Prodromus of the Fossil Avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands

Olson, Storrs L., and Helen F. James. Prodromus of the Fossil Avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, number 365, 59 pages, 12 figures, 1982.—In the past decade, fossil deposits from five of the main Hawaiian Islands have yielded thousands of bones of extinct and living species of birds. Through these specimens, the number of endemic species of land birds in the avifauna of the main islands has been more than doubled. There are 40 extinct species known only from bones, including 1 petrel (Procellariidae), 2 ibises (Plataleidae), 7 geese (Anatidae), 1 small hawk and 1 eagle (Accipitridae), 7 rails (Rallidae), 3 species of a new genus of owl (Strigidae), 2 large crows (Corvidae), 1 honeyeater (Meliphagidae), and at least 15 species of Hawaiian finches (Fringillidae, Drepanidini). The present report discusses the fossil deposits and the physical and biological features of the islands in order to provide background information for our future systematic publications on the fossil and modern avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. An informal listing of the species found as fossils permits preliminary analyses of extinction and biogeography. The major fossil "localities are on the islands of Kauai, Oahu, and Molokai, from each of which there are diverse collections of small passerines, as well as many specimens of nonpasserine land birds, shorebirds, and seabirds. Fossils of a few additional extinct species have been found incidentally on Maui and Hawaii. Bones of extinct birds have been found in situations as diverse as sand dunes, sinkholes, and a flooded cavern in a raised coral reef, lava tubes, loess deposits, an ash deposit under a lava flow, and in archeological sites. Although some of the fossil deposits may be from the late Pleistocene epoch, most of the more important ones are probably Holocene, ranging from about 6700 years B.P. to much younger. Evidence is presented to show that the extinct species of birds survived into the period of" Polynesian colonization. We believe that the extinction of half or more of the land birds of the Hawaiian Islands prior to European discovery resulted mainly from the destruction of lowland forest by Polynesians, augmented by predation by man and introduced mammals. This has altered the distribution of species within the archipelago as well as the species composition of individual islands in such a drastic manner as to suggest that the data used in traditional and modern ecological studies of island biogeography may be too incomplete to permit generalizations about any islands that were settled by prehistoric man. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION DATE is handstamped in a limited number of initial copies and is recorded in the Institution's annual report, Smithsonian Year. SERIES COVER DESIGN: The coral Montastrea cavemosa (Linnaeus). Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Olson, Storrs L. Prodromus of the fossil avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands. (Smithsonian contributions to zoology ; no. 365) Bibliography: p. Supt. of Docs, no.: SI 1.27:365 1. Birds, Fossil. 2. Birds, Extinct. 3. Paleontology—Hawaii. I. James, Helen F. II. Title. III. Scries QL1.S54 no. 365 [QE871] 591s 82-600157 [568'.09969] AACR2