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Avifauna from the Teouma Lapita Site, Efate Island, Vanuatu, Including a New Genus and Species of Megapode

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Avifauna from the Teouma Lapita Site, Efate Island, Vanuatu, Including a New Genus and Species of Megapode Archived at the Flinders Academic Commons: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/ ‘This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Worthy, T., Hawkins, S., Bedford, S. and Spriggs, M. (2015). Avifauna from the Teouma Lapita Site, Efate Island, Vanuatu, including a new genus and species of megapode. Pacific Science, 69(2) pp. 205-254. which has been published in final form at DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2984/69.2.6 Article: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.2984/69.2.6 Journal: http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/t-pacific-science Copyright 2015, University of Hawaii Press. Published version of the article is reproduced here with permission from the publisher." Avifauna from the Teouma Lapita Site, Efate Island, Vanuatu, Including a New Genus and Species of Megapode1 Trevor H. Worthy,2,5 Stuart Hawkins,3 Stuart Bedford,4 and Matthew Spriggs 4 Abstract: The avifauna of the Teouma archaeological site on Efate in Vanuatu is described. It derives from the Lapita levels (3,000 – 2,800 ybp) and immedi- ately overlying middens extending to ~2,500 ybp. A total of 30 bird species is represented in the 1,714 identified specimens. Twelve species are new records for the island, which, added to previous records, indicates that minimally 39 land birds exclusive of passerines were in the original avifauna. Three-fourths of the 12 newly recorded species appear to have become extinct by the end of Lapita times, 2,800 ybp. The avifauna is dominated by eight species of columbids (47.5% Minimum Number Individuals [MNI ]) including a large extinct tooth- billed pigeon, Didunculus placopedetes from Tonga, and a giant Ducula sp. cf. D. goliath from New Caledonia. Seabirds are rare despite the coastal location of the site. Fowl are important contributors to the Teouma avifauna, with the human- introduced Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus accounting for 15% MNI and present in all sampled layers. There are two species of megapodes (~10% of MNI ), with the extant Vanuatu Megapode Megapodius layardi most abundant and represented at all levels in the deposits. A substantially larger extinct megapode, Mwalau walter­ linii, n. gen., n. sp., is present only in the Lapita midden area, where it is rela- tively rare. This extinct species was larger than all extant megapodes but smaller than the extinct Progura gallinacea from Australia, with proportions most similar to those of Alectura, and was a volant bird. The remaining significant faunal component is rails, with four species present, of which Porphyrio melanotus was the most abundant. Rare but notable records include an undescribed large rail; a parrot, Eclectus sp. cf. E. infectus; a hornbill, Rhyticeros sp. cf. R. plicatus; and a coucal, Centropus sp. indet., all conservatively considered likely to be conspecific with known taxa elsewhere in Melanesia. Numerous studies on the archipelagos resulting in the loss of a multitude of species and islands of the Pacific have revealed that (Balouet and Olson 1989; Steadman 1989a, whenever humans first arrived, they rapidly 1993, 1995, 2006a; James and Olson 1991; had severe impacts on the original avifaunas, Olson and James 1991; Worthy 2000, 2001; 1 This research is part of Australian Research Council “Understanding the Migrations of Prehistoric Popula- DECRA project DE130101133 (to T. H. Worthy), and tions through Direct Dating and Isotopic Tracking of DP0880789 to Stuart Bedford and Matthew Spriggs, their Mobility Patterns.” Manuscript accepted 26 June “Persistence and Transformation in Ancestral Oceanic 2014. Society: The archaeology of the first 1500 years in the 2 School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, Vanuatu Archipelago” and DP110101415 to R. Grun, M. GPO 2100, Adelaide 5001, SA, Australia. Spriggs, R. Atkinson, C. Falgueres, and B. Maureille 3 Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia- Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. 4 School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College Pacific Science (2015), vol. 69, no. 2:205 – 254 of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National doi:10.2984/69.2.6 University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. © 2015 by University of Hawai‘i Press 5 Corresponding author (e-mail: trevor.worthy@ All rights reserved flinders.edu.au). 205 (CS4) UHP (7”×10”) Janson Text J-3021 Pacific Science, 69:2 pp. 205–254 PS_69-2_06 (p. 205) AC1: (idp) 27/5/2015 23 June 2015 2:27 PM 206 PACIFIC SCIENCE · April 2015 Worthy and Wragg 2003, 2008; Wragg and were detected. However, these included no Worthy 2006; Karels et al. 2008). Because of large or highly derived taxa such as have often the absence of suitable fossil deposits on many been detected on better-studied islands such islands, often the only source of data for these as Viti Levu or New Caledonia (Balouet and extinctions is in the archaeological deposits Olson 1989; Worthy 2000, 2001). Only two of the first human colonizers, as detailed by of the extinct taxa were rails, undescribed Steadman (2006a). Often more than 50% of forms of Gallirallus and Porzana, but Stead- the original avian diversity became extinct, man (2006a) predicted that minimally 36 with endemic flightless and large species suf- flightless species in these genera could be fering the most losses (Steadman 2006a). In present in the archipelago. total, Steadman (2006a:409) estimated that The first people colonized the Vanuatu / between 820 and 1,960 species of birds have New Caledonia / Fiji region of the Southwest become extinct in the Pacific, with the uncer- Pacific 3,100 – 3,000 yr ago and are charac- tainty mainly due to how rails might be esti- terized as bearers of the Lapita culture, whose mated. Estimates for rails ranged from 442 to distribution encompassed the Bismarck ar- 1,579 species, although only 74 were known chipelago and coastal Papua in the west and (Steadman 2006a: table 10-12). Tonga and Samoa to the east. Beyond the Located in the western Pacific (Figure 1), main Solomons chain, in “Remote Oceania,” Vanuatu is a geologically young archipelago the Lapita culture constitutes the initial of 82 islands whose oldest rocks are 14 Ma but human colonization of the island groups of which has only been emergent in the last 2 Ma Santa Cruz, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, ( Hamilton et al. 2010, and references there- Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, and Samoa (Sand in). This young age and the rapid tectonic 1997, Clark and Anderson 2001, Galipaud evolution of the region explains the absence and Swete-Kelly 2007). It is therefore sites of frogs (Platymantis) and elapid (Ogmodon) formed by this cultural group that reflect the snakes that are present in Fiji ( Hamilton et al. first human impacts on the natural faunas of 2010). A majority of biota in Vanuatu is con- islands in this region (see Steadman 2006a), sidered derived by dispersal from the Solo- and large samples from such sites can be ex- mons to the north, and a distinct biotic break pected to provide the best indication of origi- to the south, between Vanuatu and New nal faunas on islands. Caledonia, has long been recognized (Gib- In this paper we present the single largest bons 1985, Bauer 1988, Hamilton et al. 2010). avifauna known from Melanesia. It derives Vanuatu has a diverse avifauna of mini- from one of these Lapita sites, the formerly mally 62 species of land birds, including six coastal Lapita cemetery and midden site at extinct taxa (Doughty et al. 1999, Steadman Teouma on the island of Efate, Vanuatu (Fig- 2006a). The fauna has relatively low levels of ure 1) (Bedford et al. 2006). Comprehensive endemism, with only 11 species, of which five radiocarbon dating of shell, bone, and char- are extinct, listed by Steadman (2006a). Nine coal samples from associated human burials species of pigeons compose the most notable and midden materials established the chro- component of this fauna. Four of these have nology for the site (Bedford et al. 2006, 2009, a restricted distribution, with Gallicolumba 2010). The earliest archaeological deposits, santaecrucis also rare, G. ferruginea extinct his- Layer 3, and the Area 2 extension and adja- torically, and Ptilinopus tannensis and D. bakeri cent areas in the site, are dated approximately endemic to Vanuatu and Santa Cruz Islands. 3,000 calibrated yr before present (cal BP) There have been relatively few investiga- and are associated with the oldest cemetery tions of paleodiversity of birds in Vanuatu, yet found in the Pacific islands (Bedford et al. with just 601 bones from 42 species listed 2006). Later midden deposits, which in places from 12 sites in the Torres Group and on exceed 1 m depth and seal the cemetery, can- Santo, Malakula, Efate, and Erromango not date to later than 2,500 cal BP on the basis (Steadman 2006a: table 5-12). Despite the of pottery typology, which is well dated at very limited sampling, five extinct species other Efate sites (Bedford 2006). The site (CS4) UHP (7”×10”) Janson Text J-3021 Pacific Science, 69:2 pp. 206–254 PS_69-2_06 (p. 206) (CS4) UHP (7”×10”) Janson Text J-3021 Pacific Science, 69:2 pp. 207–254 PS_69-2_06 (p. 207) AC1: (idp) 27/5/2015 23 June 2015 2:27 PM AC1: (idp) 27/5/2015 23 June 2015 2:27 PM Figure 1. Location maps showing the location of Van uatu in the Melanesian region of the Pacific above( ) and the loca- tion of the Lapita site Teouma on Efate within Vanuatu (below). (CS4) UHP (7”×10”) Janson Text J-3021 Pacific Science, 69:2 pp. 206–254 PS_69-2_06 (p. 206) (CS4) UHP (7”×10”) Janson Text J-3021 Pacific Science, 69:2 pp. 207–254 PS_69-2_06 (p. 207) AC1: (idp) 27/5/2015 23 June 2015 2:27 PM AC1: (idp) 27/5/2015 23 June 2015 2:27 PM 208 PACIFIC SCIENCE · April 2015 is well stratified, with the bird bones most Spriggs and Bedford (2013) for details of the diverse and most abundant in the cemetery excavation.
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