ENVIRONMENTAL-CHANGE, EXTINCTION AND HUMAN ACTIVITY - EVIDENCE FROM CAVES IN NW MADAGASCAR

In the last 2000 years, changes on the island of Madagascar have resul ted in the modification of key environments and the extinction of near ly all large native animals. Humans have long been suspected as the pr imary cause of this ecological catastrophe, but the exact mechanisms o f the island's rapid transformation and the role of natural factors su ch as climate change remain uncertain. Caves in northwestern Madagasca r are helping researchers to disentangle these factors, by providing m any types of datable information concerning the past in close physical proximity. U-series dated pollen spectra from the caverns of Anjohibe provide a 40,000-year record of vegetation in the vicinity. Bone depo sits from caves in the region provide new site records for extinct tar e, including Babakotia radofilai Godfrey et al. 1990, Plesiorycteropus madagascariensis Filhol 1895, and Mullerornis sp. Several extant taxa that were present in the region in the late Holocene are now locally extinct. Archaeological evidence from the caves suggests little or no human activity in the vicinity or interaction with the fauna at these sites until recent centuries.