Faunal and floral remains from Earnscleugh Cave, Central Otago, New Zealand

Abstract

Earnscleugh Cave, near Alexandra in Central Otago, was excavated in order to recover and date faunal and floral remains and to provide a palaeoenvironmental analysis. The pollen analysis showed that a complex vegetation community, comprising a dense scrub with local stands of podcarps, grew around the cave during the late Holocene and before Polynesian deforestation. The results from Earnscleugh Cave suggest that at this time permanent water-courses on the flanks of Central Otago ranges supported diverse and rich plant communities of forest and shrubland. The cave fauna included moas Euiyapteryx geranoides. Emeus crassus and Dinornis giganteus, goose Cnemiornis calcitrans, Finsch's duck Euryanas finschi, kea Nestor notabilis, rifleman Acanthisitta chloris, robin Petroica austrailis, tuatara Sphenodon sp. and greater short-tailed bat Mystacina cf. robusta.

Sustainability of New Zealand high‐country pastures under contrasting development inputs. 1. Site, and shoot nutrients

“…The probable climate and vegetation of the New Zealand high country since the last glaciation have been described by McGlone & Basher (1995), Clark et al (1996), McGlone et al (1997), andMoar (1998). In the early period following the last glaciation the climate was probably of lower annual rainfall, with drier milder winters, but moister summer with greater frequency of cloudbursts and associated Temperature was probably briefly lower in recent millennia, which explained some of the patterns in forest succession (Holloway 1954) including the retreat of forest from the margins of the tussock grassland area.…”

“…This was recorded for the Idaburn valley, Central Otago, at 7000 yr B.P. (Clark et al 1996), and the mid-rainfall Duncan Stream (40 km SW of the trial) in the Mackenzie Basin at 5500-4000 yr B.P. (McGlone & Moar 1998).…”

Soft-tissue specimens from pre-European extinct birds of New Zealand

“…However, Black found nothing unusual about the sediment (Hutton & Coughtrey 1875b). Earnscleugh Cave was rediscovered in 1993, and excavations the following year uncovered two moa feathers (Clark et al 1996). Clark et al described the cave more thoroughly, though Worthy (1998a) re-interpreted the former study based on subsequent reexcavation of the site.…”

“…Instead of preservation due to a regionally dry climate, the Mount Owen leg was desiccated by a constant breeze caused by drafting between two cave entrances (Worthy 1989). It is likely this process may also have contributed to the preservation of soft tissues in Earnscleugh Cave, which also has multiple entrances creating a chimney effect that dried the cave (Clark et al 1996;Worthy 1998a).…”

Advances in New Zealand mammalogy 1990–2000: Short‐tailed bats

“…<20 000 years old) have been found in sites at Waitomo, Hawkes Bay and Wairarapa in the North Island, and North-west Nelson, Westland, Canterbury and Central Otago in the South Island (Daniel 1990a;Worthy & Holdaway 1994a;Clark et al 1996;. No specimens have been collected from New Zealand's three main islands since European arrival, c. 200 years ago.…”