title: Radiocarbon evidence for the presence of mice on Madeira Island (North Atlantic) one millennium ago.
abstract: Owing to the catastrophic extinction events that occurred following the Holocene arrival of alien species, extant oceanic island biotas are a mixture of recently incorporated alien fauna and remnants of the original fauna. Knowledge of the Late Quaternary pristine island faunas and a reliable chronology of the earliest presence of alien species on each archipelago are critical in understanding the magnitude and tempo of Quaternary island extinctions. Until now, two successive waves of human arrivals have been identified in the North Atlantic Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary and Cape Verde Islands): 'aboriginal', which is limited to the Canary Islands around two millennia ago, and 'colonial', from the fourteenth century onwards. New surveys in Ponta de São Lourenço (Madeira Island) have allowed us to obtain and date ancient bones of mice. The date obtained (1033 ± 28 BP) documents the earliest evidence for the presence of mice on the island. This date extends the time frame in which the most significant ecological changes occurred on the island. It also suggests that humans could have reached Madeira before 1036 cal AD, around four centuries before Portugal officially took possession of the island.
authors: Departamento de Biología Animal (Zoología), Universidad de La Laguna Tenerife, , Canary Islands, Spain, Ulmenstrasse 21, Schwentinental 24223, Germany, Departament de Biodiversitat i Conservació, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Cr Miquel Marquès 21, Esporles, Mallorca, Balearic Islands 07190, Spain, Department of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History, , New York, NY 10024-5192, USA.
authors: Juan Carlos
authors: JC
authors: Rando
authors: Harald
authors: H
authors: Pieper
authors: Josep Antoni
authors: JA
authors: Alcover
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D005580:Fossils; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice / Q000502:physiology*; D011156:Population Density; D011174:Portugal; D055110:Radiometric Dating
keywords: AMS 14C; Mus musculus; extinction; human presence; island colonization; oceanic island