A late-Holocene bird community from Hispaniola: Refining the chronology of vertebrate extinction in the West Indies

• Published in: Holocene (Sevenoaks) 2013-07, Vol.23 (7), p.936-944
• Main Authors: Steadman, David W, Takano, Oona M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Birds; Endangered & extinct species; Vertebrates
• ISSN: 0959-6836; 1477-0911
• DOI: 10.1177/0959683613479683

We report 4800+ late-Holocene, non-passerine avian fossils from Trouing Jean Paul, a high-elevation limestone sinkhole in the Morne La Visite region, Massif de la Selle, Haiti. The fossils represent prey remains of two extant owls, the widespread Tyto alba and the Hispaniolan endemic T. glaucops. Among 23 species of birds, only one is extinct (an undescribed woodcock, Scolopax new sp.). Two other species (the petrel Pterodroma hasitata, and the Hispaniolan endemic pauraque Siphonorhis brewsteri) are rare today, the latter now found mainly in dry forest at lower elevations. Two other species (the doves Zenaida aurita and Columbina passerina) are widespread and common today on Hispaniola (and elsewhere) but no longer occur at high elevations. The age of the bone deposit at Trouing Jean Paul (c. 1600–600 cal. BP) is based on six radiocarbon dates from individual bones of the extinct woodcock. The only other extinct Hispaniolan vertebrate with multiple direct radiocarbon dates is the sloth Neocnus comes, with the youngest of seven dates (from five sites) being c. 5000 cal. BP. The fossil assemblage at Trouing Jean Paul does not include the extinct species found in older Holocene sites, such as Neocnus comes and associated species (three other sloths, two monkeys, four rodents, a caracara, flightless rail, and giant barn-owl). Rather, the Trouing Jean Paul fossils portray a late-Holocene bird community that already had experienced four or more millennia of Amerindian presence, but had not yet been influenced by the activities of European or African peoples over the past 500 years. Although only c. 1000 years old, the Trouing Jean Paul bird community has species associations without a modern analog, even if the extinct woodcock is excluded.