Thor Heyerdahl's Legacy: Ichthyological and Herpetological Collection on Fatu Hiva (Marquesas Islands) in 19371

This paper addresses Thor Heyerdahl’s skull-collecting act on Fatu Hiva in 1937 by approaching it from its historical context. Particular attention is paid to craniology as a scientific method, its purpose and the strong belief in its reliability during this period. It is also argued that the use of unauthorised collecting of human remains in contemporary travelogues, as elements of literary suspense and vehicles for the protagonist’s bravery, shows that the practice was largely socially accepted. Skull-collecting was viewed by the collector, from the perspective of a conservative world view, as a heroic act of protection and preservation.

Research Article| October 01 2016 Trouble in Paradise: Revising Identity in Two Texts by Thor Heyerdahl Jenna Coughlin Jenna Coughlin University of California, Berkeley Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scandinavian Studies (2016) 88 (3): 246–269. https://doi.org/10.5406/scanstud.88.3.0246 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Jenna Coughlin; Trouble in Paradise: Revising Identity in Two Texts by Thor Heyerdahl. Scandinavian Studies 1 January 2016; 88 (3): 246–269. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/scanstud.88.3.0246 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressScandinavian Studies Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2017 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2017 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Predicting the distribution of alien species in areas not yet reached or where the species are still found in low abundance is crucial for implementing timely management strategies. Miconia calvescens has become one of the worst plant invaders in the Pacific including in the Society Islands (French Polynesia), the Hawaiian Islands, and tropical Australia. The species has been recently introduced to the Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia) where it started to spread. In this study, we aimed at predicting the potential distribution of Miconia across this archipelago. MAXENT modelling based on ∼3,000 occurrence records from the native and introduced ranges of the species was used to predict its equilibrium distribution. Two types of environmental variables acting at different scales were considered: (1) climate variables at a 1km scale for predicting the invasion risk over still Miconia-free Marquesan islands; and (2) topographic variables at a 10 m scale for refining prospections and guiding management strategies on the islands of Nuku Hiva and Fatu Hiva where Miconia currently occupies ∼0.01% of the surface. Results differed substantially according to the origin of inputted occurrence records but models generally indicated that Miconia has the potential to spread over all inhabited Marquesan islands and over half of Nuku Hiva and a third of Fatu Hiva. Our approach provides valuable information for stakeholders to prevent future outbreaks. Without strong biosecurity measures, an early warning system, and appropriate control strategies in areas where it is already naturalized, Miconia could become a great threat to the outstanding biodiversity of the Marquesas Islands.

On 13 September 1999, a local tsunami, comprising two waves separated by a few minutes, hit the village of Omoa, on the island of Fatu Hiva, French Polynesia. It inflicted serious damages to structures built close to the seashore, in particular to the local elementary school. The tsunami was generated by the collapse of a basaltic cliff, located 3 km to the southeast of Omoa, along the coastline. The volume of the landslide is estimated to range from 2 to 5 million m3, of which 60 % fell into the sea. A preliminary simulation of the tsunami provides an acceptable explanation of wave amplitudes, as well as an estimate of the origin time of landslide.

LONDON. Geological Society, April 18.—G. H. Mitchell: The succession and structure of the Borrowdale Volcanic Series in Troutbeek, Kentmere, and the Western Part of Long Sleddale (Westmorland). The area lies in the eastern part of the Lake District south of the High Street range. It is drained by the Rivers Sprint, Kent, and Trout Beck, all of which flow in a southward direction. Nine subdivisions are recognised in the rocks described. They have been subjected to severe earth movements. Two systems of folding are recognised, an earlier one of pre-Bala age and a later one of Devonian age. The former system, of simple character, shows axes trending in a north-northeasterly and south-south-westerly direction. In the latter the folding was intense, with an east-northeasterly and west-south-westerly strike, while the pitch of the folds was determined by the folds of pre-Bala date. The rocks are steeply folded in the south-east of the area, and the folds are even overturned to the north. Northwards the folding is less severe, and is marked by the presence of a broad anticlinal fold. No faulting of earlier date has been recognised. The rocks are strongly cleaved, the strike of the cleavage coinciding with that of the Devonian folding.—L. J. Chubb: The geology of the Marquesas Islands (Central Pacific). The Marquesas Islands, with one doubtful exception, are of volcanic origin. The southernmost, Fatu Hiva, consists of a caldera composed chiefly of lava-flows, within which an ashcone has been built up. The western half of the whole structure has disappeared, apparently owing to submergence by faulting. Motane is a small ash island. Tahuata is larger, and it also is composed chiefly of ashes in its northern part; its south-eastern side has been faulted down. In Hiva Oa there are three great craters in the western part, some of the coasts are faulted, and there is an elevated plateau at a height of 1300 to 1500 feet above sea-level. Nuka Hiva has a structure similar to that of Fatu Hiva, and it bears a plateau at an elevation of 2600 feet. It is considered that the group is situated, not on a crustal fold, but on a system of intersecting fissures. Elevation has occurred followed by subsidence. All the islands are surrounded by a shoreshelf, now standing, owing to a recent fall in sealevel, 3 or 4 feet above high-water mark. The poor development of coral-reefs in the group is due chiefly to periodic chilling of the water by extensions of the cold Peruvian Current, connected with cyclic climatic changes.

Spatial and temporal variability in Marquesas Islands volcanism revealed by 3He/4He and the composition of olivine-hosted melt inclusions

Introduction to Botany of the Marquesas Islands: new taxa and combinations papers

Evidence for a primitive deep mantle component in the source of Marquesas Islands Lavas from Os isotope and highly siderophile element abundance systematics

Pseudojuloides pluto, new species, is described on the basis of the holotype and 11 paratypes from Wake Island, northeastern Micronesia, and nine paratypes from the Maug Islands, Northern Mariana Islands. The new species has previously been confused with Pseudojuloides atavai, but molecular analysis of mitochondrial COI reveals a difference of 6.8% in sequence data between both species, in addition to differences in meristic, morphometric, and coloration details. A second new species, Pseudojuloides proserpina, is described from Fatu Hiva, Marquesan Islands on the basis of the male holotype. The two new species are closely allied to Pseudojuloides atavai, and together form a species complex that differs from other members of the genus in having males that share the following combination of characters: interspinous membrane between the anterior two to three spines of the dorsal fin with a black spot; head extensively reticulate (reduced in P. pluto, new species); dorsal-fin base with a pink stripe; abdominal region behind pectoral and pelvic fins pale lilac to orangey pink (width of this region dependent on species) with a crosshatch or honeycomb pattern; and extensive black coloration over at least posterior half of body. Additionally, females of both P. atavai and P. pluto, new species, are distinctly bicolored (versus unicolored and suffused in all other congeneric species). Although the female form of P. proserpina, new species, is not known, it is likely that it shares this general coloration pattern, which may serve as an additional character uniting members of the Pseudojuloides atavai complex. We briefly discuss the phylogenetic relationships of Pseudojuloides inferred on the basis of mitochondrial DNA.

During 1998, five episodes of elevated chlorophyll concentration are observed in the Pacific around the Marquesas Islands (140°W, 10°S) in SeaWiFS ocean color observations. Daily positions of geostationary satellite sea surface temperature fronts reveal the influence of the westward propagating tropical instability waves as narrow temperature fronts that extend far to the south of the equator and intersect the nutrient rich waters of the Marquesas. Because the upwelled equatorial waters are rich in iron, phytoplankton blooms are produced and are advected downstream by the South Equatorial Current. Previous studies attributed the blooms to local sources of iron and the interaction of the Marquesas with the South Equatorial Current. The satellite observations suggest that the currents that produced the phytoplankton blooms may have diverted the Kon‐Tiki southward in 1947 as described by Thor Heyerdahl.

In 1991 a survey was conducted in the Marquesas Islands to determine the current range and population size of the Ultramarine Lory Vini ultramarina. A total of 313 birds were counted, restricted to one island, Ua Huka. A translocation program was initiated to capture and relocate birds to a less disturbed island. Fatu Hiva, an island within the historical range of the species, was chosen to establish a second population. This island still supports suitable habitat and does not have a resident population of Rattus rattus, which may have contributed to the decline of the species on Nuka Hiva and Ua Pou. Increased agriculture, grazing herbivores, bees, and banana plant disease may have also contributed to the decline.

In this paper Thor Heyerdahl's early attempts at ethnography and his first contact with Polynesian archaeology are discussed. It is argued that Heyerdahl, prior to his first Pacific expedition to the Marquesas Islands in 1937, carried with him a romanticized perception of the Polynesian people, imagining them to be the last living ‘natural men’. This perception was shattered during his expedition, and the disappointing contrast between the imagined reality and the lived reality led Heyerdahl to separate the contemporary Polynesian population from the Polynesian archaeological record. It is further argued that this separation between contemporary Polynesians and the Polynesian archaeological record would form the foundation for the dual migration wave hypothesis Heyerdahl later launched with his ‘Kon-Tiki theory’.

The short-lived radiogenic 182Hf/182W (t½ = 9 Ma) and 146Sm/142Nd (t½ = 103 Ma) systems are useful tools to investigate differentiation processes in Earth's early history. Mantle reservoirs that have been preserved over long geological timescales could carry signatures formed early on in Earth's history and later could act as sources to modern mantle plumes. Negative μ182W anomalies in combination with high 3He/4He ratios have been detected globally as differently sloping negative trends in plume-derived ocean island basalts (OIB) from individual hotspots. Large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVP) and ultra-low velocity zones (ULVZ) are seismically anomalous regions in the lower mantle that have been suggested as sources of primordial mantle components near the core-mantle boundary (CMB) and accessed by deep-rooted mantle plumes.In this work, seven samples from the islands Hiva Oa and Fatu Hiva of the Marquesas Archipelago, showing a range in 3He/4He ratios, have been investigated motivated by its location above the Pacific LLSVP and a recently discovered “mega-ULVZ”. Despite elevated 3He/4He ratios of up to 14.4 R/RA, new high precision measurements using thermal ionization mass spectrometry revealed non-anomalous μ182W (−0.9 ± 4.9 ppm) and μ142Nd (1.3 ± 2.4 ppm, 95% confidence interval (c.i.)). These mark the Marquesas Archipelago as the first hotspot to show a decoupling of 3He/4He ratios and μ182W in OIB. A mixing model between an elevated 3He/4He-negative-μ182W and an EM2 or a HIMU endmember suggest that the addition of recycled material is not responsible for this decoupling. Instead, like many previously studied OIB, the Marquesas plume is most likely dominated by an LLSVP component proposed to contain high 3He/4He ratios and μ182W of 0. The unique observed absence of negative μ182W anomalies, on the other hand, implies a lack of involvement of the ULVZ source in the plume's melting region, despite the hotspot being located above a recently discovered mega-ULVZ. This may imply that the expression of ancient mantle domains in hotspot geochemistry is temporally variable, thus, delaying the arrival or involvement of ULVZ material in the origin of the Marquesas OIB.

Young Marquesas volcanism finally located

SummaryThis paper documents the catastrophic decline of the ‘Critically Endangered’ Fatu Hiva Monarch Pomarea whitneyi since 2000 and presents population dynamics and conservation actions for the species between 2008 and 2017. The Fatu Hiva Monarch conservation programme has prevented the extinction of the species thus far. However, after an initial increase in the population size within the management area between 2008 and 2012, recruitment subsequently declined. Improvements in the method of trapping to control cats in 2016 and 2017 coincided with encouraging results in terms of juvenile monarch survival rates, although two adult birds disappeared during the same period. The initial hypothesis, that the population would recover once the main threat, black (or ship) rat Rates Rattus predation, was effectively controlled in the breeding territories, has not proved to be correct. An alternative hypothesis assumes that cat predation, mainly on young birds, is limiting monarch recovery. Control of feral cats has been undertaken since 2010, but the implementation of a new trapping method (leg-hold traps) combined with a significant increase in cat trapping effort, has coincided with an increase in the number of cats culled, as well as monarch post-fledging survival in 2016 and 2017. For the first time in the project, no mortality has been observed for monarch chicks, fledged juveniles or immature birds. If this alternative hypothesis holds, we would expect to recruit young birds into the monarch population in the next year or two. First, this will reduce the likelihood that the Fatu Hiva Monarch will become extinct and second, provide a source population to either repopulate the island following the eradication of rats and cats or to translocate birds to a rat and cat free island.