Dating the late prehistoric dispersal of Polynesians to New Zealand using the commensal Pacific rat.

ABSTRACT: The pristine island ecosystems of East Polynesia were among the last places on Earth settled by prehistoric people, and their colonization triggered a devastating transformation. Overhunting contributed to widespread faunal extinctions and the decline of marine megafauna, fires destroyed lowland forests, and the introduction of the omnivorous Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) led to a new wave of predation on the biota. East Polynesian islands preserve exceptionally detailed records of the initial prehistoric impacts on highly vulnerable ecosystems, but nearly all such studies are clouded by persistent controversies over the timing of initial human colonization, which has resulted in proposed settlement chronologies varying from approximately 200 B.C. to 1000 A.D. or younger. Such differences u

SUBMITTER: Wilmshurst JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2409139 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature