The origin and history of New Zealand's terrestrial vertebrates (original) (raw)
Related papers
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2017
New Zealand, long recognised as a land where birds dominate the terrestrial vertebrate biota, lacked an informative fossil record for the non-marine pre-Pleistocene avifauna until the twenty-first century. Here we review recent research that alters the known diversity of the fossil Paleogene-Neogene birds and our understanding of the origin of New Zealand's recent or modern biota. Since 2010, there has been a 50% increase in the number of described fossil bird species (now 45) for the pre-Quaternary period. Many represent higher taxa that are new or listed for New Zealand for the first time, including 12 genera (35 total), nine family-level taxa (18 total), and seven ordinal taxa. We also review recent multidisciplinary research integrating DNA and morphological analyses affecting the taxonomic diversity of the Quaternary avifauna and present revised diversity metrics. The Holocene avifauna contained 217 indigenous breeding species (67% endemic) of which 54 (25%) are extinct.
A high-precision chronology for the rapid extinction of New Zealand moa (Aves, Dinornithiformes)
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2014
Megafaunal extinction followed the prehistoric human settlement of islands across the globe, but the exact duration and dynamics of the extinction processes are difficult to determine. The New Zealand moa (Aves, Dinornithiformes) are a prime example, where, despite an extensive fossil and archaeological record, debate continues about their extinction chronology and how extinction timings varied among regions and species. We apply probabilistic sightings methods to 111 high-quality radiocarbon dates (from a pool of 653 dates) on moa remains from natural and archaeological sites to provide a high-resolution spatio-temporal chronology of moa extinction. We interpret this alongside an estimated time for the onset of hunting pressure, obtained by applying the same methods to the most reliable proxies for initial human settlement of New Zealand: coprolites of and seeds gnawed by the commensal Pacific rat (Rattus exulans). By comparing local and national extinction times, we discriminate between the point at which hunting stopped (economic extinction) and the total extinction of moa (ca 150 and 200 years after settlement, respectively). Extinction occurred contemporaneously at sites separated by hundreds of kilometres. There was little difference between the extinction times of the smallest (20e50 kg) and largest (200þ kg) moa species. Our results demonstrate how rapidly megafauna were exterminated from even large, topographically-and ecologically-diverse islands such as New Zealand, and highlight the fragility of such ecosystems in the face of human impacts.
A working list of breeding bird species of the New Zealand region at first human contact
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2001
We present an annotated working list of the bird species breeding in New Zealand during the late Pleistocene and Holocene, up to the time of human contact. New Zealand is defined as including the three main islands and the surrounding smaller islands, plus outlying island groups from Norfolk Island in the northwest, the Kermadec, Chatham, Bounty, Antipodes, Campbell, Auckland, Snares, to Macquarie Islands, but excluding islands south of Macquarie Island and the Ross Dependency. Inclusions or exclusions of species from the list were based on specified criteria. We include only species with a breeding population and not vagrants that occur in New Zealand but which breed elsewhere. Species with validly published names were included if there was fossil evidence for a breeding population Z99045
PNAS, 2018
New Zealand's geographic isolation, lack of native terrestrial mammals , and Gondwanan origins make it an ideal location to study evolutionary processes. However, since the archipelago was first settled by humans 750 y ago, its unique biodiversity has been under pressure, and today an estimated 49% of the terrestrial avifauna is extinct. Current efforts to conserve the remaining fauna rely on a better understanding of the composition of past ecosystems, as well as the causes and timing of past extinctions. The exact temporal and spatial dynamics of New Zealand's extinct fauna, however, can be difficult to interpret, as only a small proportion of animals are preserved as morphologically identifiable fossils. Here, we conduct a large-scale genetic survey of subfossil bone assemblages to elucidate the impact of humans on the environment in New Zealand. By genetically identifying more than 5,000 nondiagnostic bone fragments from archaeological and pale-ontological sites, we reconstruct a rich faunal record of 110 species of birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and marine mammals. We report evidence of five whale species rarely reported from New Zealand archaeological middens and characterize extinct lineages of leiopel-matid frog (Leiopelma sp.) and k ak apō (Strigops habroptilus) hap-lotypes lost from the gene pool. Taken together, this molecular audit of New Zealand's subfossil record not only contributes to our understanding of past biodiversity and precontact M aori subsistence practices but also provides a more nuanced snapshot of anthropogenic impacts on native fauna after first human arrival. paleoecology | human impacts | subsistence practices | bulk bone metabarcoding | ancient DNA T he early isolation of New Zealand from the Gondwanan mainland 55 million years ago (1), along with extinctions during the cooling events of the Miocene and Pliocene, created an island archipelago free of land mammals (1). Over time, the ecological niches filled by mammals elsewhere were taken over by birds, giving rise to a variety of flightless avifauna found nowhere else in the world, including the iconic moa (Dinornithi-formes), kiwi (Apteryx sp.), and k ak apō (Strigops habroptilus). However, since the arrival of Polynesian settlers to the archipelago 750 y ago (2, 3), the terrestrial avifauna has nearly halved, and at least 64 species of New Zealand's endemic birds and reptiles have become extinct, with new species added to the extinction list each year (4-7). The impact of human arrival on the local biodiversity across different continents is a hotly debated topic (8-10), with climate, disease, hunting, and human commensals (or a combination thereof) put forward as drivers of extinctions and extirpations. However, the direct impacts of humans are often challenging to tease apart from climatic changes (11) when they coincide. Moreover, in many locations, the archaeological record is blurred by the Holocene sea level rise that consumed many early coastal sites across the globe (12). As the last major landmass to be settled by humans, and with a relatively stable Holocene climate (13), New Zealand continues to offer a unique opportunity to assess the impact of human arrival on island ecosystems. During the last 150 y, morphological analyses of the Quater-nary fossil and subfossil records in New Zealand have provided insights into biodiversity turnover on the islands. For example, the finding of thousands of bones across hundreds of archaeological middens suggests that within a few centuries after the initial Polynesian settlement, a small population (<2,000 individuals) drove the moa to extinction (14-17) and caused the extirpation of sea lion (Phocarctos spp.) and penguins (Mega-dyptes waitaha) from the New Zealand mainland (18, 19). However, the full extent of human-driven extinctions in New Zealand is still unclear, as morphological analysis of the subfossil record is complicated by a number of documented extirpation/ recolonization events (18, 19) and the existence of taxa exhibiting Significance The mode and tempo of extinctions and extirpations after the first contact phase of human settlements is a widely debated topic. As the last major landmass to be settled by humans, New Zealand offers a unique lens through which to study interactions of people and biota. By analyzing ancient DNA from more than 5,000 nondiagnostic and fragmented bones from 38 subfossil assemblages, we describe species and patterns that have been missed by morphological approaches. We report the identification of five species of whale from an archaeological context in New Zealand and describe the prehistoric kākāpō population structure. Taken together, this study demonstrates insights into subsistence practices and extinction processes and demonstrates the value of genetic analyses of fossil assemblages.
The Eradication of Mammals from New Zealand Islands
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Deep Macroevolutionary Impact of Humans on New Zealand’s Unique Avifauna
Current Biology
Highlights d Large numbers of bird species went extinct in New Zealand after human colonization d We reconstruct diversity dynamics of New Zealand's birds d It would take 50 million years (Ma) to recover the diversity of bird species lost d If threatened species go extinct, up to 10 Ma needed to return to today's levels