Prehistoric Sloth Extinctions in Cuba: Implications of a New “Last” Appearance Date

MacPhee, R. D. E.; Iturralde‐Vinent, Manuel A.; Vázquez, Osvaldo Jiménez

doi:10.18475/cjos.v43i1.a9

Cited by 35 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…8 km from Laguna Tortuguero. However, questions have been raised about the reliability of radiocarbon dates at these Archaic sites (Siegel et al 2005;MacPhee, Iturralde-Vinent, and Jiménez Vázquez 2007), and more work is in progress (RiveraCollazo 2010).…”

Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Fire Trends in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico from Sedimentary Charcoal: A Comparison of Three Records

Caffrey

Horn

2014

The Professional Geographer

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Section: Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Fire Trends in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico from Sedimentary Charcoal: A Comparison of Three Records

Caffrey

Horn

2014

The Professional Geographer

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“…We also know that coastal California, including its islands, has an archaeological record that extends back into the latest Pleistocene (13). The simple presence of a Chendytes bone in the lowest level of Daisy Cave, on San Miguel Island, dated to 10,000 14 C years ago, does not mean that it represents an animal hunted by people or even introduced into the site by them. However, it does show that people and the bird were at the same place at the same time.…”

Section: Chendytes Lawimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Greater Antilles, there is strong evidence that people coexisted with ground sloths for 1,000 years (14). We are thus now learning that rapid extinction is not the only possible outcome for such vulnerable species as flightless ducks and huge sloths, even if it is a common one.…”

Section: Holocene Underkillmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene underkill

Grayson

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…While this statement holds true on West Indian islands as much as on any other set of islands (2)(3)(4), an ice age (Pleistocene glacial interval; >9 ka, but not precisely dated) vertebrate fauna from Sawmill Sink, a blue hole on Abaco Island in the northern Bahamas, featured 17 resident species of birds known from Abaco only as Pleistocene fossils (5). None of these 17 species have been recorded in Abaco's record of Holocene bird fossils, dated to ≤5 ka (3,6).…”

mentioning

confidence: 93%

Origin, paleoecology, and extirpation of bluebirds and crossbills in the Bahamas across the last glacial–interglacial transition

Steadman

Franklin

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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On low islands or island groups such as the Bahamas, surrounded by shallow oceans, Quaternary glacial-interglacial changes in climate and sea level had major effects on terrestrial plant and animal communities. We examine the paleoecology of two species of songbirds (Passeriformes) recorded as Late Pleistocene fossils on the Bahamian island of Abaco-the Eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis) and Hispaniolan crossbill (Loxia megaplaga). Each species lives today only outside of the Bahamian Archipelago, with S. sialis occurring in North and Central America and L. megaplaga endemic to Hispaniola. Unrecorded in the Holocene fossil record of Abaco, both of these species probably colonized Abaco during the last glacial interval but were eliminated when the island became much smaller, warmer, wetter, and more isolated during the last glacialinterglacial transition from ∼15 to 9 ka. Today's warming temperatures and rising sea levels, although not as great in magnitude as those that took place from ∼15 to 9 ka, are occurring rapidly and may contribute to considerable biotic change on islands by acting in synergy with direct human impacts.ost of the documented late Quaternary extirpation of insular birds and other vertebrates took place during the Holocene after the arrival of humans (1). While this statement holds true on West Indian islands as much as on any other set of islands (2-4), an ice age (Pleistocene glacial interval; >9 ka, but not precisely dated) vertebrate fauna from Sawmill Sink, a blue hole on Abaco Island in the northern Bahamas, featured 17 resident species of birds known from Abaco only as Pleistocene fossils (5). None of these 17 species have been recorded in Abaco's record of Holocene bird fossils, dated to ≤5 ka (3, 6). This paper will focus on two of the Pleistocene bird populations that likely were lost to changes in climate and sea level that took place during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (PHT) from ∼15 to 9 ka, well before any human presence in the Bahamas.Some longer-term perspective is warranted. Estimates of sealevel highstands during marine isotope stage (MIS) 11 (∼410-400 ka) vary from +5 to +20 m above modern sea level with most studies yielding estimates from +6 to +13 m (7-10). These high sea levels would have eliminated most land and most if not all resident nonmarine bird populations that had existed in the Bahamas during the previous glacial interval. Since MIS 11, the bird community during each ice age (glacial interval) and subsequent interglacial interval in the Bahamas was undoubtedly different because of species-level variation in colonization and extinction during each of the major changes in sea level, land area ( Fig. 1), climate, and habitat. The only time subsequent to MIS 11 when sea levels were clearly higher than today (+3 to +6 m) was during MIS 5e (∼131-119 ka or 124-115 ka) (11, 12); MIS 5e would have been the last time that the land area of the Bahamas was smaller than it is now (13).We will examine the origin, paleoecology, and extirpation of the Eastern bluebird (S...

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Prehistoric Sloth Extinctions in Cuba: Implications of a New “Last” Appearance Date

Cited by 35 publications

References 11 publications

Long-Term Fire Trends in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico from Sedimentary Charcoal: A Comparison of Three Records

Long-Term Fire Trends in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico from Sedimentary Charcoal: A Comparison of Three Records

Holocene underkill

Origin, paleoecology, and extirpation of bluebirds and crossbills in the Bahamas across the last glacial–interglacial transition

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