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154 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO PALEOBIOLOGY FIGURE 13.—Area of sympatry of seabirds from Akrotiri Aetokremnos, Cyprus, and Buca del Bersaglieri, Italy (Puffinuspuffinus, Phalacrocorax aristotelis). (•=fossil sites.) PAVILAND CAVE, GREAT BRITAIN.—The seabirds from this site {Morus bassanus, Uria aalge) indicate temperate conditions similar to the present, and the remains are therefore very unlikely to be contemporary with the famous Upper Paleolithic "red lady of Paviland," which has been C14-dated to 18,460±340 yrs. BP (Bowen, 1970), the coldest part of the pleniglacial. During the Pleniglacial, Paviland Cave would in any case have been situated a very considerable distance from the seashore. The seabird remains may well be Holocene. POTTER'S CAVE, GREAT BRITAIN.—It has been surmised that the seabirds from this site are younger than the other bird remains and are actually Holocene (David, 1991). The sympatric area of the species {Puffinus puffinus, Fratercula arctica) indicates temperate conditions and supports a Holocene date. Discussion Reconstructions of past conditions based on the composition of fossil faunas are based on the premise that the ecological requirements of the species used has remained constant during

NUMBER 89 155 the period studied. This is probably a safe assumption for most of the seabirds in this study. It should be noted that none of the 31 faunas contains seabird species with allopatric ranges (although this might have been the case if Puffinus yelkouan had been treated as a distinct species). This absence of allopatric species is in marked contrast to late Pleistocene nonmarine avifaunas, where species that are today widely allopatric (e.g., Nyctea scandiaca and Alectoris spp.) frequently occur together. This similarity with modern seabird faunas also is an argument that the ecology of the species concerned has remained fairly constant over the period studied. Most of the reasonably well-dated faunas described above are either from the western Mediterranean or from Norway. The western Mediterranean faunas mostly suggest cool, biologically productive seas, and the western Mediterranean together with the waters around the Macaronesian islands may have been an important refugium for boreal seabirds during the coldest parts of the glaciation. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of sites from the mildest parts of the glaciation and Alcover, J.A., F. Florit, C. Mourer-Chauvire, and P.D.M. Weesie 1992. The Avifaunas of the Isolated Mediterranean Islands during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. In K.E. Campbell, editor, Papers In Avian Paleontology Honoring Pierce Brodkorb. Science Series, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 36:273-284. Alcover, J.A., S. Moya-Sola, and J. Pons-Moya 1981. Les quimeres del passat. 260 pages. Ciutat de Mallorca: Editorial Moll. [Instirucio Catalana d'Histdria Natural filial de l'lnstitut d'Estudis Catalans, Memoria 11.] Ascenzi, A., and A.G. Segre 1971a. A New Neandertal Child Mandible from an Upper Pleistocene Site in Southern Italy. Nature, London, 233(5317):280-283. 1971b. II giacimento con mandibola neandertaliana di Archi (Reggio Calabria). Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rendiconti della Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, series 8, 50(6):763-771. Bell, A. 1922. Pleistocene and Later Birds of Great Britain and Ireland. Naturalist, Hull, 1922(Aug-Sept):251-253. Bengtson, S.-A. 1984. Breeding Ecology and Extinction of the Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis): Anecdotal Evidence and Conjectures. Auk, 101:1-12. Bietti, A. 1987. Some Remarks on the New Radiocarbon Dates from the Arene Candide Cave (Savona, Italy). Human Evolution, 2(2): 185-190. Boessneck, J., and A. von den Driesch 1980. Tierknochenfunde aus der sudspanischen hohlen. Studien uber Fruhe Tierknochenfunde von der Iberischen Halbinsel, 7:160-185. Bowen, D.Q. 1970. The Palaeoenvironment of the 'Red Lady' of Paviland. Antiquity, 44:134-136. Cassoli, P.F. 1980. L'Avifauna de pleistocene superiore delle Arene Candide (Liguria). Memorie dell'Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana, new series, 3:155-234. Literature Cited from the eastern Mediterranean basin, although an isolated record shows that Morus bassanus occurred as far east as Crete during some part of the last glaciation (Suriano, 1980). The Norwegian faunas, of course, date only from the milder parts of the glaciation and are perhaps most interesting as illustrations of violent climatic and environmental shifts during the late Pleistocene. This is particularly striking when comparing the Blomvag fauna (Figure 9) from the mild Boiling interstadial with the 2000 years younger Grotta Romanelli fauna (Figure 11) from the cold Dryas 3 stadial. The occurrence of Pinguinus impennis in both these faunas is particularly noteworthy and suggests that even this nonvolant species was capable of changing its distribution quite rapidly in response to changing conditions. This contradicts Bengtson's (1984) theory that the extinction of Pinguinus impennis was at least partly due to an inability to adapt to environmental changes and supports the traditional view that the species' extinction was directly caused by human action. Cassoli, P.F., and A.G. Segre 1985. L'Alca impenne Alca impennis del Pleistocene d'ltalia. In M. Fasola, editor, Atti 111 Convegno Italiano di Ornitologia, pages 251-254. Cassoli, P.F., A.G. Segre, and E. Segre 1979. Evolution morphologique et ecologique de la cote de Castro (Pouilles) dans le Pleistocene final. In D. Sonneville-Bordes, editor, La fin des temps glaciaires en Europe. Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 271: 325-332. Cassoli, PR, and A. Tagliacozzo 1982. La fauna della grotta di Cala Genovesi a Levanzo. Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, 37:124-133. Cramp, S., editor 1977. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa; The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 1,714 pages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1983. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa; The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 3, 913 pages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1985. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa; The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4, 936 pages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. David, A. 1991. Late Glacial Archaeological Residues from Wales: A Selection. In N. Barton, A.J. Roberts, and D.A. Roe, editors, The Late Glacial in Northwest Europe. Council for British Archaeology Research Report, 77:141-159. Del Campana, D. 1946. Uccelli paleolitici degli strati basali della Grotta dei Fanciuli ai Balzi Rossi. Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, 1:290-307. Eastham, A. 1968. The Avifauna of Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar. Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, 1:31-42. 1986. The Birds of the Cueva de Nerja. In J.F. Jorda Pardo, editor, Laprehistoria de la Cueva de Nerja (Malaga): Trabajos sobre la Cueva

154<br />

SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO PALEOBIOLOGY<br />

FIGURE 13.—Area of sympatry of seabirds from Akrotiri Aetokremnos, Cyprus, and Buca del Bersaglieri, Italy<br />

(Puffinuspuffinus, Phalacrocorax aristotelis). (•=fossil sites.)<br />

PAVILAND CAVE, GREAT BRITAIN.—The seabirds from this<br />

site {Morus bassanus, Uria aalge) indicate temperate conditions<br />

similar to the present, and the remains are therefore very<br />

unlikely to be contemporary with the famous Upper Paleolithic<br />

"red lady of Paviland," which has been C14-dated to<br />

18,460±340 yrs. BP (Bowen, 1970), the coldest part of the<br />

pleniglacial. During the Pleniglacial, Paviland Cave would in<br />

any case have been situated a very considerable distance from<br />

the seashore. The seabird remains may well be Holocene.<br />

POTTER'S CAVE, GREAT BRITAIN.—It has been surmised<br />

that the seabirds from this site are younger than the other bird<br />

remains and are actually Holocene (David, 1991). The sympatric<br />

area of the species {Puffinus puffinus, Fratercula arctica)<br />

indicates temperate conditions and supports a Holocene date.<br />

Discussion<br />

Reconstructions of past conditions based on the composition<br />

of fossil faunas are based on the premise that the ecological requirements<br />

of the species used has remained constant during

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