Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene sites in the montane forests of New Guinea yield early record of cassowary hunting and egg harvesting - PubMed (original) (raw)

Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene sites in the montane forests of New Guinea yield early record of cassowary hunting and egg harvesting

Kristina Douglass et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021.

Erratum in

Abstract

How early human foragers impacted insular forests is a topic with implications across multiple disciplines, including resource management. Paradoxically, terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene impacts of foraging communities have been characterized as both extreme-as in debates over human-driven faunal extinctions-and minimal compared to later landscape transformations by farmers and herders. We investigated how rainforest hunter-gatherers managed resources in montane New Guinea and present some of the earliest documentation of Late Pleistocene through mid-Holocene exploitation of cassowaries (Aves: Casuariidae). Worldwide, most insular ratites were extirpated by the Late Holocene, following human arrivals, including elephant birds of Madagascar (Aepyornithidae) and moa of Aotearoa/New Zealand (Dinornithiformes)-icons of anthropogenic island devastation. Cassowaries are exceptional, however, with populations persisting in New Guinea and Australia. Little is known of past human exploitation and what factors contributed to their survival. We present a method for inferring past human interaction with mega-avifauna via analysis of microstructural features of archaeological eggshell. We then contextualize cassowary hunting and egg harvesting by montane foragers and discuss the implications of human exploitation. Our data suggest cassowary egg harvesting may have been more common than the harvesting of adults. Furthermore, our analysis of cassowary eggshell microstructural variation reveals a distinct pattern of harvesting eggs in late ontogenetic stages. Harvesting eggs in later stages of embryonic growth may reflect human dietary preferences and foraging seasonality, but the observed pattern also supports the possibility that-as early as the Late Pleistocene-people were collecting eggs in order to hatch and rear cassowary chicks.

Keywords: Sahul; cassowary; megafauna; montane rainforests; ratites.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

Human–cassowary interactions in highland Papua New Guinea (PNG): (A) Endemic fruit forming key components of cassowary diet; (B) hunters butchering a carcass of a Dwarf Cassowary (C. bennetti); (C) man wearing headdress including cassowary feathers; (D) juvenile cassowary (C. bennetti) being reared in a village in highland PNG; (E) adult male cassowary (C. bennetti) in captivity in a village in highland PNG; and (F) man wearing a cassowary quill nose ornament and an armband with a cassowary bone dagger. Photo credits: A. Mack.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

Simplified representation of eggshell microstructural changes during incubation as the cassowary embryo resorbs the calcium it requires for growth (>80%) from the surrounding eggshell (77). As a result of this process of resorption, the surface structure of eggshell mammillary cones changes during incubation, and measurements of surface texture can be used to estimate the ontogenetic age of the embryo (3): (A) Male cassowary (C. casuarius), as males incubate eggs and tend to chicks; (B) green eggshell exterior (archaeological samples did not retain this green color; note that egg is not to scale); (C) enlarged view of eggshell interior surface and mammillary cones; (D–G) eggshell mammillary cones at “Early,” “Middle,” “Late,” and hatched stages of development. Developmental timeline based on comparative study of Ostrich (Struthio camelus) embryo and eggshell microstructural changes during ontogeny (3).

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3.

Maps of the study region, ecology, and chronology of LP to mid-Holocene sites with evidence of human–cassowary interaction. 1: Toé, with eggshell from 30 to 10 ka and bone from 30 ka to the LH (34); 2: Kria, with eggshell and bone from 7 or 6 ka to more recently (34); 3: Liang Nabulei Lisa, with eggshell from 16 ka to recently (78); 4: Liang Lemdubu, with eggshell from 20 to 1.5 ka or later and bone from 20 to 1 ka (36); 5: Lachitu, with bone occurring sometime in the mid-Holocene (79); 6: Kamapuk, with bone present about 5 ka but no later (80); 7: Nombe with eggshell from 20 to 0.2 ka and bone from possibly 36 to 0.2 ka (25); 8: Kafiavana, with eggshell >5 ka (81); 9: Aibura with cassowary eggshell and bone dating to either 3.8 ka or 0.7 ka (81); and 10: Batari, with cassowary eggshell from 18 to 0.7 ka (81). Illustration: D. Gaffney; Inset A adapted from van der Kaars (82); photos courtesy of D. Gaffney, A. Ford, and B. Shaw.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4.

Overall proportions of the Kiowa and Yuku assemblages predicted to have been harvested at “Early,” “Middle,” and “Late” stages of ontogeny using the 1-predictor and 4-predictor models and identified through visual assessment of CME as having been harvested in the “pre-pitting” (equivalent to the “Early” stage in the predictive models) versus “pitting” stage (CME categories 2 and 3, equivalent to the later part of the “Middle” stage and to the “Late” stage in the predictive models), across chronological phases.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 5.

Images rendered through high-resolution laser microscopy scanning of cassowary (Casuarius spp.) eggshell interior surfaces: (A) sample displaying light weathering and clearly defined pitting of mammillary cones (sample identification number [ID]: 1249); (B) sample displaying medium-light weathering and no pitting (prepitting stage; sample ID: 1245); and (C) sample displaying extreme weathering. Diagnostic features too weathered to assess mammillary cone erosion stage (sample ID: 1253). All examples derive from Yuku LP/EH layers.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 6.

Density plot showing eggshell interior and exterior burning according to eggshell ontogenetic stage (1 = “Early,” 2 = “Middle,” and 3 = “Late”) prediction using the 4-predictor model and according to chronological phase at Kiowa and Yuku.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 7.

Cassowary reproductive ecology featuring male parental care: (A) Male cassowary (C. casuarius) sitting on the forest floor; (B) Male cassowary (C. casuarius) and two juveniles; and (C) young cassowary chick (Casuarius spp.).

References

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