New evidence of megafaunal bone damage indicates late colonization of Madagascar

Abstract

The estimated period in which human colonization of Madagascar began has expanded recently to 5000–1000 y B.P., six times its range in 1990, prompting revised thinking about early migration sources, routes, maritime capability and environmental changes. Cited evidence of colonization age includes anthropogenic palaeoecological data 2500–2000 y B.P., megafaunal butchery marks 4200–1900 y B.P. and OSL dating to 4400 y B.P. of the Lakaton’i Anja occupation site. Using large samples of newly-excavated bone from sites in which megafaunal butchery was earlier dated >2000 y B.P. we find no butchery marks until ~1200 y B.P., with associated sedimentary and palynological data of initial human impact about the same time. Close analysis of the Lakaton’i Anja chronology suggests the site dates <1500 y B.P. Diverse evidence from bone damage, palaeoecology, genomic and linguistic history, archaeology, introduced biota and seafaring capability indicate initial human colonization of Madagascar 1350–1100 y B.P.

Artificial intelligence provides greater accuracy in the classification of modern and ancient bone surface modifications

“… 35 , Itampolo (1800–1100 B.P.) 36 and Christmas River (> 10.000 B.P.) 37 sites (Madagascar) interpreted as anthropogenic are provisionally confirmed by the VGG16 model, although with moderate confidence (Fig.…”

“…3 ). This underscores the need to reanalyze these BSM with images obtained following the same protocol as the experimental dataset, because the model would provisionally suggest an older date for the human presence in Madagascar than posited by a recent thorough taphonomic review 36 . Likewise, two of the purported oldest cut marks in Europe 38 fail to be confirmed by the model and are interpreted as a tooth mark and a trampling mark respectively (Fig.…”

A new late Pleistocene subfossil site (Tsaramody, Sambaina basin, central Madagascar) with implications for the chronology of habitat and megafaunal community change on Madagascar's Central Highlands

“…The island's subfossil (Late Pleistocene and Holocene) record has contributed greatly to our understanding of Madagascar's recent ecological evolution, and aided interpretations of recent environmental change; this record includes large-bodied lemurs, elephant birds, pygmy hippos, crocodyliforms, turtles, bats, carnivorans, rodents and the aardvark-like Plesiorycteropus Godfrey et al, 1990Godfrey et al, , 1997Gommery et al, 2003;Goodman & Muldoon, 2016;Goodman et al, 2006;Samonds, 2007). The arrival of humans, the timing of which is still under debate (Anderson et al, 2018;Dewar et al, 2013;Godfrey et al, 2019;Hansford et al, 2018;Pierron et al, 2017), nevertheless pre-dated the decline and extinction of many of them, including the island's large (> 10 kg) native animals; the megafaunal crash did not occur until sometime during the past two millennia (Burney et al, 2004;Crowley, 2010;Godfrey et al, 2019). Megafaunal extinction is widely believed to have been induced by humans, either directly (via hunting) or indirectly (via landscape transformation), aided by Late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic change (e.g.…”

Potential evolutionary body size reduction in a Malagasy primate (Propithecus verreauxi) in response to human size-selective hunting pressure

“…Nine additional (not previously radiocarbon dated) adult P. verreauxi femora from Taolambiby were also available for possible inclusion in our analysis. For each of these specimens, we first collected all measurements and 3D surface scan data before sampling 200-500 mg from the subfossil skeletal remains for AMS radiocarbon 14 C dating and stable isotope analyses at the Penn State University Human Paleoecology and Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory. The bone samples were scraped with blades to remove adhering material and clipped into small pieces.…”

“…The Malagasy megafauna were comprised of at least 28 large-bodied species from ~11 kg to ~650 kg in size [10], including at least 17 lemurs (primates), the largest of which had an estimated body mass of ~160 kg [11,12]. The timing of human arrival and permanent residence on Madagascar is uncertain [13,14] but may extend to ~10,500 years BP or earlier [15][16][17]. There are reports of intentional human processing marks on lemur bones in southwest Madagascar dating to ~2,300 years BP [11,18,19].…”