%0 Journal Article
%T Early Holocene fauna from a new subfossil site: A first assessment from Christmas River, south central Madagascar
%A Kathleen M. Muldoon
%A Brooke E. Crowley
%A Laurie R. Godfrey
%A Armand Rasoamiaramanana
%J Madagascar Conservation & Development
%D 2012
%I Madagascar Wildlife Conservation, Jane Goodall Institute Switzerland
%X We report on faunal remains recovered during recent explo-rations at ¡®Christmas River¡¯, the only subfossil locality known from Madagascar¡¯s south central plateau. Recovered remains of several extinct taxa date to approximately 10,000 14C years before present (BP), including crocodiles, tortoises, the elephant bird Aepyornis, the carnivoran Cryptoprocta spelea, the lemurs Archaeolemur majori, Pachylemur insignis, and Megaladapis edwardsi, and abundant remains of the dwarf hippopotamus, Hippopotamus lemerlei. The presence of southern ¨C limited, forest ¨C dependent species at Christmas River supports the hypothesis that forest once extended, perhaps discontinu-ously, across the central highlands towards the west. One theory is that sites in the north central highlands, which are higher in elevation, maintained more mesic conditions during Plio¨CQuaternary climate shifts than those of the lower elevation sites of the south central highlands. Thus, elevation above sea level may have acted as a filter that limited species dispersal across the island in the past. Such a scenario would explain the distinction between more humid, higher elevation, northern highland subfossil communities versus more arid, lower eleva-tion, southern subfossil communities. Continued exploration at Christmas River thus provides a remarkable opportunity for deciphering ecological changes that have taken place in south central Madagascar during the Holocene. R¨¦SUM¨¦Madagascar est reconnue comme l¡¯une des r¨¦gions les plus sensibles du monde en ce qui concerne les menaces pesant sur sa biodiversit¨¦, et cela ¨¤ cause de niveaux d¡¯end¨¦misme in¨¦gal¨¦s, d¡¯une diversit¨¦ vari¨¦e et d¡¯un impact humain important sur l¡¯environnement. Suite ¨¤ la colonisation par l¡¯Homme il y a plus de 2000 ans, des extinctions de masse de la faune et un important recul forestier ont eu lieu en laissant des marques sur les ¨¦cosyst¨¨mes modernes qui sont dans un ¨¦tat de bouleversement ¨¦cologique. Certaines plantes end¨¦miques, par exemple, ont perdu d¡¯importantes esp¨¨ces mutualistes, des animaux ont ¨¦t¨¦ oblig¨¦s d¡¯exploiter d¡¯autres ressources ou habiter des endroits auxquels ils sont mal adapt¨¦s. La diversit¨¦ des plantes et des animaux a diminu¨¦, est menac¨¦e ou a m¨ºme compl¨¨tement disparue de certaines routes de diss¨¦mination. Bien que l¡¯Homme soit largement incrimin¨¦ dans son r le de d¨¦clencheur de ces extinctions massives, les transformations anthropiques qui ont contribu¨¦ au changement du climat sont controvers¨¦es. Les hautes-terres de Madagascar sont actuellement domin¨¦es par des zones herbeuses ¨¦tendues qui agissent co
%K Madagascar
%K subfossil
%K lemurs
%K Hippopotamus
%K biogeography
%K subfossile
%K l¨¦muriens
%K hippopotame
%K biog¨¦ographie
%K Quaternary
%K Quaternaire
%K hautes-terres
%K highlands
%K climate
%K climat
%U http://www.journalmcd.com/index.php/mcd/article/view/mcd.v7i1.5