An extremely low-density human population exterminated New Zealand moa

Nature Communications

Volumn 5, Issue , 2014, Pages

  Holdaway, Richard N ^a,b   Allentoft, Morten E ^b,c   Jacomb, Christopher ^d   Oskam, Charlotte L ^e   Beavan, Nancy R ^f   Bunce, Michael ^g  

^a PALAECOL RESEARCH LTD   (New Zealand)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY   (New Zealand)

^c UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN   (Denmark)

^d UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO   (New Zealand)

^e MURDOCH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^f UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO   (New Zealand)

^g CURTIN UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BIRD; EXTINCTION; GENETIC ANALYSIS; HUMAN ACTIVITY; HUMAN SETTLEMENT; HUNTING; POPULATION DENSITY; PRECISION; QUATERNARY;

ARTICLE; GROWTH RATE; HUMAN; LATE QUATERNARY; MASS EXTINCTION; NEW ZEALAND; NEW ZEALAND MOA; POLYNESIAN; POPULATION DENSITY; POPULATION GROWTH; PROBABILITY; ANIMAL; BIRD; ECOSYSTEM; ETHNOLOGY; FOSSIL; HISTORY; HUMAN ACTIVITIES; POLYNESIA; PREDATION; SPECIES EXTINCTION;

NEW ZEALAND; SOUTH ISLAND;

AVES; DINORNITHIFORMES;

ANIMALS; BIRDS; ECOSYSTEM; EXTINCTION, BIOLOGICAL; FOSSILS; HISTORY, 15TH CENTURY; HISTORY, MEDIEVAL; HUMAN ACTIVITIES; NEW ZEALAND; POLYNESIA; POPULATION DENSITY; PREDATORY BEHAVIOR;

EID: 84922477925     PISSN: None     EISSN: 20411723     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6436     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. Allentoft, M. E. et al. Extinct New Zealand megafauna were not in decline before human colonization. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 4922-4927 (2014).
2. Anderson, A. Prodigious Birds: Moas and Moa-Hunting in Prehistoric New Zealand (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989).
3. Holdaway, R. N. & Jacomb, C. Rapid extinction of the moas (Aves: Dinornithiformes): model, test, and implications. Science 287, 2250-2254 (2000).
4. Anderson, A. Mechanics of overkill in the extinction of New Zealand moas. J. Archaeol. Sci. 16, 137-151 (1989).
5. McWethy, D. B. et al. Rapid landscape transformation in South Island, New Zealand, following initial Polynesian settlement. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 21343-21348 (2010).
6. Hogg, A. G. et al. A wiggle-match date for Polynesian settlement of New Zealand. Antiquity 77, 116-125 (2003).
7. Whyte, A. L., Marshall, S. J. & Chambers, G. K. Human evolution in Polynesia. Hum. Biol. 77, 157-177 (2005).
8. Pool, D. I. Te iwi Maori: a New Zealand Population, Past, Present & Projected (Auckland Univ. Press, 1991).
9. Worthy, T. H. & Holdaway, R. N. Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric Life in New Zealand (Indiana Univ. Press and Canterbury Univ. Press, 2002).
10. Worthy, T. H. Fossil avifaunas from Old Neck and Native Island, Stewart Island-Polynesian middens or natural sites? Rec. Canterbury Mus. 12, 49-82 (1998).
11. Nicholls, G. & Jones, M. Radiocarbon dating with temporal order constraints. J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. C Appl. Stat. 50, 503-521 (2001).
12. Jones, M. D. & Nicholls, G. K. New radiocarbon calibration software. Radiocarbon 44, 663-674 (2002).
13. Bradshaw, C., Cooper, A., Turney, C. S. M. & Brook, B. W. Robust estimates of extinction time in the geological record. Quat. Sci. Rev. 33, 14-19 (2012).
14. Jacomb, C. et al. High-precision dating and ancient DNA profiling of moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) eggshell documents a complex feature at Wairau Bar and refines the chronology of New Zealand settlement by Polynesians. J. Archaeol. Sci. 50, 24-30 (2014).
15. Oskam, C. L. et al. Ancient DNA analyses of early archaeological sites in New Zealand reveal extreme exploitation of moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) at all life stages. Quat. Sci. Rev. 52, 41-48 (2012).
16. Anderson, A. J. The chronology of colonization in New Zealand. Antiquity 65, 767-795 (1991).
17. Murray-McIntosh, R. P., Scrimshaw, B. J., Hatfield, P. J. & Penny, D. Testing migration patterns and estimating founding population size in Polynesia by using human mtDNA sequences. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 95, 9047-9052 (1998).
18. Knapp, M. et al. Complete mitochondrial DNA genome sequences from the first New Zealanders. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 18350-18354 (2012).
19. Brewis, A. A., Molloy, M. A. & Sutton, D. G. Modeling the prehistoric Maori population. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 81, 343-356 (1990).
20. Rawlence, N. J. & Cooper, A. Youngest reported radiocarbon age of a moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) dated from a natural site in New Zealand. J. R. Soc. N. Z. 43, 100-107 (2013).
21. Bronk Ramsey, C. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon data. Radiocarbon 51, 337-360 (2009).
22. Anderson, A. J. Faunal collapse, landscape change and settlement history in Remote Oceania. World Archaeol. 33, 375-390 (2002).
23. Petchey, F. New Zealand bone dating revisited: A radiocarbon discard protocol for bone. N. Z. J. Archaeol. 19, 81-124 (1999).
24. Anderson, A. J., Smith, I. E. M. & Higham, T. F. G. in Shag River Mouth: the Archaeology of a Fourteenth Century Maori Village (eds Anderson, A. J., Allingham, B. & Smith, I.) 6-69 (ANH Publications, 1995).
25. Lowe, D. J., Newnham, R. M., McFadgen, B. G. & Higham, T. F. G. Tephras and New Zealand archaeology. J. Archaeol. Sci. 27, 859-870 (2000).
26. Higham, T., Anderson, A. & Jacomb, C. Dating the first New Zealanders: the chronology of Wairau Bar. Antiquity 73, 420-427 (1999).
27. Newnham, R. M., Lowe, D. J., McGlone, M. S., Wilmshurst, J. M. & Higham, T. F. G. The Kaharoa Tephra as a critical datum for earliest human impact in northern New Zealand. J. Archaeol. Sci. 25, 533-544 (1998).
28. Wilmshurst, J. M. et al. Use of pollen and ancient DNA as conservation baselines for offshore islands in New Zealand. Conserv. Biol. 28, 202-212 (2013).
29. Sutton, D. G. A paradigmatic shift in Polynesian prehistory: implications for New Zealand. N. Z. J. Archaeol. 9, 135-157 (1987).
30. Sutton, D. G. in Origins of the First New Zealanders (ed. Sutton, D. G.) 243-258 (Auckland Univ. Press, 1994).
31. Keeley, L. H. Hunter-gatherer economic complexity and "population pressure": A cross-cultural analysis. J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 7, 373-411 (1988).
32. Bellwood, P. S. First Migrants: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective (Wiley Blackwell, 2013).
33. Bunce, M. et al. The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 20646-20651 (2009).
34. O'Regan, G. The antiquity of the Takahe Valley rock shelter site. Archaeol. N. Z. 35, 172-176 (1992).
35. Brook, B. W. & Bowman, D. M. Explaining the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions: models, chronologies, and assumptions. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 99, 14624-14627 (2002).
36. Worthy, T. H. The youngest giant: Discovery and significance of the remains of a giant moa (Dinornis giganteus) near Turangi, in central North Island, New Zealand. J. R. Soc. N. Z. 32, 183-187 (2002).
37. Waters, M. R. et al. Pre-Clovis mastodon hunting 13,800 years ago at the Manis site, Washington. Science 334, 351-353 (2011).
38. Waters, M. R. et al. The Buttermilk Creek complex and the origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas. Science 331, 1599-1603 (2011).
39. Lorenzen, E. D. et al. Species-specific responses of Late Quaternary megafauna to climate and humans. Nature 479, 359-364 (2011).
40. Stuart, A. J., Kosintsev, P., Higham, T. & Lister, A. Pleistocene to Holocene extinction dynamics in giant deer and woolly mammoth. Nature 431, 684-689 (2004).
41. Turvey, S. T., Green, O. R. & Holdaway, R. N. Cortical growth marks reveal extended juvenile development in New Zealand moa. Nature 435, 940-943 (2005).
42. Turvey, S. T. & Holdaway, R. N. Postnatal ontogeny, population structure, and extinction of the giant moa Dinornis. J. Morphol. 265, 70-86 (2005).
43. Holdaway, R. N. in Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences Advances in Paleobiology Ch. 9 (ed. MacPhee, R. D. E.) 189-238 (Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 1999).
44. Worthy, T. H. Quaternary fossil faunas of Otago, South Island, New Zealand. J. R. Soc. N. Z 28, 421-521 (1998).
45. Ritchie, N. Two subfossil faunal deposits uncovered near Cromwell, Central Otago. N. Z. Archaeol. Assoc. Newsl 25, 86-102 (1982).
46. Worthy, T. H. & Holdaway, R. N. Quaternary fossil faunas from caves in Takaka Valley and on Takaka Hill, northwest Nelson, South Island, New Zealand. J. R. Soc. N. Z 24, 297-391 (1994).
47. Burrows, C. J., McSaveney, M. J., Scarlett, R. J. & Turnbull, B. Late Holocene forest horizons and a Dinornis moa from an earthflow on North Dean, North Canterbury. Rec. Canterbury Mus. 10, 1-8 (1981).
48. Trotter, M. M. Investigations of the Weka Pass shelter S61/4. N. Z. Archaeol. Assoc. Newsl. 15, 42-50 (1972).
49. Oskam, C. L. et al. Molecular and morphological analyses of avian eggshell excavated from a late thirteenth century earth oven. J. Archaeol. Sci. 38, 2589-2595 (2011).
50. Rawlence, N. J. et al. The effect of climate and environmental change on the megafaunal moa of New Zealand in the absence of humans. Quat. Sci. Rev. 50, 141-153 (2012).
51. Cowgill, G. L. On Causes and Consequences of Ancient and Modern Population Changes1. Amer. Anthropol. 77, 505-525 (1975).
52. Hassan, F. A. On mechanisms of population growth during the Neolithic. Curr. Anthropol. 14, 535-540 (1973).
53. Lee, R. Estimating series of vital rates and age structures from baptisms and burials: a new technique, with applications to pre-industrial England. Popul. Stud. (Camb) 28, 495-512 (1974).
54. Pool, D. I. The Maori Population of New Zealand 1769-1971 (Auckland Univ. Press, 1977).