Takaka Fossil Cave - a stratified Late Glacial to Late Holocene deposit from Takaka Hill, New Zealand: Tuhinga 14, 2003

Tuhinga 14: 41 - 60

ABSTRACT: A rich terrestrial vertebrate fauna from the pitfall trap deposit of Takaka Fossil Cave on Takaka Hill, South Island, New Zealand, is described. Radiocarbon ages on moa bones bracket the onset of sedimentation in the site to between 12 361 and 11 354 14C yrs BP. Euryapteryx geranoides was in the Late Glacial moa fauna that predates the onset of sedimentation in the site, but was absent in younger faunas. The moa Anomalopteryx didiformis was present in the Late Glacial fauna as well throughout the Holocene. A total of 1633 bones from 25 species of birds and a further 895 bones of 154 individuals of vertebrates other than birds (two species of frog, one tuatara, three lizards, two bats, and a rat) were identified in the total recovered fauna. A well-preserved partial skeleton of Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei) of Late Glacial age had severe arthritis. Unusually small specimens of Euryapteryx were morphologically diagnosed as E. geranoides, and confirmed as such by mitochondrial DNA analysis. The molluscan fauna contained two aquatic, troglobitic hydrobiids and 29 taxa of land snails. While there is little change in species diversity between lower and upper layers, there are marked changes in relative abundance of some taxa that suggest the environment was drier in the early and middle Holocene than it was in the Late Holocene.

KEYWORDS: Late Glacial-Holocene, avifauna, molluscs, faunal change, Takaka Fossil Cave, Takaka, Hill, New Zealand.