Abstract
Quaternary paleontological and archaeological evidence often is crucial for uncovering the historical mechanisms shaping modern diversity and distributions. We take an interdisciplinary approach using multiple lines of evidence to understand how past human activity has shaped long-term animal diversity in an island system. Islands afford unique opportunities for such studies given their robust fossil and archaeological records. Herein, we examine the only non-volant terrestrial mammal endemic to the Bahamian Archipelago, the hutia Geocapromys ingrahami. This capromyine rodent once inhabited many islands but is now restricted to several small cays. Radiocarbon dated fossils indicate that hutias were present on the Great Bahama Bank islands before humans arrived at AD ~800–1000; all dates from other islands post-date human arrival. Using ancient DNA from a subset of these fossils, along with modern representatives of Bahamian hutia and related taxa, we develop a fossil-calibrated phylogeny. We found little genetic divergence among individuals from within either the northern or southern Bahamas but discovered a relatively deep North-South divergence (~750 ka). This result, combined with radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence, reveals a pre-human biogeographic divergence, and an unexpected human role in shaping Bahamian hutia diversity and biogeography across islands.
Highlights
The modern diversity and distribution of species are due to both natural factors across geological time, and human activities during the Quaternary
The aim of our study was to determine the role of natural processes versus human activities in shaping past diversity and distribution of the single non-volant mammal species found in the Bahamas, G. ingrahami
Radiocarbon dates indicate that none of the hutia fossils outside of the Great Bahama Bank (GBB) are older than cal AD 1300–1400, which is several centuries after Lucayan arrival in the Bahamas
Summary
The modern diversity and distribution of species are due to both natural factors across geological time, and human activities during the Quaternary. In the West Indies, for example, the record of vertebrates from archaeological (cultural) and paleontological (non-cultural) sites reveals substantial extinction (species-level loss) and extirpation (population-level loss) of species since the late Quaternary. Some of these losses are thought to be related to the major changes in sea level, land area, and climate during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (the PHT; ~15,000 to 9,000 BP6–9). Since European settlement, include Geocapromys columbianus (from Cuba) and G. caymanensis (from the Cayman Islands) Based on morphology, these two extinct species are closely related to the Bahamian hutia[27]. Are the endangered Plagiodontia aedium from Hispaniola and two vulnerable species of Geocapromys, G. brownii endemic to Jamaica, and G. ingrahami, the subject of this paper
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