Mammals from Holocene Archaeological Deposits on Gebe and Morotai Islands, Northern Moluccas, Indonesia.

Abstract

Archaeological deposits of late Pleistocene and Holocene age from Gebe and Morotai Islands, Maluku Utara, Indonesia, have yielded the remains of mammals not recorded in the modem fauna of those islands. A wallaby very similar to Dorcopsis mulleri mysoliae (which is known today only from Misool) was common on Gebe between about 8500 and 2000 uncalibrated radiocarbon years ago, after which it became locally extinct. A similar taxon occurs on Halmahera in archaeological contexts dating from about 5500 to 1700 years ago. It appears likely that these wallaby populations were originally introduced from Misool. The remains of two large, apparently undescribed species of Rattus, as well as Rattus morotaiensis, are present in the Morotai archaeological record, which currently dates from 14,000 years ago. These animals are not present so far in deposits from Halmahera The remaining fauna in the archaeological deposits discussed in this paper represent species still surviving in the region, including phalangers, bats, fish, reptiles, birds, pig and dog (the two latter only present after 3500 years ago, and introduced by humans).