Mare aux Songes
Template:Infobox Rockunit The Mare aux Songes (Template:IPA-fr) swamp is a lagerstätte located close to the sea in south eastern Mauritius. Many subfossils of recently extinct animals have accumulated in the swamp, which was once a lake, and some of the first subfossil remains of dodos were found there.
History
[edit]In 1865, government schoolmaster at Mahébourg, George Clark, finally found an abundance of subfossil dodo bones in the swamp of Mare aux Songes in Southern Mauritius, after searching for thirty years, having been inspired by Strickland & Melville's monograph about the bird.[1] In 1866, Clark explained his procedure to The Ibis, an ornithology journal:
After many fruitless visits to the spot... I resolved by sending some men into the centre of the marsh, where the water was about three feet deep and there, by feeling in the mud with their naked feet, they met with one entire tibia, a portion of another, and a tarso-metatarsus. The Dodo bones were imbedded only in the mud at the bottom of the water in the deepest part of the marsh... Encouraged by success, I employed several hands to search in the manner described, but I met with but few specimens of dodo bones till I thought of cutting away a mass of floating herbage nearly two feet in thickness, which covered the deepest part of the marsh. In the mud under this, I was rewarded by finding bones of many dodos.[2]
Remains of over 300 dodos were found in the swamp, but only very few skull and wing bones among them, which may be explained by the upper bodies having been washed away or scavenged while the lower body was trapped, which is similar to the way many moa remains have been found in New Zealand marshes.[3] In 1889, Théodor Sauzier was commissioned to find more dodo remains in the Mare aux Songes. He was successful, and also found remains of other extinct species.[4] 26 museums worldwide have significant holdings of dodo material, almost all found in the Mare aux Songes.[5]
In October 2005, after a hundred years of neglect, a part of the Mare aux Songes swamp was excavated by an international team of researchers. To prevent Malaria, the British had covered the swamp in hard core during their rule over Mauritius, which had to be removed. Many remains were found, including bones of dodos in various stages of maturity, and several bones obviously from the skeleton of one individual dodo, which have been preserved in their natural position.[6] These findings were made public in December 2005 in the Naturalis museum in Leiden. 63% of the fossils found in the swamp belonged to turtles of the extinct genus Cylindraspis, and 7.1% belonged to dodos, which had been deposited within several centuries, 4000 years ago.[7] Subsequent excavations suggested that dodos, along with other animals, became mired in the Mare aux Songes while trying to reach water during a long period of severe drought about 4,200 years ago.[8]
Paleofauna
[edit]This section requires expansion. (June 2013) |
The following animals have been identified from fossils in the Mare aux Songes.[7][3]
Birds
[edit]Birds reported from the Mare aux Songes | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Species | Authority | Common name | Family | Material | IUCN status | Images |
|
Red rail |
Mandibles, tibiotarsi |
Extinct |
| ||
|
Mascarene coot |
Hip and leg bones |
Extinct | |||
|
Réunion harrier |
Tarsometatarsi, tibiae and metacarpals |
Locally extinct | |||
|
Broad-billed parrot |
Skulls, mandibles, sternum, furcula, coracoids, humeri, ulnae, femora, tibiotarsi, carpometacarpus[9] |
Extinct | |||
|
Mascarene grey parakeet |
Palatines[7] |
Extinct | |||
|
Dodo |
All skeletal elements known from the swamp |
Extinct | |||
|
Mauritius blue pigeon |
Tarsometatarsus[10] |
Extinct | |||
|
Pink pigeon |
Tarsometatarsus[7] |
Endangered | |||
Mauritius owl |
Humerus, tibia, tarsus, unguals |
Extinct | ||||
|
Greater flamingo |
Tarsometatarsus |
Locally extinct |
Reptiles
[edit]Reptiles reported from the Mare aux Songes | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Species | Authority | Common name | Family | Material | IUCN status | Images |
|
Saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise |
Skulls, carapaces |
Extinct |
| ||
|
Domed Mauritius giant tortoise |
Skulls, carapaces |
Extinct | |||
|
Orange-spotted day gecko |
Humerus |
N/A |
|||
|
Mauritian giant skink |
Mandibles, vertebrae |
Extinct | |||
|
Round Island skink |
Humerus |
Vulnerable | |||
|
Hoffstetter's worm snake |
Seven trunk vertebrae |
Extinct |
Mammals
[edit]Mammals reported from the Mare aux Songes | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Species | Authority | Common name | Family | Material | IUCN status | Images |
|
Mauritian flying fox |
Mandible |
Endangered |
| ||
|
Small Mauritian flying fox |
Mandible |
Extinct | |||
|
Natal free-tailed bat |
Phalanges |
Vulnerable | |||
|
Mauritian tomb bat |
Phalanges |
Least concern |
References
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Hume 2006
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Clark 1866
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Hume 2008
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Newton Gadow 1893
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Fuller 2002
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Cheke Hume 2008
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c d
Rijsdijk, K. F.; Hume, J. P.; Bunnik, F.; Florens, F. B. V.; Baider, C.; Shapiro, B.; van der Plicht, H.; Janoo, A.; Griffiths, O.; van den Hoek Ostende, L. W.; Cremer, H.; Vernimmen, T.; De Louw, P.; Bholah, A.; Saumtally, S.; Porch, N.; Haile, J.; Buckley, M.; Collins, M.; Gittenberger, E. (January 2009). "Mid-Holocene vertebrate bone Concentration-Lagerstätte on oceanic island Mauritius provides a window into the ecosystem of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus)" (PDF). Quaternary Science Reviews. 28 (1–2): 14–24. Bibcode:2009QSRv...28...14R. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.09.018.
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Rijsdijk et al. 2011
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Hume, J. P. (2007). "Reappraisal of the parrots (Aves: Psittacidae) from the Mascarene Islands, with comments on their ecology, morphology, and affinities" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1513: 4–41. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1513.1.1.
- ^ Hume, Julian Pender (2011). Systematics, morphology, and ecology of pigeons and doves (Aves: Columbidae) of the Mascarene Islands, with three new species. Vol. 3124. pp. 28–39. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3124.1.1. ISBN 978-1-86977-825-5.
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Coordinates: 20°26′49″S 57°41′46″E / 20.447°S 57.696°E
This page was moved from en:Mare aux Songes. Its edit history can be viewed at Mare aux Songes/edithistory
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- Pleistocene paleontological sites of Africa
- Wetlands of Mauritius
- Swamps of Africa
- Lagerstätten