PDF (Lo-Res) - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 89 93
TABLE 2.—Land snails (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) identified from Te Ana a Moe Cave, Chatham Island (Locality
16 (Figure 1)). Taxonomy follows Climo (pers. comm., 1993). Sample 1 (PRM sample 155/91) is from brown
sand/soil in the uppermost 20 cm of undisturbed sediment; sample 2 (PRM sample 156/91) is from creamy white
bryozoan detrital sand, at 1 m depth (-40 cm below upper surface of undisturbed sediment); sample 3 (PRM
sample 120A/91) is from brown gray bryozoan detrital sand at 1.2-1.4 m depth (60-80 cm below upper surface
of undisturbed sediment) in a side tunnel in S W quadrant. For each sample, abundance of each species is expressed
as a percentage of sample size (n). (See also Figure 6.)
Family
TORNATELLINIDAE
PUNCTIDAE
CHAROPIDAE
FLAMMULINIDAE
ROTADISCIDAE
CAMAENIDAE
Species
Lamellidea novoseelandica
Serratopunctum serratocostata
Litopunctum rakiura
Punctum lateumbilicata
Alexaoma chathamensis
Dellopsis stewartensis
Pryhina chathamensis
Phenacharopa pseudanguicula
Charopa coma
Flammocharopa mayhillae
Sinployea parva
Huonodon hectori
Mitodon wairarapa
Basimocella maculata
Discocharopa eta
Cavellia buccinella
Thalassohelix sp.
TABLE 3.—Bird species identified from Te Ana a Moe Cave, Chatham Island
(Locality 16 (Figure 1)). See "Appendix" and Table 1. (A=abundant (minimum
number of individuals (MNI) >100); C=common (MNI > 10); R=rare
(MNK 10); *=extinct.)
Taxon
MARINE SPECIES
Pelecanoides urinatrix
Pachyptila turtur
Pachyptila crassirostris
Pterodroma nigripennis
Pterodroma axillaris
Pterodroma magentae
Pelagodroma marina
Eudyptula minor
Larus dominicanus
TERRESTRIAL AND FRESHWATER SPECIES
*Tadorna, species undescribed
*Anas, species undescribed
*Pachyanas chathamica
*Mergus, species undescribed
Falco novaeseelandiae
*Gallirallus dieffenbachii
*Gallirallus modestus
"Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi
*Fulica chathamensis
*Coenocorypha chathamica
Hemiphaga chathamensis
*Nestor, species undescribed
Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae
Cyanoramphus auriceps
Anthus novaeseelandiae
*Bowdleria rufescens
Gerygone albofrontata
Rhipidura fuliginosa
Petroica traversi
*Anthornis melanura
Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae
Abundance
A (at all levels)
A (at all levels)
R
R
C
A (at all levels)
R
C
R (upper level only)
R (MNI=2, in upper level only)
R
R (MNI=1, in lower level)
A (at all levels)
R
A (at all levels)
A (at all levels)
R
R
C
R
R
C
R
R
C (at all levels)
R
R
C (at all levels)
R
R
1 («=164)
0.6
-
74.4
-
- -
10.4
1.2
- -
0.6
-
-
5.5
0.6
2.4
4.3
Sample
2(«=110)
-
0.9
18.2
4.5
-
-
21.8
-
6.4
-
-
2.7
2.7
35.5
-
8.2
1.8
3(«=128)
1.6
-
40.6
4.7
0.6
0.8
13.3
1.6
2.3
0.8
1.6
1.6
-
18.8
-
7.0
3.9
SWAMP SITES
Although peat deposits and more recent swamps are widespread
on Chatham Island, the conditions in them appear to
have been unsuitable for the preservation of bones. Peat fires
burning to considerable depths have occurred frequently on the
island. Furthermore, both peats and more recent swamps seem
typically to have been too acidic to allow long-term preservation
of bone.
Paleogeography, Ancestral Immigration, and
Avifauna Change
It is possible that the Chatham Islands, although isolated by
a broad oceanic gap from the New Zealand mainland since the
Late Cretaceous, some 80 million years ago, have provided a
land mass capable of supporting viable bird populations more
or less continuously for perhaps many millions of years
(Fleming, 1962, 1975; Cooper and Millener, 1993). There is
evidence, however, that during the late Eocene (40 Ma) and
again during the Pliocene (5-2 Ma) the only emergent land in
the entire Chathams group would have been a few volcanic
peaks (Campbell, 1996:36). Thus colonization by the forerunners
of the Holocene species may postdate the Pliocene. Further,
there is some suggestion that later, in the Pleistocene,
high interglacial sea-levels during the Castlecliffian (ca.
1.4-0.32 Ma) may have inundated all but the highest points of
Chatham Island (see Hay et al., 1970). Therefore much, if not
all, of any earlier established terrestrial avifauna may have
been eliminated during this period. Any ancestral avian colonists
that reached the Chathams since the Cretaceous, including
those still arriving today, could have done so only by fly-