern Hemisphere, and it is hoped Victoria, 79, pp. 197- 203, 1 plate. that other such sites may be discovered Talent, J. A., P. M. Duncan, and P. L. Handby, elsewhere in Victoria. 1966: "Early Cretaceous Feathers from Victoria". Emu, 66, pp. 81 - 86, 3 plates. [The photos in this article are by T. Gordon, Waldman, M., 1970 : " A Third Specimen of a Department of Zoology, Monash University.] Lower Cretaceous Feather from Victoria, Australia." Condor, 72, p. 377, 1 plate. Waldman, M., 1971 : "Fish from the Freshwater FURTHER READING Lower Cretaceous of Victoria, Australia, with Carroll, E. J., 1962 : " Mesozoic Fossil Insects from Comments on the Palaeo-environment." Special Koonwarra, South Gippsland, Victoria." Papers in Palaeontology, No. 9, pp. v + 1-131, Australian Journal of Science, 25, pp. 264-265. 18 plates. Palaeontological Association, London.
COLOURFUL FIDDLER BEETLE
The Fiddler Beetle (Eupoecila australasiae) is one of the Cetoniinae, a group of beetles known as F lower Chafers or Rose Chafers. It is a common diurnal species from eastern Australia, and is often found on Angophora fl owers, where it fe eds on pollen and nectar. Its ground colour is dark brown, almost black in some specimens, and the hieroglyph-li ke markings are a bright lime-green. Adults can be up to three-quarters of an inch in length. [Photo: Anthony Healy.]
Australian Natural History Page 321 The Snakeskin Gourami (Trichogaster pectoralis) has vertical stripes reminiscent of snakeskin. Its colour can change from light to dark grey, depend ing on the background and the fish's physio logical state. The fish can breathe air quite efficiently-an import ant adaptation in the hot, often oxygen depleted, water of the paddy-fields. It grows to about 15 em (about 6 in). [Photo from Sterba, 1962.) More Rice and Less Fish-Some Problems of the ''Green Revolution'' By TIMOTHY P. MOULTON University of California, Davis, Cal., U.S.A.
HE records are rather vague as to when cycle, the fish enter the fields and grow T the Snakeskin Gourami (Trichogaster rapidly on a diet of algae, plankton, and pectoralis Regan) was introduced to the Malay bottom organisms. The breeding potential peninsula from Thailand. However, it was in of the fish is tremendous, and the fields can 1921 that the Malayan Department of be stocked by relatively few breeding pairs. Fisheries began an intensive campaign of distribution of the fish to many of the wet Catching methods paddy areas of the west coast of West The fish are caught by a variety of Malaysia. In certain areas the fish established methods-by liftnets, casting nets and stake themselves very successfully, whereas in traps in the canals, and by gill nets, traps others they remained scarce or died out and sump ponds in the paddy-fields. The completely. bulk of the harvest comes from the sump In the successfully colonized areas, the ponds (or te/aga), which are sunk at low fish soon became an important feature in positions in the fields. The fish move into the life of the paddy farmer, providing a these ponds at the end of the season when ready source of food and often a substantial fields are drying out, and are caught by cash income. bailing out the pond. The sump ponds also serve as a refuge for the fish during the dry The "culture" of Trichogaster and the period. other native paddy-field fish requires a minimum of effort on the part of the farmer. The other fishes which are native to The fish live in the irrigation canals and the pacldy-fields are: the Snakehead drains and various retreats during the dry (Ophiocephalus striatus), the Catfish (Ciarias months of the year, from about the end of batrachus, C. macrocephalus), and the December until April. At the onset of the Climbing Perch (Anabas testudineus). The rains, Trichogaster commence breeding, total production of these species is, however, forming their characteristic bubble nests in Jess than half that of Trichogaster. the backwaters and deeper areas of the fields. One of the earliest colonized and most When the fields are inundated by rain and productive regions is the Krian district of irrigation at the beginning of the planting northern Perak. It appears that in this area
Page 322 June, 1973 the peak production of paddy-field fish that the fish have refuges at the end of the occurred during the time in which the area growing period, so that immature fish can was being cleared from the jungle swamp (in complete their maturation in the next season. the 1930's). As the amount of swampy area (That is, the youngest generation of fish decreased and the drainage system became would not be able to breed until the second more efficient, the fish had less breeding season of the life-cycle, although more places and retreats during the dry season, mature fish could breed every season). and consequently the population decreased Unfortunately, under the present conditions, somewhat. Nevertheless, the production the fish are subjected to two periods of remained very high until the past few years. drainage and harvesting per year, and thus Now, however, the fish are being threatened have less chance of surviving to maturity. by modern agricultural practices-the "double The remedy appears simple: deeper sump cropping" of rice with two seasons a year, ponds need to be dug, and the survival of an and an increase in the use of insecticides and adequate breeding population assured by fertilizers. control of the harvesting. It may be Survey carried out necessary to restrict the harvesting of the To assess the importance of the paddy-field sump ponds to once a year, as in the single fishery, a survey was carried out in 1971 by cropping cycle. If this were carried out, the the Fisheries Research Institute, Penang, and decline in fish population would almost the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, certainly be reversed. Unfortunately, little Malaysia. The survey recorded the pro extension work is being carried out to duction of fi sh and rice in single and encourage farmers to improve their methods double-cropping areas, and attempted to of fish culture, and no scientific research is place the production of fish in its economic being carried out to determine the best and social perspective. In addition, the solution to the problem. effects of double-cropping were observed and The problem of insecticides the future trends in fish production were estimated. Recommendations were made on The problem of insecticides is more the basis of the observations, and in complicated, and will be the concern of the combination with the experimental results rest of this article. First let us note, obtained at the Fisheries Research Institute, however, that the effects of double-cropping Penang, by the present author. and insecticides cannot be separated, since The survey has shown that, since the the increased use of insecticides is directly introduction of double-cropping and the associated with the practice of double increased use of insecticides, the production cropping. Nonetheless, there is a strong of fish has declined substantially. The inference that insecticides have contributed production of fish in 1970- 71 dropped to significantly to the decline in fish production. about one-third of the previous year's harvest. Certainly, there have been many instances of However, paddy-field fi sh are still quite large.scale fi sh kills caused by insecticides. important to the diet and economy of the The major insecticides which are used to farmers, especially in the areas which are control rice-stem borers in Malaysia are still single-cropped. In fact in certain areas, BHC (in various formulations, such as the economic value of the fish harvest is "Gammexane", "Dol Granule", etc.) and more than the net return from one crop of Thiodan (Endosulfan). Sevin (Carbaryl) and rice! Malathion are used commonly against leaf It appears that the life-cycle of the fish is hoppers in the Krian district, but as these affected to a certain extent by the harvesting insecticides are relatively non-toxic to fish of rice twice a year. Under single-cropping and non-persistent in the environment they the fish had a much longer period in which will not be considered here. Cost is a to grow and multiply while the rice plants major factor limiting the use of many of the were maturing. With the "hundred-day" other organophosphate and carbamate varieties of fast-growing rice, the growing insecticides, which are only occasionally time of the fish is shortened, and it is not applied. certain that the fingerlings reach maturity in Thus the problem of insecticides and fish this time. Hence, it is doubly important resolves itself into a consideration of the
Australian Natural History Page 323 Above: The casting net, or jala, is used in canals and drains. The net spreads as it is cast, and folds together, enmeshing the fish, as it is retrieved (right). [Photo: Author.)
Page 324 June, 1973 first-mentioned chemicals, BHC and Thiodan. Thiodan. However, since BHC is more The choice of which of the two is to be persistent in the physical and biological preferred is quite a dilemma. environment, its effects are likely to be more Thiodan is ideal in most respects; it is insidious than those of Thiodan. very effective against all species of stem It should be noted at this point that, borers, it is relatively non-toxic to species of although BHC is a chorinated hydrocarbon, Hymenoptera which are possible predators it is not closely related to DDT, and its on pests, it has a low mammalian toxicity, and properties are somewhat different. BHC is it is readily broken down in biological less toxic to fish than is DDT, and is also systems and excreted as a non-toxic residue. Jess persistent in the environment. It is not Unfortunately, however, it happens to be known whether BHC has the same sub-acute very toxic to fish (median lethal concentration, effects as those of DDT, but some similarity TLm or L.C.50, is about 50 parts per billion). can be predicted-i.e., the reproduction and This level of toxicity is certainly enough to viability of fish could be affected. kill all the fish in a paddy-field to which the The persistence of BHC in the environment insecticide is applied, and has also led to the has Jed many countries to restrict its use. abuse of the chemical as a fish poison in Japan, for instance, has restricted BHC, rivers and canals. (The poisoned fish appear although it has been said that BHC gave to be quite safe for human consumption). Japan its self-sufficiency in rice, by controlling BHC, on the other hand, is much less stem borer. (It might be noted, however, toxic to fish, and can be used effectively in that Japan is still a leading exporter of granular form at a concentration which does BHC to Malaysia). not kill the fish in the paddy-field to which There is also the problem of the it is applied. It is also quite effective against accumulation of insecticide residues in the stem borers, although one species is resistant farmers and other people who eat the fish. and cannot be controlled by the insecticide. Although the levels of insecticide residues in The mammalian toxicity is similar to that of paddy-field fish are relatively high (around
The lift-net, or tangkol, is used unbaited in irrigation canals and drains, especially after heavy rains. [Photo: Author.]
Australian Natural History Page 325 The stake trap. The stakes, or be/at, are set close together across a canal or drain, and fi sh are guided into the trap, or tempang, which is seen at bottom left. [Photo: Author.]
10 to 100 parts per million of BHC and In the light of current opinion on the use Thiodan in the reproductive tissues of of broad-spectrum, persistent insecticides, experimentally exposed fish), the danger of this policy seems rather risky, since the harm acute toxicity to the human consumer is quite done to the ecosystem possibly outweighs small. In the case ofThiodan, the likelihood the short-term benefits of crop protection. of chronic effects is diminished by the fact For example, it can be anticipated that that the residues are metabolised and excreted severe problems of pest control may occur quite rapidly. The effects of the more when a pest species becomes resistant to the persistent BHC residues are largely unknown, insecticide and can multiply unchecked by and a careful watch should be kept on the chemical or biological control. health of the Malaysian paddy-farming On the other hand, the importance of the community, since they are exposed to higher fish harvest must be considered. The net dosages of BHC than are most groups of income of a Malaysian paddy-farmer from people in the world. his rice production is very small, and, in The obvious question which must be asked various areas of Krian district, the additional is- how important are the insecticides? value derived from fish (i.e., from home Opinions vary, and the paddy-farmers are consumption as well as sales) ranges from somewhat divided on the issue. The I 0 per cent to 50 per cent of the income from Malaysian Department of Agriculture rice. This was in 1971 , when the production recommends BHC (in granular form) and of fish had already dropped substantially. more recently Thiodan, to be used as a In addition, the fish probably benefit the prophylactic measure against stem borers. rice plants by recycling some of the nutrients It is considered that most of the time the from ingested algae, etc., as well as possibly incidence of stem borers is low, but that the helping to control some of the insect pests insecticide is necessary to guard against which they eat. outbreaks which could cause total crop The immediate reaction to this evidence is failure. It is probable, incidentally, that to think that harmful insecticides should be double-cropping increases the chances of the banned. But the political and social web is pest population building up to plague too complicated for such a sweeping step. proporti ons. The Malaysian Government is committed to
Page 326 June, 1973 a policy of providing self-sufficiency in rice rice to one season per year and hence reduce to the country, even though neighbouring the _build-up of large populations of pest countries have a surplus production, and the species. high price of Malaysian rice has to be FURTHER READING maintained by import restrictions and tariffs. Ehrlick, Paul R. and Anne H.: Population, Resources, Environment, W. H. Freeman & Co. Furthermore, it is feared, on the one hand, (Chapters 4, 5, 7, 12). that the necessary double-cropping of rice Johnson, Stanley: The Green Revolution, Nelson will interfere with fish production to such an (Australia). extent that fish will no longer be important anyway, and hence not in need of protection. And on the other hand, total crop failure (due to an epidemic) would be disastrous to TRACHYTE SPIRE the individual farmer. Thus, it appears that Malaysia is prepared to continue expanding the type of high ~r * production monoculture which has come to be known as the "green revolution" . The problems entailed in this practice are well documented in the more developed countries, which are now feeling the ecological consequences of what at fi rst seemed the panacea for man's food requirements. Unfortunately, many of the Malaysian authorities tend to regard a deep concern about the environment as the luxury of a highly-developed economy. This is patently not so, and the uneconomical nature of their policies may be discovered too late to reverse the damaging effects on the environment. Another aspect of the problem is the importance of the fish as a source of protein. At present, the freshwater fishery accounts for only a small proportion of the total fish production. But as the inshore fis hing stocks become depleted, and the offshore fishing becomes more competitive, the fresh water fishery is likely to become more important. Conversely, the importance of rice production in the Krian district is likely to decrease as the new irrigation schemes in the north and northeast come into fu ll operation and produce the bulk of the country's rice. Thus Malaysia is following another trend of the green revolution- that of substituting cereals for animal protein. It is suggested that the Malaysian Depart ment of Agriculture and Fisheries, or the This volcanic protuberance, Belougery Spire, in the Warrumbungle Mountains, New South newly formed MARDI research agency, Wales, is one of several stumps of trachyte rock should investigate the possibility of integrating that formed where more viscous lava plugged fi sh and paddy cultivation in such a way as vents and fissures in the basaltic fields of a large to maximise the production of the combined shield volcano. Since those eruptions occurred about 13 million years ago, erosion has largely harvests, and concomitantly achieve a more stripped away the softer explosive debris of the balanced ecological system. It might even cones, leaving the harder upstanding spires of prove practical to reduce the cropping of massive rock. [Photo: Anthony Healy.]
Australian Natural History Page 327 The northeastern part of the excavation of the old settlement at Wybalenna, showing room 8's hearth and brick floor. The mound covering the northernmost rooms of the terrace is seen just behind the chair. Miss Anne Bickford is at work in room 7; Miss Bronwen Geering and Mr John Whinray are standing. [Photo: Author.]
Recent Archaeology of Flinders Island
By JUDY BIRMINGHAM Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Sydney
HE last three years have seen increased complex and archaeological data about the T interest in the prehistory a nd young colony can usually be supplemented archaeology of Flinders Island, Bass Strait, by textual material. Wybalenna illustrates with activity particularly centred upon a site this underlyi ng continuity from prehistory to called Wybalenna-a site which did not historical archaeology particularly well. become historically significant until 1835. The excavation of a site of such recent date Wybalenna- "Biack Man's Home" may at first seem surprising when current Wybalenna is a promontory on the east emphasis in Australian archaeology is on the coast of Flinders Island, the largest of the origins and beginnings of man on this 120-odd windswept islands in Bass Strait. continent. Yet the problems of survival in Its name was said to mean Black Man's the young colony were no less a question of Home, and the grassy headland, dotted with interplay between man and his environment, rippling she-oak, was once the scene of a although the setting was sociologically more thriving settlement housing nearly 200
Page 328 June, 1973 A floorboard in situ a long the edge of brick flooring of room 8. The scale is 1 metre ( 1.09 yards). [Photo: Author.]
people-commandant, surgeon, catechist or Excavation and survey chaplain, and storekeeper and their families, The excavation at Wybalenna began as an soldiers, boat crews, convicts (35 in 1838), emergency operation, when brick-salvaging free settlers, and the Tasmanian Aborigines on the site late in 1969 unexpectedly themselves, for whom the whole venture was uncovered wall stumps and brick floors of a planned and who numbered at times over long row of one-roomed terrace houses 100. obviously of Robinson's time. The bricks This settlement was specifically set up to were to have been used in the restoration of house and protect those native Tasmanians the chapel nearby, the one surviving building who survived the early years of contact. Its of the settlement period although long since initiator and most notable commandant was converted into a shearing shed. Further George Augustus Robinson, " the conciliator", investigation showed that the terrace was who, by 1835, when he became commandant, that originally built to house the Tasmanians had spent seven years working among the themselves, and systematic excavation began Aborigines, often in extremely arduous in January 197 1. Three rooms (numbered circumstances. H e stayed at Wybalenna 9, 10, II in accordance with Robinson's map) encouraging, educating, and Christianizing had accidentally been exposed ; a further his wards until respiratory disease had so two (7 and 8) to the north of them were reduced their numbers that extinction of the excavated in 1971 , together with a representa race was inevitable. He himself then left, to tive a rea behind a nd in front of the houses. work among mainland Aborigines at Port The main terrace walls were of lumps of Phillip, Victoria, and the settlement continued limestone, with neat brick doorways and in varying circumstances until its forty-four thresholds. Each room shared a chimney remaining inhabitants were transferred to with its neighbour, and these and the partition Oyster Cove. near Hobart. walls were also of brick. Floors were partly Flinders Island was selected for the of brick, partly boarded. Evidence suggests settlement after several other smaller islands that the central boarded part of the floors had proved unsatisfactory for a permanent was later bricked, but a reference in the home. Robinson was a meticulous diarist, Robinson papers suggests the reverse order and left abundant papers describing his that the Tasmanians complained that brick actions, aims, and ideals, as well as the daily floors hurt their feet, and were given boards. activities of the island community. These included a map of the settlement (1838) with The majority of small finds during excavation all buildings identified. The site itself, came from areas where boards had rotted however, remains a significant source of and beads, shells, and bits of glass and information. pottery had fallen through to the soft earth
Australian Natural History Page 329 beneath. Another area particularly produc Historical results tive of finds was the old ground surface in Some of the information gathered from front of each house, especially around the this dig is what may be called historical in front door steps. Here were marbles, pipe the restricted sense. Robinson's statements stems, beads and shells for stringing, and -about the activities of the Tasmanians, scraps of shell as food debris, and it is not their diet and equipment, and his own difficult to reconstruct the morning scene concern for their well-being-can be cross at the Aboriginal Terrace and its adjacent checked, while a variety of additional open grassy square in 1837 or 1838. information is also available. Clay pipe Two of the rooms showed alterations at a fragments, marbles, glass beads, penknives, later date, one with a subsequent door and buttons from European clothing bear blocking, and one (room 7, the most northerly out in detail his account of the weekly of those excavated and therefore the nearest market at which, he hoped, the somewhat to the chapel) containing a mass of bone bewildered Tasmanians would learn the use material trodden down into the brick floor of money and the selection of items from predominantly sheep and cattle bone, and European culture with which they passed clearly related to the secondary use of the their time-smoking, playing marbles, chapel as a shearing shed. playing cricket, sewing, tailoring, and A survey of the whole promontory was stringing beads. also undertaken to check the locations of The houses were extremely well-built, with buildings marked in on Robinson's map. It lime wash over brick and limestone, and proved possible to trace all the structures carefully made and laid bricks. Glass was and most of the other features marked found from windows, lead from door fittings, the lagoons where the Aborigines used to brass door handles and washers, and iron take black swans to supplement their less pot-hooks in the fireplaces. Physically there attractive salt beef and mutton, the brick pit, can be no doubt that at least after Robinson's the main north-south track across the west arrival, when the permanent houses were part of the settlement past the store, as well built, no fault could be found with arrange as hospital, gaol, barracks, storehouse and ments for the Tasmanians' well-being. At the various officers' quarters. It became the same time there is no evidence of luxury clear that the excavation of almost any of in their personal possessions, which appear these structures in future seasons would yield to display strong uniformity from house to interesting results for comparison with the house. Iron spoons, knives and pannikins, rather humble material remains of the and a certain amount of mainly blue transfer Aboriginal terrace. printed china, appear to have been standard
A door-blocking of later date in room 8. [Photo: Author.]
Page 330 June, 1973 issue, together with clothing which was This renewal of hunting activity on the issued with regulation buttons- plain metal island, perhaps the first since the severance with single shank on the men's jackets, and of the land bridge to the mainland some bone with four holes on shirts and linen. 7,000 years previously, could have had little Numbers of buttons have been found. impact on the local environment in At present work on the finds from the comparison with the changes initiated by settlement is directed towards identifying E uropeans. their place of origin. Many, like the Robinson aimed at making the settlement transfer-printed china, and some at least of self-supporting, and the promontory was the clay pipes, were undoubtedly imported gradually cleared, much of it being given from Britain, but some items may well have over to the cultivation of cereals and been produced in the colony. The gradual vegetables and the grazing of sheep, cattle, building-up of information on trade and pigs. Livestock was also pastured on distribution patterns from Wybalenna as the small off-shore islands and brought in well as other recently excavated nineteenth by boat as required. Further changes were century sites, like Irrawang and Port brought about by lumbering, brick-making, Essington, is an important part of the and lime-burning, as well as the cutting and programme. transporting of limestone. One of the few Renewal of hunting other activities which the Tasmanians could be prevailed upon to do for wages was the There is good evidence from Wybalenna cutting of grass for roofing, and it is possible that the mixed group of Tasmanians there that this was quite extensive. The retained some characteristics of their documentation of these environmental traditional habits and culture. Some, at changes in the Furneaux Group, to which least of the debris around their houses Flinders Island belongs, following so long a cam~ from traditional food rather than the period of isolation and specialization is abundant European diet supplied by the itself an aspect of the archaeological study settlement. Large limpet shells, abalone, of Wybalenna of as much concern as the and turban and cart-rut shells showed the typological study of the artefacts dug up. exploitation of the neighbouring rock platforms, while wallaby and pademelon were also well represented. A few stone and glass flakes were found under floors, and o~e FURTHER READING large round pounder (from an l!ncertam location in room 9). So far, no evidence of T here is not yet a published account of the seal bone or mutton birds has been identified, Wybalenna Settlement, as G. A. Robinson's journals remain unpublished in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. although seal at least was traditionally part N.J. B. Plomley's Friendly Mission is an account _of of Aboriginal diet, and it is clear,. from Robinson's work up to 1834, and some matenal Robinson's visit to James M onro on his way from the later journals can be found in R obert to the settlement, that some sporadic sealing Travers' The Tasmanians: The Story of a Doomed was still carried out in the islands, if not off Race and Clive Turnbull's The Black Wars. Flinders Island itself. The Flinders Island Friendly M ission: The Tasmanian Journals and Chronicle, the little weekly newspaper written Papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-34, edited by N . J. B. Plomley, published hy the by two literate Tasmanian boys, comments Tasmanian H istorical Research Association, often on the hunting activities of the Hobart, 1966. Aborigines, which usually culminated in the Bass Strait: A ustralia's Last Frontier, published by eating of a " kangaroo" (their name for the the Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1969. local wallaby and pademelon), swan, or This gives general information on the area and goose. has "further reading" lists to each section.
Australian Natural History Page 331 Lapita Pottery and the Origins of Polynesian Culture By ROGER GREEN Professor of Anthropology, Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand
HE immediate origins of Polynesian for example, indicating a comparable antiquity T culture have in recent years become identi in each island group. At the other end, the fied with certain early sites, from New Britain materials recovered by L. M. Groube and to Tonga, containing a type of pottery known Jens Poulsen, of the Australian National as Lapita (figure 1). Excavation of these University, have shown that somewhere after sites in the Tongan, Fijian, New Caledonian, 500 B.C. in Tonga typical assemblages with New Hebridean, and Santa Cruz groups and Lapita pottery gave way to collections with on small islands off the coasts of New fewer vessels, less decoration, and new Britain and New Ireland has provided data motifs, resulting in a generally plainer and on other items found in association with simpler style of pottery. Other changes, all this distinctive pottery. The outcome has in the Polynesian direction, occurred in the been a slowly developing definition of an adzes, the shell tools, and the ornaments. associated culture or "cultural complex". In fact, some time after the 1st century A.D. The latter term is often preferred, because pottery was abandoned altogether in Tonga, the assemblage of artefacts recovered from but not before derivative cultures with these sites is generally quite varied. It is related assemblages of pottery and adzes had the Lapita style of finely executed, dentate been established in Samoa and the Marquesas. stamped motifs on certain pieces of pottery On this basis, then, one branch of the cultural in every site (figs 2 to 5) that has provided complex associated with Lapita pottery leads the initial link in grouping these materials to Polynesia, and the hypothesis of many together. archaeologists in the 1959- 1963 period that Lapita pottery is named after an important it formed the ancestral cultural complex site in New Caledonia where it was found. from which Polynesian culture was derived has been sustained. Despite the fact that the discovery of All this was not accomplished, of course, Lapita pottery was initially made in 1908-I 909 by Father Otto Meyer, on the island of without creating numerous problems. In Watom, in Central Melanesia, it was not particular, the dating of the Tongan Lapita materials provided a major problem and for until the archaeological recovery of similar pottery from sites in New Caledonia, Fiji, a long while the Tonga data appeared out of step with results from Fiji, on the one hand , and Tonga between 1947 and I 957 that a and Samoa, on the other. Recent work in basis was laid for the important position it has now assumed in Eastern Melanesian and Tonga has resolved this issue, and the relevant Polynesian prehistory. In these areas Lapita materials have been moved back in time so pottery occurs in one of the early, if not the that they fit reasonably well into the overall picture. Other problems remain. For earliest, cultural horizons which can be identified archaeologicall y. example, there is some evidence that in Fiji a slightly later cultural complex with its own As a result of recent radiocarbon dates distinctive paddle-impressed pottery over for a number of si tes in the region, several lapped with the Fijian Lapita. Other data chronological issues have been resolved, and suggested that the makers of Lapita pottery archaeological assemblages with Lapita in New Caledonia were not the first people pottery can now be confidently assigned to to inhabit that area. To the west the a period between I ,000 and 500 B.C., give or increasingly earlier ages expected for Lapita take a few hundred years at either end. At assemblages in Melanesia failed to eventuate. the early end, radiocarbon dates of more On the basis of radiocarbon dates alone, in than 1,000 n.c. are associated with Lapita fact, one could maintain that the eastern pottery in Tonga, Fiji, and New Caledonia, Melanesia material was earliest, and that
Page 332 June, 1973 ~ ~ ::; 0 Nukuor o ~ ::: .,. · ~ • Kopingomo rongi ~ o' ------~------• ------~' \l.G I L BERT ~ Naur u O~ean • ;1~1~S~L~A~N~D~S~------~------~------_j <>. .> .. ~ PH OEN I X ~ GROUP "'<::; ~ o
dispersal had taken place from there to settlement by Austronesian speakers. In Watom and the New Hebrides, on the one contrast, the archaeological and linguistic hand, and Polynesia on the other. evidence from New Guinea suggested that there the non-Austronesians were first by In some way interpretations arising solely many thousands of years, and the current from the Polynesian and Eastern Melanesian coastal Austronesian-speaking populations of · data appeared misleading, and many felt a New Guinea represented a much later more Melanesian oriented appraisal was intrusion. ' required. This is now being supplied by excavation of materials from the New Though attractive, the hypothesis of an Hebrides, the Santa Cruz and Reef Islands, Austronesian-speaking Lapita population and Ambitle Island lying just off the coast displaced by later non-Austronesian arrivals of New Ireland. Here materials directly appeared not quite so simple after excavation comparable to those early finds first acquired and analysis of the sites. Previous studies from Watom are coming to light which of such sites had concentrated on the threaten to alter our notions of the Lapita spectacular pottery. Only with analysis of pottery and its associated cultural complex the Tongan material had other aspects of considerably. their culture begun to receive attention. As a result, Groube has recently characterized Main Reef-Santa Cruz Island group the Lapit a people as "Oceanic strandloopers", My own involvement with Lapita had been and expressed doubts about their possession indirect and academic when I began fieldwork of a fully developed fo rm of Oceanic root in the Outer Eastern Islands of the Solomon and tree crop agriculture and domestic Islands Protectorate. Thus I was more than animals, especially the pig. My own efforts a little excited when my first trip to the area were therefore directed at recovering details resulted in the identification of two Lapita of the size of the settlements, the post holes sites, one in the Main Reef Group and the of former buildings, pits, fi replaces and ovens, other on the nearby high island of Santa any refuse which reflected the economy, and Cruz. These and other sites located since the sources of the various materials used in were in an area currently inhabited by the artefacts. Fortunately, these results non-Austronesian speakers. This appeared turned out to be as spectacular as the pottery, important, for whatever views the various which was itself quite satisfying. theorists have held about Lapita, most have Lapita pottery designs have always been supported the belief that the makers and thought of as solely geometric and only to a users of Lapita pottery were Austronesian minor degree using incising as a decorative speakers, whose languages belonged to a technique. The pottery from these sites subgroup of the Eastern Oceanic languages, turned out to include both dentate stamping which included Polynesian and Fijian. There and incising as major decorative techniques. was a strong temptation to see in this new It also possessed zoomorphic elements- . evidence support for an hypothesis developed models of people and birds, drawings of from the Fijian data that, contrary to many human face masks (figures 2 and 3). earlier theories, speakers of non-Austronesian Moreover, the range of geometric designs languages had entered the island portion of employed was wider than that known from Melanesia beyond New Guinea after its any previous sites. The new materials form
Page 334 June, 1973 an adequate ancestral assemblage for the the much closer Lapita sites on Watom and others and suggest that originally Lapita Ambitle Island. Other imports included pottery was far richer in design elements either the pottery or the materials for its and more elaborate and varied in style than manufacture, the oven stones, the meta was previously supposed. morphic and ultra-basic rocks for adzes, and The materials in these sites revealed a the chert for flake tools. Distances involved culture belonging to a people who lived in in their transport vary from 42 to 450 large settlements, from 1,100 to 14,000 kilometres. square metres in size, with houses, ovens, What, then, were the exports? Without and storage pits. The food debris indicated direct evidence, it is difficult to be sure. that they exploited the marine environment But perhaps the building of ocean-going heavily, but there was hardly sufficient refuse canoes suitable for voyaging over the long to claim they had subsisted on marine distances implied by the trade items, plus resources alone. Rather, the evidence the expertise necessary to sail them, would suggested that the settlements were occupied serve as one answer. This is, after all, a not for some time, while the material culture unlikely accomplishment for ancestors of indicated that vegetable products probably those who explored and settled Polynesia. formed a substantial part of the diet. Only Moreover, this role is ethnographically in this way can one adequately explain the attested for the Duff Islanders, latter-day various shapes of pottery vessels, the ovens, Polynesians in the Outer Eastern Islands, the pits, the stone adzes, and flake tools, all who carried on just such an enterprise up to of which could easily have been part of the the beginning of the twentieth century. production, preparation, cooking, or storage Archaeological results comparable to mine of root and tree crops. were being obtained at the same time from More spectacular, however, was the Ambitle Island, of the Feni Group, off the evidence for trade. Imports included coast of New Ireland, by Mr Wal Ambrose, obsidian for flake tools from 2,000 kilometres of the Australian National University. Much (about 1,333 miles) away in New Britain, of the pottery was very close in style to that from the same source as obsidian used in in the Reef Islands; the obsidian proved to
F ig. 3.-A represen tation of a human face mask on pottery from Nenumbo, Gawa, Reef Islands. [Photo : Cyril Schollum.]
Australian Narural History Page 335 Detail From Top Of Rim -~·--] ::.'~~/ Hem. \'.IF!.;~~?/j;;~.! r,- - 1 1,,7'-J ,+ - ... ~~,.: BS- RL-2 I\: ::I I I
24 ·2 em. Fig. 4.- A fl at-bottomed dish from Nenumbo, Gawa, Reef Islands. [Drawing by C. Phillips.] be identical. Moreover, the results show they played a new role in servicing some of that settlements with Lapita pottery in both the earliest trading netwo rks known from areas date to a time between I ,000 and island Melanesia? 500 B.C., an age range entirely comparable with that of La pita sites in Eastern Melanesia Such an hypothesis would explain the and Polynesia. What are the implications, known location of Lapita sites in Melanesia then, of this new evidence ? and the apparently rapid dispersal of assemblages with Lapita pottery throughout the region. It would also explain the Another view of Lapita chronological overlap that the Lapita sites of Melanesia exhibit with those belonging to It is notable that in Melanesia more La pita other cultural traditions from Buka to New sites occur on small offshore islands than on Caledonia and perhaps even to Fiji. In the adjacent mainland of the larger islands these islands it appears that those who made (figure 1). There is also accumulating and used Lapita pottery were not the first evidence from the New Hebrides, New inhabitants; other Austronesians, and as fa r Caledonia, and the Solomons that the main as Santa Cruz, even non-Austronesians, had islands of these group were already occupied probably preceded them. Only when they by people with cultures belonging to other came to uninhabited islands, perhaps Fiji, traditions, though Lapita sherds may some almost certainly Tonga, did they have to times occur in such sites, or the pottery from pioneer a new adaptation. There, in the these other traditions in Lapita sites. Could course of less than I ,000 years, one group it be that users of Lapita pottery represent a could easily have evolved into Polynesians, new type of cultural adaptation which as the archaeological and linguistic evidence rapidly spread throughout Melanesia? Was impli es. it their skill as canoe builders, sailors, and navigators that permitted them to take up This hypothesis might also explain why in an existence which Jed to their settling on Melanesia cultural complexes with Lapita these initially less populated offshore islands, pottery gav rise to so few later cultural or in the less favourable coralline coastal traditions. After some 500 years, control environments of the main islands, where over the extensive trading systems on which
Page 336 June, 1973 9·2 em. Fig. 5.-A cross mo tif from Nenumbo, Gawa, Reef Islands. [Drawing by C. Phillips.)
L these people depended collapsed and the some vital clues in tracing the ancestors of small populations and their cultures were the Polynesians. Unanswered, of course, is absorbed into those of their more numerous the question of the origin of Lapita pottery neighbours. In Tonga and Fiji, on the other or the associated items of material culture, hand, where Lapita sites are more common much less the race or language of those who and more widely spread than in the rest of made the prototypes from which these Melanesia, the people with this culture materials derive. This is another story, one formed the founding populations which still buried in the soils of island and mainland prevailed, and in due course gave rise to or southeast Asia, as well as Melanesia. influenced new cultural traditions. It is my view that the background sketched above makes the cultural complexes associa FURTHER READING ted with Lapita pottery in Melanesia an Ambrose, W. R., and R. C. Green, 1972: "First excellent ancestral base from which to derive Millenium B.C. Transport of Obsidian from New the earliest cultures of Polynesia. It also Britain to the Solomon Islands," Nature 237: 31. explains the cultural role of these early Golson, J., 1971: "Lapita Ware and its Trans island hoppers in Melanesia, and goes some formations," Studies in Oceanic Culture History, vol. 2, R. C. Green and M. Kelly (eds.), Pacific distance toward explaining why their effect Anthropological Records no. 12, Bishop Museum, on other cultures in that area was not more· Honolulu. profound. Green, R. C., J 967: "The Immediate Origins of the If this hypothesis, with suitable modifica Polynesians," Polynesian Culture History, G. A. Highland et al (eds.), Bishop Museum, pub. 56, tions required by additional. data, can be Honolulu. sustained, then, strange though it may seem, Groube, L. M., 1971: "Tonga, Lapita Pottery, and the newly discovered Lapita sites of Central Polynesian Origins," Joumal of the Polynesian and Eastern Melanesia will have provided Society, 80: 278- 316.
Australian Natural History Page 337 Interspecific Relationships Among Fossil Species By JOHN PICKETT Palaeontologist and Principal Research Officer, New South Wales Geological Survey
N nature, living things and their environ I ment interact in an incredibly complex yet finely balanced system which has come to be called the ecosystem by modern students of environment. Within the ecosystem there are three directions in which the living and non-living parts of the environment can interact, and these are: Fig. I.- Fossil skeleton of a 15-foot-long organisms may affect other organisms; specimen of the fish Xiphactinus, containing within the rib cage the complete skeleton of a organisms may affect the non-living environ smaller fish, Gillicus, which it had devoured just ment; the non-living part of the environment before it died. [Drawing by the author, after a may affect organisms. The first of these, photo.] known technically as coaction, is the one which will be looked at more closely in this increased to nine, as in the following table article. of coaction pairs with size vector added For coaction to occur, the minimum (after Lawrence, 1971 , and Burkholder, 1952). number of organisms required is two, representing the simplest possible and most smaller, weaker easily understood situations. The organisms concerned may be individuals, or species, 0 + or populations. We propose to look at the different ways in which two species may interact, and to try and discover, from the + + 0 + + + fossil record, examples of as many as we larger, can of the possible types of coaction pairs. o -o oo+o stronger A member of a coaction pair may be 0 - + affected in one of three ways: it may be advantaged, disadvantaged, or unaffected. + Predation; weak damaged by If we represent these three conditions by strong the symbols +, -, and o, and make a - o Arnensalism; strong unaffected tabulation, we find six possible pairs, as in while weak suffers the following table of coaction pairs and Synnecrosis; mutual death or equivalent terms (from Clarke, I 954). depression + + Mutualism o + Allotrophy; feeding the other + Exploitation o o Neutrality ; neither helped nor + o Commensalism hindered Competition o Allolimy; starving the other o Antibiosis + + Symbiosis; mutual aid o o Toleration + o Commensalism ; strong unaffected while weak benefits If we add another vector to this diagram, + Parasitism; weak benefits at that of the relative size or strength of the strong's expense organism (for it is just as possible, for instance, for a man to tread on an ant as While Lawrence's system presents points for the man to suffer from the sting of the of view differently from that of Clarke (e.g., ant), then the number of possibilities is the - - situation represents in the one,
Page 338 June, 1973 competitiOn, in the other, "synnecrosis"), smaller than its prey. Such an instance is it does at least highlight important differences afforded by the snails which bore holes in such as that between predation (- +) and bivalve shells rather larger than themselves parasitism ( + - ). in order to get at the fleshy part of the Let us now take a closer look at some animal. Bored shells like these are associated fossil species, and review their occasionally found as fossils. relationship under these headings. Predation Amensalism, synnecrosis/competition, allotrophy, neutrality/toleration All animals are dependent on other species, either plant or animal, for their nourishment. These four relationships are grouped Thus it is true to say of all animals, at least, because their nature is such that it is well-nigh that simple predation exists, even if the impossible to find fossil examples to illustrate object of the predation is a plant species. them. Competition can only be indicated Occasionally the fossil record yields up a by extreme circumstantial evidence. It is specimen which shows very clearly the possible, however, to cite an example of the predation relationship, or, more simply, the other expression covered by the same symbol diet of the predator. An ichthyosaur discovered in early Jurassic rocks at Lyme Regis in Dorset, England, for instance, had the stomach contents preserved along with the bones (Pollard, 1968). This was possible because thousands of undigested chitinous hooklets from the tentacles of cuttlefish had accumulated in the stomach. Pollard obtained the figure 478,000 for the number of booklets in the gastric mass-this from a relatively small animal (the incomplete, fossilized specimen is just 2 feet long, but was possibly twice this size in life). A very famous example is that of the large fish Xiphactinus, which lived in the seas of the late Cretaceous. Figure 1 shows a specimen of Xiphactinus from Kansas, U.S.A., which, in its greed, apparently caused its own demise by devouring whole a smtJ.IIer fish, which proved none the less too large. Close to home, the Aboriginal kitchen middens of the Sydney district, banks of sub-fossil shells, provide ample evidence of the predation of man. The shells were opened by breaking the postero-ventral corner of each on a stone, inserting a stick in the hole thus made, and prising the two valves of the shell apart. Huge banks of these shells occur at many places along the coast. They are usually dominated by the Sydney Cockle, Anadara, and frequently almost all the specimens show breakage of the postero-ventral margin (figure 2). Although, according to the plan above, the situation (- + ) defines predation, and Fig. 2.- Shell of the Sydney Cockle (Anadara), from an Aboriginal kitchen midden. The the situation ( + -) parasitism, it is in corner of the shell has been broken open to fact possible for the predator to be somewhat prise the valves apart. [Photo: John Davies.]
Australian Natural History PaJ?e 339 (- - ), namely, synnecrosis, or a close death and subsequent sinking to the ocean approximation, which leads to the death of floor of the larger creature. both species. A condition known technically The relationship called neutrality or as pernicious epoecy may develop when toleration is of such negative character that animals (or plants) living as epizoans on it is difficult to establish, as the situation is another animal lead to its sickness or death. very close to having no relationship at all. (Epizoans are animals which live attached, The mere presence of two creatures in the usually to the shell, of another animal, and same locality almost necessitates some kind are generally carried about by it.) Under of interaction, if only for the reason that both the heading "commensalism" below, the take up a certain amount of space. case of oysters epizoic on ammonites is described. Such a situation eventually leads to the death of the causative agent as well, Allolimy, antibiosis though this does not occur until after the The suppression of one species by passive means is another unusual relationship, and is usually due to the effect of a chemical product of one organism "polluting" the environment fo r another, to use the current parlance. The famous example of this is the suppression of bacterial growth by chemical products of the penicillin fungus, and hence, of course, the name "antibiotic". A relationship of this type would be extremely difficult to establish in the fossil record, but is occasionally suggested where the attitude of fossil specimens (especially vertebrates) indicates they might have died by poisoning through some external plant or animal agency.
Symbiosis/mutualism The term "symbiosis" means simply " living together", and in the wider sense, therefo re, includes commensalism and parasitism. The term "mutualism" covers only the situation which is of mutual benefit ( + +) to the organisms, though the term "symbiosis" is sometimes loosely used with this meaning only. The corals which live on present-day tropical reefs contain within their body-tissue tiny plants, unicellular green or yellow brown algae, called zoochlorellae or zooxanthellae. These live in a truly mutualistic relationship with the coral. The plants, being photosynthetic, produce a diurnal pattern in the act ivity of the coral polyp which is reflected in the secretion of the skeleton. Although neither soft parts Fig. 3.-Closc association of the coral nor symbiotic algae of any fossil coral have Syringopora (vertical tubes) and the ever been discovered, nor are they likely stromatoporoid Stromatopora, which occupies to be, we still have the record of the effect all the space between the branches of the coral. of the algae on corals as old as those from x 5t. The top photo shows a transverse section, the other a longitudinal section. the Devonian and Silurian periods. On [Photos: John Davies.] exceptionally well-preserved fossil solitary
Page 340 June, 197 3 Fig. 4 (top left): Epizoic oysters on the shell of the ammonite Ceratites. [From Seilacher). Fig. 5 (top right): The snail Cyclonema in position among the arms (broken off) of the crinoid Glyptocrinus. The snail lived permanently in this position a nd fed on the faeces of the crinoid. [Drawing by the author, after Bowsher.) Fig. 6: Small epizoic brachiopods (Dis- cinisca) on the mussel Gervillia. The brachiopods are only found on that part of the mussel which is not buried. [From Seilacher.) corals tiny bands corresponding to the daily was assigned to a special genus, Caunoporu. growth increments can be observed, thus It may be argued that in the "Caunopora" showing that reef-building corals had association the stromatoporoid derived no associated symbiotic algae even during the particular benefit, whereas the coral had Silurian. From a close analvsis of the protection of its skeleton by the massive pattern of bands on these corals, Scrutton stromatoporoid. The fact that Syringopora (1965) was able to infer that for the Middle by itself is so common and obviously Devonian, the year was made up of thirteen successful argues against this, however, as lunar cycles of approximately 30-} days, does the fine balance of growth rates of the indicating that the number of days in the interacting species. year (397) was greater than at present! Not uncommonlv in Middle Palaeozoic Commensalism rocks we find two· very different kinds of Many examples of this type of association coelenterate animals with limy skeletons can be quoted from the fossil record. The growing in intimate association. One of simplest case occurs when larval stages of these is always a member of an extinct group one animal settle on the hard shell of another, called stromatoporoids; the other, one of a such as happens when larvae of worms, number of types of coral. The stromato barnacles, or oysters settle on the shell of poroid is always a species which produced a other animals. Interpretation of the attitude massive, laminated colony with a fairly of such fossil epizoans helps determine the smooth surface, while the coral is of a mode of life, as for instance the epizoic branching colonial species. The coral brachiopods on the mussel Gervillia (figure skeleton is entirely immersed in that of the 6), which are only found on the postero stromatoporoid, and the growth of the two ventral part of the shell, because much of species is so finely balanced that neither the remainder was below the level of the outstrips the other, thus robbing it of much sediment/water interface. Not only did the of its food supply. The tabulate coral Gervillia provide the substrate for the Syringopora is frequently one of this pair; brachiopods, but they probably also benefited its association with the stromatoporoid is so from the water currents set up by their close that the presence of two kinds of host, a suggestion supported by their animal in these colonies was not realized for preference for that part of the shell near the many years, and the compound "animal" siphons.
Australian Natural History Page 341 Fig. 7. Epizoic oysters causing the death of the ammonite Ceratites. Note the new generations and increasing size of the epizoans. [From Meischner.]
When one animal lives as an epizoan on Favosites, where the worm enjoyed the same another in this fashion, the condition is protection from predators as in the previous known as epoecy. If the epizoan should, case. for some reason, develop to such an extent that it interferes with the life functions of its host the situation is called pernicious Parasitism epoecy. A classical example of this was Parasitism we generally regard as the furnished by Meischner (196R) when he exploitation of the tissues of the host by described the effect of an oyster-like bivalve, the infecting agency, although our code Placunopsis, whose larvae settled on the shells symbol ( + -) incl udes more possibilities of anunonites (in this case, Ceratites). than just this. Because of the infection of Jnitially the effect of these is negligible, but the tissues, fossil examples are once again as the Ceratites grows and succeeding difficult to find. However, we can quote generations of Placunopsis (which also grow) one example of true parasitism, and one of settle on the shell, the balancing mechanism near-parasitism. Figure 9 shows part of of the Ceratites can no longer cope with the stems of crinoids which have been the load of epizoans, and so the animal dies. infected by an unknown agency (probably Figure 7 shows the history of such a Ceratites. Thus a situation initially com mensal becomes decidedly disadvantageous to the host. An example of commensalism famous among palaeontologists because of the undesirability of the life situation from an anthropomorphic point of view is that provided by the group of gastropods including Platyceras and Cyclonema. These snails lived within the circlet of arms of stalked crinoids (sea-lilies), in a posi tion above the anus, and fed on the faeces of the crinoid ! (Bowsher 1955). See figure 5. Two associations of worms with tabulate corals are also well known as fossils. The small favositid coral P!eurodictyum frequently has a commensal calcareous worm tube associated with the colony. The nettle-cells of the coral, to which the worm must have been immune, protected it from would-be predators. Similarly, tubes of a much Fig. 8.- The coral Pleurodictyum with the tube of the commensal calcareous worm Hicetes, smaller worm, Chaetosalpinx, occur between from Devonian rocks near Daun, Germany. the walls of the common Palaeozoic coral x 2. [Photo: John Davies.]
Page 342 June, 1973 [ ·: .J, 1 .~ ~,.r ~ / f"T"" J T t :! :.•
, ....
Fig. 9.- Swollen and distorted sections of fossil Fig. 10.-A fragment of the shell of the Permian crinoid stems from Western Australia. brachiopod lngelarelfa from Gerroa, N.S.W. Infection by a boring parasite, probably either The shell has been partly dissolved with acid, a worm or a fungus, has caused great exposing the mud infillings of the tubes formed irregularity in the normal development of the by a boring organism, probably a clionid plates. [Drawings by the author, after sponge. [Photo: John Davies.] Etheridge.] either a small worm or a fungus), causing demonstrate similar relationships for fossils, swelling and distortion where the crinoid then it can truly be said that the study of has reacted to the presence of the irritant. extinct creatures begins to bring them to A whole family of sponges, the Clionidae, life which still survives, characteristically bores FURTHER READING extensive chamber systems in the shells of Bowsher, A. L., 1955: "Origin and Adaptation of molluscs, to such an extent that the shell Platyceratid Gastropods". University of Kansas Palaeontological Collfributions, M0llusca. Article may be very much weakened. Although 5, 1- 1 I, pl. 1- 2. the sponge does not feed on the living tissue Clarke, G. L., 1954: Etemellfs of Ecology. John of its host, and does not penetrate the Wiley, New York. 534 pp. innermost layers of the shell (except Etheridge, R., Jr., 1903: "Descriptions of Car accidentally, in which case the hole is fairly boniferous Fossils from the Gascoyne District, promptly covered with a new layer of shell Western Australia". Geological Survey of substance), the weakened shell no longer Western Australia Bulletin, No. 10. 1-31, pl. 1- 6. provides the protection it did in its Lawrence,'D. R., 1971: "The Nature and Structure unweakened state, and the animal falls an of Paleoecology." Journal of Palaeollfology, 45 easy prey to other predators. Figure 10 (4), 593- 607. shows borings in the thick shell of a Permian Meischner, D., 1968: "Perniziose Epokie von .Placunopsis auf Ceratites." Lethaia 1 (2), brachiopod. The shell has been dissolved 156- 174. away with acid, revealing the mud which Pollard, J. E., 1968: "The Gastric Contents of an filled the borings and subsequently became Ichthyosaur from the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis, hardened to rock. Dorset." Palaeomology, 11 (3), 376- 388, p l. 72- 73. Relations between living creatures are Scrutton, C. T., 1995: "Periodicity in Devonian usually fairly easy to observe and analyse. Coral Growth." Palaeontolo~ty , 7 (4), 552- 558, When we discover that it is possible to pl. 86- 87.
Australian Natural History Page 343 This aquatic sanguivorous leech from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, is the largest freshwater leech known in the Australian Region. [Displayed alive by A. Elizabeth Richardson. Photo : A. Pepper, Grafton, N.S.W.]
L.ARGE FRESHWATER LEECH By LAURENCE R. RICHARDSON Honorary Associate of the Australian Museum
N aquatic j awed sanguivorous leech were published in 1859, and illustrated, this. A collected by Miss D. Morris, of large species has not yet been named. Grafton, New South Wales, from a dam Large as it is, it does not measure up to near Lightning Ridge, N.S.W., was 145 the largest of known leeches. These are millimetres (5·7 inches) long at rest. Fully macrophagous. T hey swallow entire earth extended, it reached a length of 216 milli worms, leeches, and other soft-bodied metres (8.5 inches). invertebrates. Most lack jaws and are terricolous, burrowers in the soil. Some This establishes it as the largest freshwater have a close resemblance to earthworms, leech known in the Australian Region. It which is the more marked since the is the size of the largest aquatic sanguivores characteristic posterior sucker of the leech elsewhere. These are in the Oriental genus may be reduced to a small knob or transverse Poecilobde!la, which has some species up to ridge. 2 I0 millimetres in length. The large terricolous leeches are known Although recognizable in the first only in preserved contracted specimens. descriptions of A ustralian leeches which Extended lengths are usually estimated, the
Page 344 June, 1973 estimates being approximate at best, and not Fish leech fully reliable. A large marine fish leech in Tasmanian waters, a pontobdellid, is 190 millimetres Big leeches (7 ·5 inches) long when preserved and One preserved specimen of the terricolous contracted. It might possibly extend to 225 Kumabdella octonaria of Japan is recorded millimetres (10 inches). It is a giant among as being 270 millimetres (10·6 inches) in fish leeches, equalled in size only by length. Fully extended, this species might Pontobdelfa muricata of the northeast reach a length of 380 millimetres (15 inches). Atlantic. The Tasmanian leech has not yet I recently identified a leech of this species, been identified. which is the first time the species has been recognized since 1893. Prospects for other large leeches in the Australian Region exist only among the Some preserved specimens of the jawed sanguivorous leeches. Our jawed terricolous Americobde/la valdiviana of Chile sanguivores include both aquatic and measure 220 millimetres (8 ·6 inches). These terrestrial leeches. are estimated as extending, in life, to about 300 millimetres (11·8 inches). The terrestrial leeches, bush leeches, are relatively small in other countries, usually Even the large and common aquatic less than 50 millimetres (2 inches) long. North American Mollibdella grandis has not Chtonobdel!a limbata of central eastern been reliably measured in life from the largest N.S.W. extends to a length of 85 millimetres specimens. It has been briefly referred to (3·2 inches), a size possibly equalled by as extending to a length of 380 and even 455 several large undescribed bush leeches of millimetres (15 to 18 inches) in Minnesota, eastern north Queensland which are known U.S.A. Specimens which I collected at Lac only in preserved contracted specimens. aux Rats Musquees, in the Province of Quebec, Canada, extended in life to a length We now have knowledge of eleven genera of 255 millimetres (10 inches). of aquatic jawed sanguivores in the Australian Region. The leeches in ten of the genera A large terricolous jawed macrophagous are medium-sized, reaching a length of some leech known in North America is 80 to 110 millimetres (3·1 to 4·4 inches). "Semiscolex" terrestris, which is recorded as Larger leeches are known only in the genus 205 millimetres (8 inches) long in the Richardsonianus, with two species exceeding preserved contracted state. This can be 120 millimetres (4·7 inches) when extended. estimated to reach a length of some 310 millimetres (12 inches) in life. T his species From present indications, the leech from has not been collected since 1890. Lightning Ridge belongs to the genus Richardsonianus, which contains four and Terricolous macrophagous leeches are not possibly five species. In these, the back is yet known in the Australian Region, unless divided by five longitudinal dark bands. this is the nature of Benham's Hirudobdella There are light contrast colour stripes antipodum of Open Bay Island, off the west between these bands. coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Benham's account is not fully clear, but it suggests that the leech is terricolous. Controversial descriptions Benham describes jaws as in sanguivorous This genus is based on Hirudo australis, a leeches, but the pharynx is very long, of a leech from the Murray River, named and length known only in macrophagous leeches. described in a paper by Bosisto published in However, it is a small leech, 50 millimetres 1859. Immediately following this paper, in (2 inches) extended. It has not been the same issue of the same journal, is a paper collected since 1904. written by Ludwig Becker. In this, Becker describes and illustrates a leech he refers to Otherwise, the macrophagous leeches in only as the "hirudo medicinalis of Australia". this region are aquatic, mostly small, 50 millimetres (2 inches) or less, extended. Both papers are brief. The descriptions There is a larger species in New Zealand, are given in the classical manner, and provide which has an extended length of some 70 no more than pattern and colour for the millimetres (2·8 inches). recogni tion of the animals. There is definite
Australian Natural History Page 345 evidence of collaboration between the two conforms to the colours of the leech described authors. From this, it is almost certain that by Becker, and it may well prove to be Becker was concerned with a leech supplied identical with Becker's leech. to him by Bosisto. The matter cannot be carried further until It has been accepted since 1859 that both the final analysis of speciation in the men were describing the same species of "australis" complex has been completed. medicinal leech. But the two descriptions differ. Bosisto refers to his australis as the "green leech", describing it as dark-olive to nearly black above, with four bright-yellow longitudinal contrast stripes, and the margins of the body and the venter both a deep ochre yellow. Becker describes his leech as yellowish Handsome Caterpillar brown above, this being the dominant colour of the contrast stripes, with the venter a "deeper, more rusty hue". Such a difference in the colour of two leeches otherwise similar in their general external morphology has been acceptable since 1826 as colour variation in the one species. Experience from recent studies with Australian leeches makes this old tradition untenable. There are now three, possibly four, species of Richardsonianus known to me with colours as described by Bosisto. Another species has the colours of Becker's leech. This has been known to me in a few preserved specimens from the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. Becker's leech still requires a name. Becker did not use the name australis, giving the impression that possibly he considered the leech he described to be distinct from Bosisto's leech. It is doubtful that this is the case. Bosisto was a pharmacist. It was his responsibility to dispense on prescription a leech suitable for medical purposes. Bosisto recognized The striking caterpillars of the moth Agarista australis to be distinct from, but having the agricola (family Agaristidae) feed on the native virtues of, the European Hirudo medicinalis. Cissus vines. The caterpillar, found in eastern For this reason, he provided a new name in New South Wales and eastern Queensland, is banded in black and cream, with a bright a proper form. Becker, a qualified physician, orange band near the head and another near wrote of his leech in the manner in which he the end of the abdomen. The head and legs would have written a prescription: the are also red, and the conspicuous spalute hairs hirudo medicinalis of Australia. are black. The moth is black, with an elaborate and beautiful contrast pattern made up of The large leech from Lightning Ridge is yellow, cream, red and blue patches. Owing to its habit of flying during the day it is yellowish-brown above; the margins and the frequently mistaken for a butterfly. [Photo: venter are of a slightly deeper hue. It Anthony Healy.]
Page 346 June, 1973 NEW BOOKS REVIEWED
Well-written descriptions paint a word picture of BOOKS FOR CHILDREN the landscape, with a balance between natural and "POSSUMS", "KANGAROOS AND WALLA cultural aspects. There is sufficient detail for the BIES", and "KOOKABURRAS AND KING interested layman, the inquiring student, and the FISHERS", by Bruce Edwards; THE PLATY intending visitor, without the technical jargon PUS", by Bruce Edwards and Barbara Burton; characteristic of so many specialized books these Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1972; each book has days. The approach is traditional but perceptive, 38 pages, 16 colour plates, and many black and with emphasis on the essential features contributing white photographs and drawings; $1.95 each. to the distinctiveness of the regions discussed. These four books form part of Lansdowne's new There arc several other notable features of this Young Nature Library series and are described by book. the publisher as "a scientific introduction for Statistical material current to the 1966 census is children from 9 to 13" to the various animals. provided in an appendix. One advantage of this Each book has a general introduction to the arrangement is its adaptability to later figures particular group, followed by details of individual without difficulty. Other reference sources, a animals, and concluding with a short section on glossary, a comprehensive general index, and a conservation. botanical index complete the appendices. The books are profusely illustrated with colour Ten maps in full colour are admirably presented and black and white photographs, drawings and as an atlas-collection in the centre of the book. reproductions of early engravings. While the An explanatory description accompanies each map. colour plates are acceptable, the black and white Smaller two-colour maps are provided for each of photographs are poorly reproduced and make it the fifty-five regions. difficult to distinguish particular features, such as, for example, the egg tooth in the two photographs Photographs, carefully chosen to illustrate of young kookaburras. It is also difficult, because features of general geographic interest, are profuse. of lack of contrast, to read many of the captions The quality of those in black and white is excellent, ov rprinted on the plates. and while the colour photographs are true-to-life they lack the crisp clarity of those in comparable There are various minor errors which, it is felt, could have been eliminated; for example, Vlamingh publications. did not observe quokkas in 1969 but in 1697, and A book such as this would be incomplete wi thout aquatic is misspelt in the text. More serious, presenting one or two minor frustrations for any perhaps, is the misleading drawing of a clutch of six reader. Mention of place names in the text without platypus eggs, although the caption states the showing their location on a map is a common correct number. Do pictures speak louder than criticism of books on regional geography, and it words? In each of the mammal books, there is applies in this case. Coverage of topics is generally confusion in the use of the terms "animal" and good, but emphasis in a few instances seems to have "mammal"; in fact "mammal" is not mentioned been placed incorrectly. The Great Barrier Reef, at all in the definition of this group. for example, is given more coverage than the urban However, these four books cover the major points industrial complex of Newcastle. adequately and could well form a good introduction This book is not a textbook, but will prove a for the young naturalist- Patricia M. McDonald, worthwhile acquisition in any library. Its Education Officer-in-Charge, The Australian Muset/111. encyclopaedic nature will ensure its regular use over 1he years as a source of both information and GEOGRAPHY pleasure.- B. 0' Row·ke, Senior Tutor in Geography, University of Sydney. REGIONAL LANDSCAPES OF AUSTRALIA FORM, FUNCTION, AND CHANGE, by N. and A. Learmonth; Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1971; 493 pages; II inches by 9 inches; ISBN 0 207 12003 RESEARCH SEMINAR X; price, $15.50. THE DOMESTICATION AND EXPLOITATION For some years Griffith Taylor's book Australia OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS, edited by Peter J. has been a source of reference for those seeking Ucko and G. W. Dimbleby; Gerald Duckworth, information about our island-continent. This new London, 1971; price, $8.05. SBN 7156 0417 1. book, being more comprehensive, more up-to-date and more attractive to both layman and academic, This is the paperback edition of the proceedings is certain to replace Taylor's book as a standard of the first Research Seminar in Archaeology and reference on the geography of Australia. There is Related Subjects held in London in 1968. In a wealth of factual material here, gathered by two content it is identical with the cloth-bound edition trained geographers from centres as far afield as of 1969, but in price it is much cheaper and thus Cunnamulla and Kununurra and as remote as more accessible to those for whom it appears to Papunya and Kalumbury Mission. be designed- archaeology students. Fifty papers
Australian Natural History Page 347 on a wide range of topics are presented, but to do importance of non-cereal crops or non-herd justice to the overall theme of the seminar the animals. number of contributions should have been double One expects a research seminar to yield some that figure. new ideas or interpretations of existing ideas. Those included in this book reflect a European Several papers, particularly those by Harris and Middle East orientation of interest, which is perhaps Flannery, fulfill this expectation, but most do not. understandable in view of the quantity of research There are no in-depth studies of the man-plant and in those areas. However, this is no excuse for the man-animal relationships which we loosely group sca nt treatment of the Americas or Asia and the under the term domestication and this is an Pacific. It is amazing that such important food astounding omission when we consider how this plants as maize, rice, taro, and the sweet potato topic is taxing the minds of many researchers receive, at best, token mention, or none at all. throughout the world. However, it is pleasing to New Guinea and the Pacific receive attention only see that non-food aspects of domestication (e.g., en passant in Cranstone's ethnographic survey, draught animals and sheep's wool) were considered while southeast Asia fares no better, even though worthy of inclusion. Overall, the volume has two decades ago Carl Sauer proposed it as a major many interesting papers but is essentially an "hearth" of domestication, and recent research is archaeological reference work. Unless, of course, justifying his claim. This narrowness of scope is you really are interested in the history of ferrets, hardly alleviated by the inclusion of one paper on chili peppers, and the baobab tree.-Jim Specht, yams to represent the tropical zones of Africa, nor Assistant Curator of Anthropology, Australian is it justified by Darlington's rejection of the Museum.
MEET OUR CONTRIBUTORS • • • JUDY BIRMINGHAM, born in England, obtained JOHN PICKETI is a Palaeontologist and Principal an M.A. degree in Classics at St Andrew's Research Officer with the New South Wales University, Scotland. She later attended the Geological Survey and an Honorary Associate of London Institute of Archaeology for four years, the Australian Museum. He holds an M.Sc. from specializing in west Asiatic archaeology. Ex the University of New England, N.S.W., and the cavations and other fieldwork in Cyprus, Turkey, doctoral degree of the Goethe University, Frankfurt Palestine, and Persia followed. Miss Birmingham am Main, West Germany, where he studied from was appointed Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at 1962 to 1964. He has published in the fields of the University of Sydney in 1961, and later did biostratigraphy, palaeoecology, and palaeontology, fieldwork at Zagora, Greece, and West Bengal, specializing in taxonomy and morphology of fossil lndia. She developed an interest in Australian corals a nd sponges. historical sites as student training digs, and this LAURENCE R. RICHARDSON, M.Sc., Ph.D., led to the establishment of the Australian Society F.R.S.N.Z., Honorary Associate of the Australian for Historical Archaeology and excavations at the Museum, has been studying the Australian fresh 'Did-nineteenth century sites of Wybalenna, Tas water and terrestrial leeches since 1964. This was mania, and Irrawang, New South Wales. known previously as a limited fauna with fe w problems of zoological significance. Collections in the northern rivers region in New South Wales ROGER GREEN, an American, is Professor of produced an entirely unknown fauna. Systema Anthropology at Auckland University, New tizing this and other Australian leeches required Zealand. He trained in archaeology and anthro re-study of leeches in other parts of the world. So pology at the University of New Mexico and far, the leech fauna here proves to be distinctively Harvard University, U.S.A., and came to the Australian in nature. The studies have been Pacific in 1958 on a Fulbright Scholarship. He has taught at the University of Hawaii, U.S.A., and has supported by the Nufficld Foundation and the also been employed by the American Museum of Australian Research Grants Committee. Papers Natural History in New York and the B.P. Bishop have been published in Australia, Hungary, U.S.A., Museum in Hawaii. Dr Green was the first James Canada, England, Japan, a nd Denmark. Cook Fellow in New Zealand. MICHAEL WALDMAN received his under graduate and graduate education in England (B.Sc. 1963, M.Sc. 1965, University of Bristol) and in TIMOTHY P. MOULTON graduated B.Sc. Australia (Ph.D. 1969, Monash University). His (Honours) at the University of Sydney in 1968, M.Sc. thesis concerned the dinosaur Megalosaurus, majoring in zoology. He spent a year at the and his Australian work involved the study of the CSIRO Division of Fisheries and Oceanography, Koonwarra fish-bed. From 1968 to 1970, Dr Cronulla, New South Wales, and then volunteered Waldman was research fellow at the National with the Australian Volunteers Abroad programme, Museum of Natural Sciences, Ottawa, Canada, going to West Malaysia. He worked at the where he studied Cretaceous vertebrate remains, Fisheries Research Institute, Penang, for two years including a lizard, fish, dinosaurs, and coprolites. on the problem dealt with in his article in this issue. He then returned to England, where he now teaches Mr Moulton is now studying for a doctorate at the geology and biology at Stowe School, Buckingham, Division of Environmental Studies, University of as well as continuing his research into fossil California, Davis, U.S.A. vertebrates.
Page 348 June, 1973 r------.--.,---- · ------~-.--- ~---~------...,
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