A Chronostratigraphic Analysis of Landbird Extinction on Tahuata, Marquesas Islands

The islands of French Polynesia cover an area the size of Europe, though total land area is smaller than Rhode Island. Each hot spot archipelago (Societies, Marquesas, Australs) is chronologically arranged. With the advent of molecular techniques, relatively precise estimations of timing and source of colonization have become feasible. We compile data for the region, first examining colonization (some lineages dispersed from the west, others from the east). Within archipelagos, blackflies (Simulium) provide the best example of adaptive radiation in the Societies, though a similar radiation occurs in weevils (Rhyncogonus). Both lineages indicate that Tahiti hosts the highest diversity. The more remote Marquesas show clear examples of adaptive radiation in birds, arthropods and snails. The Austral Islands, though generally depauperate, host astonishing diversity on the single island of Rapa, while lineages on other islands are generally widespread but with large genetic distances between islands. More recent human colonization has changed the face of Polynesian biogeography. Molecular markers highlight the rapidity of Polynesian human (plus commensal) migrations and the importance of admixture from other populations during the period of prehistoric human voyages. However, recent increase in traffic has brought many new, invasive species to the region, with the future of the indigenous biota uncertain.

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“…220 on Nuku Hiva (Florence 1993)). The many bird extinctions on these islands are now well known (Steadman & Rolett 1996).…”

Section: Recent Impactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeography of the fauna of French Polynesia: diversification within and between a series of hot spot archipelagos

Gillespie

Claridge

Goodacre

2008

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…The Galapagos Islands differ from the other island groups ecologically in the relative aridity of low-elevation habitats and the strong influence of El Nino-Southern Oscillation events on climate (Colinvaux 1984). Humans have had a profound effect on the avifaunas of each group of islands (Pregill and Olson 1981;Olson and Hilgartner 1982;Pre-gill et al 1988Pre-gill et al , 1994James and Olson 1991;Steadman 1995Steadman , 2006Steadman and Rolett 1996;Pregill and Crother 1999;Steadman et al 2002;Steadman and Martin 2003), probably least in the Galapagos Islands, which currently supports a small human population distributed among four of the larger islands and which had no pre-European history of colonization (Perry 1984). Human-caused extinctions have reduced the diversity and distributions of some groups of island birds (Steadman 1995) but probably have caused the extinction of few passerines in the Lesser Antilles and New Hebrides.…”

Section: The Archipelagoesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Causes of Evolutionary Radiations in Archipelagoes: Passerine Birds in the Lesser Antilles

Ricklefs

Bermingham

2007

The American Naturalist

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TO investigate why some lineages undergo evolutionary radiation, we compare the passerine avifaunas of the Hawaiian and Galapagos archipelagoes, which have supported well-known radiations of birds, with those of the Lesser Antilles, which have not. We focus on four steps required for the buildup of diversity through allopatric speciation and secondary sympatry: genetic divergence in isolation, persistence of island populations, recolonization of source islands, and ecological compatibility in secondary sympatry. Analysis of genetic divergence among island populations in the Lesser Antilles reveals evidence of both prolonged independent evolution and reexpansion of differentiated island populations through the archipelago but little evidence of secondary sympatry of divergent genetic lineages. Archipelagoes with high rates of colonization from continental or nearby large-island sources might fail to promote evolutionary radiations because colonists fill ecological space and constrain diversification through competition. However, morphological analysis demonstrated similar divergence between allopatric populations in species in Hawaii, Galapagos, and the Lesser Antilles, although the rate of divergence between secondarily sympatric species evidently is more rapid in Hawaii and the Galapagos. Alternatively, endemic buildup of diversity might be facilitated by the relative absence of pathogens in Hawaii and Galapagos that otherwise could prevent the secondary sympatry of populations owing to disease-mediated competition.

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“…The Hawaiian archipelago lost more than half its bird diversity , including at least four species of large, flightless, browsing anatids, called moa-nalos. Elsewhere in the Pacific, often up to half the species in the fossil record were found to be extinct, as in the Marquesas (Steadman 1989a;Steadman & Rolett 1996), Easter Island (Steadman 1995), Henderson Island (Wragg & Weisler 1994), Society Islands (Steadman 1989a), Samoa (Steadman 1994), and on the Tongan and Cook Island groups (Steadman 1989a(Steadman , 1993(Steadman , 1995. Of the extinct birds, species of rail, megapodes, columbids, and parrots are most common (Balouet & Olson 1987;Steadman 1987Steadman , 1989bSteadman , 1992Steadman & Zarriello 1987).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fossil rails (Aves: Rallidae) of Fiji with descriptions of a new genus and species

Worthy¹

2004

Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand

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A new genus and species of Gallirallus-like flightless extinct rail is described from deposits in western Viti Levu, Fiji, south-west Pacific. It is distinguished by having a longer, more decurved bill, than all other rails. Fossils of the barred-wing rail Nesoclopeus poicilopterus (Hautlaub, 1866) are reported from eastern parts of Viti Levu and several fossil bones suggest the former presence of a probable gallinule. A total of seven rails in seven genera were, therefore, sympatric on Viti Levu in the immediate prehuman period.

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A Chronostratigraphic Analysis of Landbird Extinction on Tahuata, Marquesas Islands

Cited by 43 publications

References 20 publications

Biogeography of the fauna of French Polynesia: diversification within and between a series of hot spot archipelagos

Biogeography of the fauna of French Polynesia: diversification within and between a series of hot spot archipelagos

The Causes of Evolutionary Radiations in Archipelagoes: Passerine Birds in the Lesser Antilles

The fossil rails (Aves: Rallidae) of Fiji with descriptions of a new genus and species

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