QUATERNARY FOSSIL FAUNAS FROM CAVES IN THE PUNAKAIKI AREA, WEST-COAST, SOUTH-ISLAND, NEW-ZEALAND

The late Quaternary fossil vertebrate faunas from 42 caves in Oligocen e limestones of the Barrytown Syncline, Westland, New Zealand, are des cribed and discussed. The depositional environments in cave sites in t he area are described and interpreted. Several major sites, including Metro Cave, Madonna Cave, and Te Ana Titi, are described in detail. Th e Hermit's Cave deposit is probably derived from pellets ejected by la ughing owls (Sceloglaux albifacies) at one of their roost sites. Radio carbon dating shows that the faunas were laid down at various times du ring the past 25,000 years. A date of 25,070 years is the oldest so fa r obtained from any cave fossil in New Zealand. The fossil fauna consi sted of 50 species of bird, three frogs, one skink, one gecko, one tua tara, and two or possibly three bats. They comprised two distinct faun al assemblages. A glacial fauna, dating from the last (Otira) Glaciati on and Late Glacial periods, between 10,000 and 25,000 radiocarbon yea rs ago, contained taxa typical of Holocene deposits in the east and so uth of the South Island. A Holocene fauna, deposited during the past 1 0,000 years, contained taxa typical of the West Coast forests at the t ime of European contact, plus extinct taxa. The Otiran fauna was chara cterised by the moas Pachyomis elephantopus, Euryapteryx geranoides, a nd Megalapteryx didinus (only large morphs), the goose Cnemiornis calc itrans, and Finsch's duck Euryanas finschi. These were absent from the Holocene fauna, which included the moas Anomalopteryx didiformis, Din ornis struthoides, Dinornis novaezealandiae, and only small morphs of Megalapteryx didinus. Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) were common during the Holocene. Kiwi (Apteryx spp.), weka (Gallirallus australis), snip e (Coenocorypha cf. aucklandica), New Zealand pigeon (Hemiphaga novaes eelandiae), parakeets Cyanoramphus spp., tui (Prosthemadera novaeseela ndiae), robin Petroica australis, tomtit P. macrocephala, yellowhead M ohoua ochrocephala, rifleman Acanthisitta chloris, bush or rock wrens Xenicus spp., stout-legged wren Pachyplichas yaldwyni, piopio Tumagra capensis, kokako (Callaeas cinerea), and saddleback (Philestumus carun culatus) were present in both periods. The presence of this diverse sm all bird fauna in deposits of Otiran glacial age shows that some tall shrubland or forest vegetation survived in the sheltered valleys of th e Punakaiki area even during the coldest period about 18,000 radiocarb on years before present (yrs BP). The Holocene fauna is assumed to hav e lived in vegetation similar to that found by the first Europeans, i. e. wet, dense, podocarp-hardwood forest, with swamp vegetation on rive rbed flats. An undescribed species of Puffinus shearwater similar to t he extant Puffinus gavia was abundant in deposits throughout the study area, with dates ranging from at least 18,000 yrs BP to < 600 yrs BP; it is also known from the northwest South Island. Fossils of the West land petrel (Procellaria westlandica) are recorded for the first time, and the fossil range of the black petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni) inc ludes the Barrytown Syncline. The two species were, therefore, sympatr ic in the Holocene. The black-bellied storm petrel Fregetta tropica is recorded as a fossil from the mainland South Island for the first tim e, probably as a population morphologically distinct from those presen tly breeding on subantarctic islands south of New Zealand.