El. Simons et al., AMS C-14 DATES FOR EXTINCT LEMURS FROM CAVES IN THE ANKARANA MASSIF, NORTHERN MADAGASCAR, Quaternary research, 43(2), 1995, pp. 249-254
An extensive late Quaternary fauna, including many extinct giant lemur
s, has been collected recently in a 110+-km system of caves in the Ank
arana Massif of northern Madagascar. AMS C-14 dates for the acid-insol
uble (collagen/gelatin) fraction of bones of the giant lemur Megaladap
is (26,150 +/- 400 and 12,760 +/- 70 yr B.P.) confirm its presence in
the area during the late Pleistocene and provide the first Pleistocene
C-14 ages from bones of the extinct megafauna of the island. The firs
t date from bones of the recently described extinct Babakotia radofila
i (4400 +/- 60 yr B.P.) shows that it was present in northern Madagasc
ar in mid-Holocene times. A comparatively recent age of 1020 +/- 50 yr
B.P. for the extinct Archaeolemur indicates survival of this genus fo
r at least a millennium after the first direct evidence for humans in
Madagascar, This suggests that the island's ''extinction window'' may
have represented a longer time span than would have been expected unde
r the Blitzkrieg model of late Quaternary extinctions. A mid-Holocene
age (4560 +/- 70 yr B.P.) for a bone sample of the small extant lemur
Hapalemur simus indicates that the disappearance of this now-restricte
d species from the Ankarana occurred after this date. New data from th
e Ankarana and other sites on the island add to the consensus that maj
or biotic changes occurred on Madagascar in the late Holocene. (C) 199
5 University of Washington.