Teouma (Holocene of Vanuatu)

Where: Efate, Vanuatu (17.8° S, 168.4° E: paleocoordinates 17.8° S, 168.4° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Holocene (0.0 - 0.0 Ma)

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: terrestrial; lithology not reported

• It has been established that just before human arrival at Teouma, a thick and still largely unweathered orange/yellow tephra, which has been identified in other areas of Efate (2–4), was deposited across the uplifted terrace (Fig. S2). This created a level surface across the once jagged uplifted reef. Burials were subsequently placed in shallow graves dug into the tephra in gaps in the uplifted reef and in the upper beach zone. The cemetery is concentrated along a northeast to southwest trending zone, 10 to 15 m wide and adjacent and parallel to the former beach. Evidence of initial habitation, possibly contemporary with the use of the cemetery, was identified in the form of concentrated midden dumping, adjacent and east of the cemetery, in area 6B and the east/west aligned trench extension of area 2. Further excavation in this area is required to confirm the nature of this deposit

Size class: macrofossils

Collection methods: Repository: Australian Museum

Primary reference: A. W. White, T. H. Worthy, S. Hawkins, S. Bedford, and M. Spriggs. 2010. Megafaunal meiolaniid horned turtles survived until early human settlement in Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107:1-5 [E. Vlachos/E. Vlachos/P. Wagner]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 185434: authorized by Evangelos Vlachos, entered by Evangelos Vlachos on 23.04.2017, edited by Matthew Clapham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Aves
 Pelecaniformes - Ardeidae
Ardea alba modesta great egret
Reptilia
 Testudines -
? Meiolania damelipi n. sp. White et al. 2010 turtle
type is AMF136641, right humerus
 Galliformes - Megapodiidae
Megapodius layardi Tristram 1879 Vanuatu scrubfowl
Megapodius ? layardi Tristram 1879 Vanuatu scrubfowl
Mwalau walterlinii n. gen. n. sp. Worthy et al. 2015 Lini's megapode
 Galliformes - Phasianidae
Gallus gallus Linnaeus 1758 chicken
cf. Gallus gallus Linnaeus 1758 chicken
Aves
 Accipitriformes - Accipitridae
Accipiter fasciatus Vigors and Horsfield 1827 brown goshawk
 Procellariiformes - Procellariidae
"? Puffinus pacificus" = Ardenna pacifica Gmelin 1789 wedge-tailed shearwater
? Pseudobulweria rostrata Peale 1848 Tahiti petrel
Puffinus cf. bailloni Bonaparte 1857 tropical shearwater
 Suliformes - Sulidae
Sula leucogaster Boddaert 1783 brown booby
 Pelecaniformes - Threskiornithidae
Threskiornis cf. molucca Cuvier 1829 Australian ibis
 Strigiformes - Tytonidae
"Tyto delicatula" = Tyto alba delicatula
"Tyto delicatula" = Tyto alba delicatula Gould 1837 barn owl
 Coraciiformes - Alcedinidae
Todiramphus cf. chloris Boddaert 1783 collared kingfisher
 Cuculiformes - Cuculidae
Cuculus optatus Gould 1845 oriental cuckoo
Centropus sp. Illiger 1811 cuckoo
 Columbiformes - Columbidae
Columbidae "indet. C. vitiensis" Illiger 1811 dove
Columbid sp. ?Columba vitiensis
Columbidae "indet. P. greyi" Illiger 1811 dove
Columbidae indet. Illiger 1811 dove
Columba vitiensis Quoy and Gaimard 1830 metallic pigeon
Chalcophaps indica Linnaeus 1758 Asian emerald dove
Ptilinopus cf. greyi Bonaparte 1857 red-bellied fruit-dove
Didunculus placopedetes Steadman 2006 Tongan tooth-billed pigeon
Macropygia ? mackinlayi Ramsay 1878 Mackinlay's cuckoo-dove
Alopecoenas sp. Sharpe 1899 dove
Ducula pacifica Gmelin 1789 Pacific imperial-pigeon
Ducula cf. pacifica Gmelin 1789 Pacific imperial-pigeon
Ducula cf. goliath Gray 1859 New Caledonian imperial-pigeon
 Psittaciformes - Psittaculidae
Eclectus cf. infectus Steadman 2006 oceanic parrot
 Gruiformes - Rallidae
Rallidae "indet. large" Vigors 1825 rail
"Porzana tabuensis" = Zapornia tabuensis Gmelin 1789 spotless crake
"Hypotaenidia philippensis" = Gallirallus philippensis Linnaeus 1766 buff-banded rail
Porphyrio melanotus Temminck 1820 Australasian swamphen
 Passeriformes -
Passeriformes indet. Linnaeus 1758 perching bird
 Anseriformes - Anatidae
Anas superciliosa Gmelin 1789 Pacific black duck
 Bucerotiformes - Bucerotidae
Rhyticeros cf. plicatus Forster 1781 Blyth's hornbill