Pleistocene occupation of New Guinea's highland and subalpine environments

Abstract

New Guinea's mountains provide an important case study for understanding early modern human environmental adaptability and early developments leading to agriculture. Evidence is presented showing that human colonization pre-dated 35ka (ka ¼ thousands of uncalibrated radiocarbon years before present) and was accompanied by landscape modification using fire. Sorties into the subalpine zone may have occurred before the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM), and perhaps contributed to megafaunal extinction. Humans persisted in the intermontane valleys through the LGM and expanded rapidly into the subalpine on climatic warming, when burning and clearance may have retarded vegetation re-colonization. Plant food use dates from at least 31ka, confirming that some of New Guinea's distinctive agricultural practices date to the earliest millennia of human presence.

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

“…The late Pleistocene fauna of the New Guinea highlands also included several now-extinct marsupials of megafaunal size, including large browsing kangaroos (Protemnodon spp.) and diprotodontids (Hulitherium, Maokopia, Zygomaturus) (Long et al 2002;Fairbairn et al 2006).…”

“…Although the evidence for an impact of H. erectus on megafaunal survival is weak, it is surely significant that the clearest association between human arrival and megafaunal loss is in the New Guinea highlands (Fairbairn et al 2006;Field et al 2008), which H. erectus did not reach. The lack of a single, clear extinction event in tropical Asia could thus simply reflect the complex chronology of hominin habitation.…”

“…It also gives a very misleading impression of the extent of local megafaunal losses, since many large vertebrates still persist somewhere in the region, despite occupying <10% of their maximum Holocene ranges and an even smaller percentage of their maximum Pleistocene ranges. Fairbairn et al 2006). …”

“…Early Homo was also associated at some sites with Gigantopithecus (Ciochon et al 1996;Harrison et al 2002). These associations suggest some form of interaction, but there is no direct evidence for hunting, and scavenging is equally plausible in most cases.Although the evidence for an impact of H. erectus on megafaunal survival is weak, it is surely significant that the clearest association between human arrival and megafaunal loss is in the New Guinea highlands (Fairbairn et al 2006;Field et al 2008), which H. erectus did not reach. The lack of a single, clear extinction event in tropical Asia could thus simply reflect the complex chronology of hominin habitation.…”

The deep human prehistory of global tropical forests and its relevance for modern conservation

“…In tropical Australia, the decline of Araucaria and rise of Eucalypts and Casuarina has been correlated with the advent of anthropogenic biomass burning after 40 ka [46][47][48] . Human landscape impacts have also been documented in the montane tropical forests of Highland New Guinea from 45-35 ka, even retarding vegetation re-colonization in the region following the Last Glacial Maximum 49 . That early foragers could have played a significant role in reshaping newly colonized landscapes is also supported by evidence that later foragers did.…”