Premium
Human‐Mediated Prehistoric Marine Extinction in the Tropical P acific? Understanding the Presence of H ippopus hippopus (Linn. 1758) in Ancient Shell Middens on the R ove P eninsula, Southwest V iti L evu I sland, F iji
Author(s) -
Seeto Johnson,
Nunn Patrick D.,
Sanjana Shalni
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
geoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1520-6548
pISSN - 0883-6353
DOI - 10.1002/gea.21385
Subject(s) - midden , archipelago , reef , radiocarbon dating , atoll , peninsula , prehistory , ecology , geography , predation , coral reef , archaeology , local extinction , oceanography , geology , biological dispersal , biology , population , demography , sociology
At the L apita‐era (1100‐550 B.C. ) settlements ( B ourewa and Q oqo) along the R ove P eninsula in F iji, valves of the reef‐surface‐dwelling giant clam H ippopus hippopus (long extirpated in F iji) occur in shell midden. Valve size/weight increase with depth, suggesting that human predation contributed to its local disappearance. The timing of this event is constrained by (a) the confinement of H . hippopus remains to the lower part of the midden, (b) their likely association with only the stilt‐platform occupation phase at both B ourewa and Q oqo (approximately 1100‐900 B.C. ), and (c) radiocarbon ages. All these suggest that H . hippopus disappeared from reefs here about 750 B.C. Yet human predation is not considered to be a significant cause of extirpation of H . hippopus in the entire F iji group. More plausible is that (climate‐driven) sea‐level fall (55 cm) during L apita times in F iji (approximately 1100‐550 B.C. ) forced changes to coral‐reef ecology that saw this sensitive species extirpated throughout the F iji archipelago. It is also considered possible that the L apita colonizers introduced bivalve predators or diseases to F iji that spread independently of humans throughout these islands.