Blanchard Cave 2: A historical period Audubon's shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) nesting site in Marie-Galante (Guadeloupe islands, FWI)

Distribution quaternaire d’un escargot rare en Guadeloupe, amphibulima patula (Brugière, 1789) (mollusca; amphibulimidae): implications paléoenvironnementales et écologiques

“…The most recent site is the grotte Blanchard 2 on Marie-Galante, which opens onto a fossil cliff ten metres above the coastal plain. A test pit within the cave documented a half metre of colluvial deposits for which the vertebrate faunal association and radiocarbon bone dating point to a formation between the fifteenth century and the early twentieth century (Mallye et al, 2018). Amphibulima patula shells were found throughout the deposit as well as a test-pit on the slope above the cave, suggesting that the shells were introduced to the site by colluviation.…”

“…Moreover, the shells frequently exhibit notches similar to those produced by snail-feeding birds (fig. 2), which, when considered alongside the site's geological context, suggest that the shells derive from a natural accumulation on the overlying slope (Mallye et al, 2018. ).…”

Isotopic ecology and extirpation chronology of the extinct Lesser Antillean native rodent Antillomys rayi Brace et al. (2015)

“…Several bones, including a A. rayi mandible (Lenoble et al, 2017), were collected from the surface of one of these natural cavities (61°10'31,5'' W, 16°14'44'' N). Blanchard 2 (61°14'2.27'' W, 15°52'55.82'' N) is a small cavity on Marie-Galante that preserves a natural deposit that accumulated over the last millennium (Mallye et al, 2018). Roseau and Folle-Anse are both Amerindian archaeological sites documenting the Ceramic Age (ca.…”

“…A direct 14 C date on a bone attributed A. cunicularia yielded a calibrated age interval spanning the 15th to 17th AD, which postdates European contact (Cochard et al, 2019;Gala et al, 2019 submitted). Similarly, direct dates on a A. rayi mandible (Lyon-14110 (SacA-49752)) from Pointe des Châteaux (SI 4) and a tarsometatarsus of Audubon's shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri) (Lyon-9693 (SacA-31250)) from Blanchard 2 yielded calibrated age intervals spanning the 15th and the 15th to 17th AD, respectively (Mallye et al, 2018). The nature of the accumulation at these sites leaves open the potential survival of A. rayi into much more recent periods at the time of European colonisation.…”