Radiocarbon dates on bones of extinct birds from Hawaii

Journal Article · Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1987 · Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.84.8.2350· OSTI ID:6513729

James, H F; Stafford, Jr, T W; Steadman, D W; Olson, S L; Martin, P S; Jull, A J; McCoy, P C

Bones from a stratified sedimentary deposit in the Puu Naio Cave site on Maui, Hawaiian Islands, reveal the late Holocene extinction of 19 species of birds. The age of the sediment and associated fauna was determined by direct radiocarbon dating (tandem particle accelerator-mass spectrometer; TAMS) of amino acids extracted from bones weighing as little as 450 mg. The /sup 14/C dates indicate that sediment has been accumulating in the lava tube for at least the last 7750 years, a suitable time frame for testing the hypothesis that Holocene extinction on islands began after human colonization. Despite growing evidence that a worldwide wave of extinctions coincided with human colonization of oceanic islands, little radiometric data have been available to date the extinction of most small fossil vertebrates on islands. The TAMS technique of dating purified collagen from the bones of small vertebrates could lead to vastly improved chronologies of extinction for oceanic islands where catastrophic mid- to late-Holocene extinction is expected or known to have occurred. Chronologies derived from nonarcheological sites that show continuous sedimentation, such as the Puu Naio Cave deposit, may also yield key evidence on the timing of earliest human settlement of Oceania.

• Research Organization: Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
• OSTI ID: 6513729
• Journal Information: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.; (United States), Vol. 8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
BIRDS
BIOLOGICAL EXTINCTION
SEDIMENTS
AGE ESTIMATION
SKELETON
ISOTOPE DATING
AMINO ACIDS
ARCHAEOLOGY
CARBON 14
FOSSILS
HAWAII
QUATERNARY PERIOD
ANIMALS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BODY
CARBON ISOTOPES
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
CENOZOIC ERA
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FEDERAL REGION IX
GEOLOGIC AGES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NORTH AMERICA
NUCLEI
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANS
RADIOISOTOPES
USA
VERTEBRATES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
580100* - Geology & Hydrology- (-1989)