On the extinction of the Dune Shearwater (Puffinus holeae) from the Canary Islands
Fecha
2010Resumen
Insular ecosystems have been subjected to
severe hardship during the last millennia. Large numbers of
insular bird species have undergone local disappearances
and full extinctions, and a high number of insular birds are
currently categorised as endangered species. In most of
these cases, extinction—or endangerment—is in direct
relation to the arrival of ‘aboriginal’ and/or imperialist
waves of human settlement. Insular bird extinction events
have been documented to have occurred at times corresponding to aboriginal settlement at many archipelagos
and isolated islands, such as the Hawaiian Islands, New
Zealand, the West Indies or the tropical Pacific Islands.
However, no bird extinctions could be attributed to the
first settlers of the Canary Islands—until now. The first
accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon (14C) dating of
collagen from a bone of the Dune Shearwater Puffinus
holeae (3395 ± 30 year BP), an extinct bird from the
Canary Islands, indicates a late Holocene extinction event.
This relatively recent date, together with some features of
this bird (large body size, breeding areas situated at very
accessible places) and the absence of its bones from the entire archaeological record suggests that the extinction
occurred close to the time that the first human settlement
occurred on the islands.