Th. Worthy et Rn. Holdaway, QUATERNARY FOSSIL FAUNAS FROM CAVES IN TAKAKA VALLEY AND ON TAKAKA HILL, NORTHWEST NELSON, SOUTH-ISLAND, NEW-ZEALAND, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 24(3), 1994, pp. 297-391
The late Quaternary fossil vertebrate faunas from 43 caves in Oligocen
e limestones and Ordovician marbles in the Takaka Valley and on Takaka
Hill, northwest Nelson, New Zealand, are described and discussed. Dep
ositional environments are described and interpreted. Major sites, inc
luding Ngarua Cave, Hawkes Cave, Kairuru Cave, Hobsons Tome, and Irvin
es Tome are described in detail. Many sites on Takaka Hill have been d
amaged by casual collectors since their discovery around 1900. Most si
tes were pitfall traps, but some deposits had been redistributed by wa
ter. Two deposits were attributed to an accumulation of material from
pellets ejected by laughing owls (Sceloglaux albifacies), and of these
the spectacularly rich Predator Cave site provided a large sample of
small vertebrates. The fossil faunas included 42 species of land snail
s, three species of leiopelmatid frog, a tuatara, three species of gec
koes, one or more species of skink, at least 58 (including two introdu
ced) species of bird, three species of bats, two rats and the house mo
use. Eighteen radiocarbon dates show that the faunas of the Hill and t
he Valley sites were laid down during the past 30,000 years. The dates
ranged from 400 +/- 62 to 29,011 +/- 312 yrs sp. The date of 29,011 /- 312 yrs sp, recorded from a specimen in Hawkes Cave, supplants the
date of 25,070 yrs sp from Te Ana Titi as the oldest cave specimen kno
wn in New Zealand. The introduced birds plus one rat and the mouse wer
e in laughing owl middens, indicating that deposition by this species
continued into the late 1800s or early 1900s. Two distinct faunal asse
mblages were present in both areas. These demonstrate that there were
regional extinctions due to climatic and associated environmental chan
ges at the end of the Otira (last) Glaciation. In contrast to the cont
inental regions, where humans were already present 10,000 years ago, a
nd where the causes of post-glacial megafaunal extinctions are subject
to intense debate, no species became extinct in New Zealand until abo
ut 1000 years ago when humans arrived. The fauna from the last (Otira)
Glaciation and Late Glacial periods (30,000 to 10,000 yrs BP), contai
ned taxa typical of similar-aged deposits at Oparara and farther south
on the West Coast, and of Holocene deposits in the east and south of
the South Island, The faunas in deposits of Holocene age (<10,000 yrs
sp) contained taxa typical of local forests at the time of European co
ntact, plus extinct taxa. Some taxa were common to faunas of both ages
. The Otiran and Late Glacial fauna were characterised by the moas Pac
hyornis elephantopus, P. australis, Euryapleryx geranoides and Megalap
teryx didinus, but Anomalopteryx didiformis was present only in Holoce
ne deposits. Dinornis struthoides and D. novaezealandiae were present
in deposits of both ages. The duck Euryanas finschi, eagle Harpagornis
moorei, and Aptornis and takahe Porphyrio mantelli were also found on
ly in Otiran - Late Glacial - age deposits. Petrels were very rare in
the Takaka area. Some samples of Anas chlorotis and Cyanoramphus spp.
were large enough for statistical analysis, and the ranges in individu
al size, measured by lengths of various longbones, are presented and d
iscussed for the fossil populations. Remains of some anatids, includin
g Hymenolaimus, were common in Takaka Hill deposits at considerable di
stances from surface water, suggesting that these waterfowl were then
more terrestrial than since mammalian predators arrived. Bones of thre
e further individuals of Dendroscansor decurvirostris found in Hobsons
Tome constitute the third record for this taxon. The Hill and the Val
ley faunas are compared and discussed, and the regional fauna as a who
le is compared with those from Oparara, the West Coast, Poukawa Swamp,
Waitomo, and the Far North dunelands. The fossil faunas of Takaka Hil
l demonstrate that there has been no interchange of North and South Is
land terrestrial vertebrates over the last 30,000 years, and they ther
efore suggest that there was no Cook Strait land bridge at any rime du
ring the Otira Glaciation.