New Guinea Research Articles

Resonating Between Past and Present: Long-Term History for the Island of New Guinea

The archaeology of the island of New Guinea is ancient and surprising, yet it is highly fragmentary in space and time. Consequently, archaeology provides only local and fleeting glimpses of social life in the distant past. In this review, we consider several key themes, such as initial colonization at least 55,000 years ago, the emergence of agriculture by at least 7,000–6,400 years ago, and social diversification in the last few thousand years. We build our discussions around robust archaeological records that convey a coherent impression of what people were doing in the past. We also highlight the ways in which archaeology can be repurposed to address contemporary issues, including social and environmental problems, and flag how a distinctive New Guinean archaeology could be rooted in a vegecultural conception of social life and time.

A new species of lobe-lipped bat (Chalinolobus: Vespertilionidae) from southern Papua New Guinea

The Hoary Bat Chalinolobus nigrogriseus is the only species of the genus known from the island of New Guinea. A new species of Chalinolobus from Papua New Guinea is described based on DNA sequence and morphological criteria using material previously assigned to C. nigrogriseus. The new species most resembles the eastern Australian subspecies of the Hoary Bat C. n. nigrogriseus in general size and appearance but is easily distinguished by an enlarged, rather than rudimentary lobe at the terminal outer ear margin. The new species might also be confused on external characters with smaller individuals of Australian Gould’s Wattle Bat C. gouldii, from which it differs in having bifid first upper incisors and uniform dark dorsal fur. The inclusion of C. nigrogriseus in the bat fauna of New Guinea is now in doubt, pending a re-assessment of the identity of Chalinolobus specimens in world museum collections. Locality records of all Chalinolobus spp. from Papua New Guinea are reviewed. Most localities are below 60 m elevation in coastal savannah and woodlands. The identity of specimens of C. nigrogriseus and C. gouldii from northern Australia should be reviewed to determine whether the new species also occurs in Australia.

Mangrove management practices, policies, and impacts in New Guinea

Mangrove forests of the island of New Guinea are some of the largest and most diverse in the Asia-Pacific region. Located across Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, these forests are relatively undisturbed compared to the surrounding regions. However, mangroves here face rising pressures by coastal development (aquaculture, agriculture, and settlements) and natural resource extraction (forestry, oil and gas exploration, and unsustainable fishery practices). This study synthesises the current state of mangroves and compares differences in management practices and policies between Indonesian New Guinea and Papua New Guinea. Through a Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework analysis, we found that peripheral or watershed drivers such as logging upstream, agriculture (including oil palm), oil and gas, and mining, could cause substantial pressure on the mangroves. In Indonesia, there are rigid policies and practices regulating each driver. However, overlapping, and contradicting regulations often do not acknowledge other land uses within the same area, which limits policy implementation. Papua New Guinea's coastal regulations encounters similar difficulties, with additional issues of delegating decision making to local administrations. Management practices such as national scale emissions accounting and Integrated Coastal Zone Management plans need to prioritize regulating the peripheral and internal drivers to maintain mangrove ecosystem services. Challenges for implementation include fragmented management, scarce capacity building and lack of data for decision making. Sustained funding for local coordination among managing agencies and data collection is key for a successful mangrove management.

Modelling Land Surface Temperature Variation in New Guinea Island from 2000 to 2019 Using a Cubic Spline Model

Land surface temperature (LST) is a critical indicator variable in climate science. In this study, the variation of LST on the island of New Guinea during 2000 to 2019 was investigated using a cubic spline model and a multivariate regression model. The data were obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer database. This study focused on 90 subregions with 105-pixels of latitude 90 kilometer apart. These subregions were categorized into 10 super-regions. The results showed that the mean change in LST for all 90 subregions was +0.086°C per decade with a confidence interval of (0.028, 0.144)oC. There were five super-regions with a significant mean LST change. LST increased significantly in the central-north, central-south of the island (super-regions B1, C1, and C2 with 0.117°C, 0.162°C, and 0.185°C, respectively) and the southern part of Papua New Guinea (super-region E2 with 0.217°C), whereas it decreased in the middle part of the Indonesian territories (A2 with −0.122°C). The results also showed that LST variation occurs at the subregional level. Climate change mitigation methods are critical for reducing temperature rise and limiting any negative effects on the region.

Systematics and biogeography of a Sunda-Papuan snake lineage (Natricidae: Tropidonophis Jan 1863)

Abstract Sunda-Papuan keelback snakes (Serpentes: Natricidae: Tropidonophis Jan 1863) include 20 species distributed from the Philippines south-east through the Moluccas to New Guinea and Australia. Diversity of this insular snake lineage peaks on the island of New Guinea. Previous phylogenetic studies incorporating Tropidonophis have been limited to multi-locus Sanger-sequenced datasets with broad squamate or family-level focus. We used a targeted-sequence capture approach to sequence thousands of nuclear ultraconserved elements (UCEs) to construct the most comprehensive sequence-based phylogenetic hypothesis for this genus and estimate ancestral biogeography. Phylogenies indicate the genus is monophyletic given recent taxonomic reassignment of Rhabdophis spilogaster to Tropidonophis. All UCE phylogenies recovered a monophyletic Tropidonophis with reciprocally monophyletic Philippine and New Guinean clades. Divergence dating and ancestral range estimation suggest dispersal to New Guinea from the Philippines to have occurred during the Mid-Miocene via the Oceanic Arc Terranes. From Late Miocene into the Pliocene the genus experienced rapid diversification from orogeny of the New Guinean Central Cordillera from Oceanic Arc Terrane accretion on the northern boundary of the Sahul Shelf. Future collecting of missing taxa from the Moluccas and Indonesian Papua will better the understanding of non-volant faunal biogeography and diversification in this tectonically complex Pacific arena.

First record of Protemnodon (Macropodidae: Marsupialia) from Pleistocene lowland New Guinea

An isolated molar from the archaeological deposit of Lachitu Cave (RIQ), on the north coast of Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea represents the first Pleistocene occurrence of the genus Protemnodon below 1700 m on the island of New Guinea. The specimen is identified as a deciduous second lower premolar (dp3) from a juvenile individual. It is distinguished from other New Guinean Protemnodon by its large size, proportions, and some morphological features. The find is the first evidence of New Guinean Protemnodon in Pleistocene coastal lowland rainforest environments and likely represents an undescribed species. Loukas G. Koungoulos [ loukas.koungoulos@anu.edu.au ] Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia; Timothy F. Flannery [ tim.fridtjof.flannery@gmail.com ] Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney 2000, New South Wales, Australia; Sue O’Connor [ sue.oconnor@anu.edu.au ] Archaeology and Natural History, School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

A performance test of archaeological similarity-based network inference using New Guinean ethnographic data

Network analysis has become increasingly common within archaeological practice, yet little consensus exists as to what networks based on material culture actually reveal about ancient social life. One common approach to archaeological network inference relies on constructing similarity networks based on shared material types or stylistic categories between archaeological sites or contexts. Many studies implicitly or explicitly assume that the topology of similarity networks is a useful proxy for underlying patterns in ancient social networks, yet this basic assumption has not been rigorously evaluated. Here, I present a preliminary test of how well network measures inferred from material culture—in this case, bone daggers made on the island of New Guinea between 1845 and 2002—predict network measures derived from ethnographic accounts of social engagement between 1720 New Guinea communities. In this case study network distance partially predicts material similarity, and neighborhood/cluster identification algorithms partially identify similar patterning in underlying patterns of inter-community engagement. However, most commonly applied network measures of centrality are not strongly predicted by material cultural similarity. Similarity based network analysis is a powerful means of visualizing and exploring data, and can help in formulating archaeological hypotheses, but may be problematic as a direct inference procedure.

A taxonomic revision of the Old World genus Dichoteleas Kieffer (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae).

The genus Dichoteleas Kieffer (Scelionidae: Scelioninae) is known only from the Old World: Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Madagascar, southern India, the island of New Guinea, and eastern Australia. After revision, 10 species are recognized. Four species were previously recognized and are redescribed: D.ambositrae Risbec (Madagascar), D.indicus Saraswat (India: Kerala), D.rugosus Kieffer (Australia: Queensland), and D.subcoeruleus Dodd (Australia: Queensland). Six species are described as new: D.fulgidussp. nov. (Indonesia: Papua Barat), D.fuscussp. nov. (Papua New Guinea, Australia: Queensland), D.hamatussp. nov. (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa)., D.rubyaesp. nov. (Madagascar), D.striatussp. nov. (Madagascar), and D.umbrasp. nov. (Tanzania). Dichoteleaspappi Szabó is treated as a junior synonym of D.rugosus. An identification key to species of the genus is provided.

Taxonomic status and distribution of Australian caddisflies (Insecta: Trichoptera)

This review of the status of Australian caddisflies focuses on publications from 1982 to 2022. Information is provided on new species described in that period, new keys, new descriptions of both adults and larvae, and the distribution of families and genera from states/regions and the Northern Territory. Australia’s caddisfly fauna now totals 27 families, 111 genera and 868 species, with 97.9% of species endemic to Australia (only 19 of the 868 species are known from outside Australia, mainly from the nearby island of New Guinea – Papua New Guinea and Papua Province, Indonesia); some species also extend into New Zealand and South-East Asia. The biogeography of the Australian fauna is discussed briefly in terms of “northern” and “southern” faunal elements, faunal provinces, distributional barriers, areas of highest biodiversity and refuge areas. Northern and southern elements in the Australian Trichoptera fauna are indicated. The highest biodiversity is recorded in the following states/regions: New South Wales with 263 species, northern Queensland (N-Qld) with 248 species and Victoria with 247 species. The highest endemicity is in southern Western Australia (S-WA), with 73% endemic species, followed by N-Qld with 58% and Tasmania with 57%. The lowest numbers of species have been recorded from South Australia and S-WA, with 42 and 49 species respectively.

East is east … or is it? Racialization of Asian, Middle Eastern, and Pacific Islander persons.

The conventional use of racial categories in health research naturalizes "race" in problematic ways that ignore how racial categories function in service of a White-dominated racial hierarchy. In many respects, racial labels are based on geographic designations. For instance, "Asians" are from Asia. Yet, this is not always a tenable proposition. For example, Afghanistan resides in South Asia, and shares a border with China and Pakistan. Yet, people from Afghanistan are not considered Asian, but Middle Eastern, by the US Census. Furthermore, people on the west side of the Island of New Guinea are considered Asian, whereas those on the eastern side are considered Pacific Islander. In this article, we discuss the complexity of the racial labels related to people originating from Oceania and Asia, and, more specifically, those groups commonly referred to as Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Asian. We begin with considerations of the aggregation fallacy. Just as the ecological fallacy refers to erroneous inferences about individuals from group data, the aggregation fallacy refers to erroneous inferences about subgroups (eg, Hmong) from group data (ie, all Asian Americans), and how these inferences can contribute to stereotypes such as the "model minority." We also examine how group averages can be influenced merely by the composition of the subgroups, and how these, in turn, can be influenced by social policies. We provide a historical overview of some of the issues facing Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and Asian communities, and conclude with directions for future research.

Brief history of the island of New Guinea (Papua)

Papua Island is divided into two parts, the eastern part of which is within the continental landmass of Australia, and the western part is located within Indonesia. The two departments are governed in many respects by both. Pacific Islands, and New Guinea.

Anthropogenic Disturbance, Not Topographic Dispersal Barriers, Limit Forest and Maintain Madagascar's Derived Savannas

Photo 1. Central Highland grassland (RN7 national road; Isalo district). Levels of grass endemicity in Madagascar are most similar to those of the derived grasslands of the previously forested islands of New Guinea, New Zealand, Japan, and the Mascarenes (Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues). Annual burning of Malagasy treeless grasslands west of the escarpment to support zebu cattle is so intensive that it exposes topsoil and selects a fire-adapted anthropogenic grass assemblage of low palatability, dominated by Loudetia simplex, Schizachyrium sanguineum, and Trachypogon spicatus. This habitat is driven by pastoralism, not topography. Photo credit: Grant Joseph. Photo 2. Critically Endangered Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) in remnant forest at Zombitse, surrounded by anthropogenic grassland. Zombitse is just one of many areas west of the escarpment harboring closed-canopy forests. Over 90% of vertebrates, being predominately forest-adapted, are limited to such areas across Madagascar, despite the fact that almost 80% of the island not under agriculture is now grassland. This evolutionary anomaly is best explained by treeless grasslands having been historically smaller, or ephemeral. Photo credit: Grant Joseph. Photo 3. Despite sharing common ancestry with African Herpestids that have easily evolved to open habitats [e.g., Cynictis penicillata (a); Suricata suricatta (b)], Malagasy Euplerids [e.g., the Endangered Mungotictis decemlineata (c); the Vulnerable and decreasing Cryptoprocta ferox (d)] are forest-adapted. The same is true of all non-arboreal Malagasy mammal lineages, which have failed to evolve into savanna–grassland specialists, suggesting that open habitats have either not been sufficiently stable or sufficiently vast to promote open-habitat adapted species. Photo credit: Colleen Seymour (a); Grant Joseph (b–d). Photo 4. Aside from the remaining subhumid forest patches on the Central Highlands which share many tree species with eastern lowland forest (thus contradicting the proposal of range-pinning), there are multiple canopied, non-savanna systems west of the escarpment, harboring species dependant on woody vegetation. Examples include deciduous forest, e.g., Kirindy Forest, harboring Coua cristata (a); Zombitse Forest, home to the Endangered Lepilemur hubbardorum (b); Tsingy De Bemaraha Forest sustaining Critically Endangered Propithecus deckenii (c), and Spiny Forest, e.g., Raniala Forest, here providing habitat for the Vulnerable and decreasing Furcifer antimena (d). Photo credit: Grant Joseph. Photo 5. Zebu (Bos taurus indicus) cattle number 7 to 10 million head, and form obligate C4 grazing lawns on Madagascar. There is no evidence to date for any Malagasy obligate grazers, past or present. Treeless grazing lawns now occur where paleoecological evidence supports recent existence of C3 forest and woodland tree species, containing subfossils representing extinct herbivores that included a large component of C3 species in their diets. Transformation of these woodlands and forests to grassland, and extirpation of endemic tree-adapted herbivores occurred coeval with the switch from human gathering and hunting to pastoralism and farming. Photo credit: Grant Joseph. These photographs illustrate the article “Dispersal limitation and fire feedbacks maintain mesic savannas in Madagascar: Comment” by Grant S. Joseph and Colleen L. Seymour published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4045

Hearing Durational Process in A Huli Song

Hearing Durational Process in A Huli Song

Observed Upper Deep Branch of the Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulation North of New Guinea

Abstract The deep channel north of New Guinea (NG) is the choke site for the upper deep branches of the Pacific meridional overturning circulation (U-PMOC). The U-PMOC is a crucial element of the ocean’s climate and biogeochemical systems. It carries the mixed water of the Upper Circumpolar Water and North Pacific Deep Water with a potential temperature over 1.2°–2.2°C. The pathway and volume transport of U-PMOC through the deep channel north of NG are revealed by mooring measurements from 2014 to 2019. Mean U-PMOC is located at ∼2000–3500 m with a velocity core at 2550 m and is directed eastward. The U-PMOC shows a strong seasonal variability with a direction reversal from June to September. The oceanic reanalysis product GLORYS12V1 well reproduces the observed U-PMOC and is thus used to estimate the mean and standard deviation of U-PMOC’s volume transport as 2.19 ± 11.4 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) and to explore the underlying dynamics of the U-PMOC. The seasonality of U-PMOC is induced by the vertical propagation of the Rossby energy through the upper ocean in the eastern Pacific to the deep ocean in the western Pacific. The mean eastward U-PMOC transport is forced by the zonal deep pressure gradient, which is mainly determined by the local upper-ocean processes above 500 m.

Ticks of Australasia: 125 species of ticks in and around Australia

The present work is an update and a substantial expansion of Barker & Walker (2014). Barker & Walker (2014) dealt with 16 species of particular importance to domestic animals and humans whereas the present work deals with all 125 of the species known from Australasia; that is Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, Sulawesi, and the islands of the western Pacific. These comprise 102 species of ixodid (hard) ticks and 23 species of argasid (soft) ticks.

Species coexistence by wide constant size spacing

We consider the distribution of fruit pigeons of the genera Ptilinopus and Ducula on the island of New Guinea. Of the 21 species, between six and eight coexist inside humid lowland forests. We conducted or analyzed 31 surveys at 16 different sites, resurveying some sites in different years. The species coexisting at any single site in a single year are a highly nonrandom selection of the species to which that site is geographically accessible. Their sizes are both much more widely spread and more uniformly spaced than in random sets of species drawn from the locally available species pool. We also present a detailed case study of a highly mobile species that has been recorded on every ornithologically explored island in the West Papuan island group west of New Guinea. That species' rareness on just three well-surveyed islands within the group cannot be due to an inability to reach them. Instead, its local status decreases from abundant resident to rare vagrant in parallel with increasing weight proximity of the other resident species.

Spatiotemporal variation in risk of Shigella infection in childhood: a global risk mapping and prediction model using individual participant data

Diarrhoeal disease is a leading cause of childhood illness and death globally, and Shigella is a major aetiological contributor for which a vaccine might soon be available. The primary objective of this study was to model the spatiotemporal variation in paediatric Shigella infection and map its predicted prevalence across low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Individual participant data for Shigella positivity in stool samples were sourced from multiple LMIC-based studies of children aged 59 months or younger. Covariates included household-level and participant-level factors ascertained by study investigators and environmental and hydrometeorological variables extracted from various data products at georeferenced child locations. Multivariate models were fitted and prevalence predictions obtained by syndrome and age stratum. 20 studies from 23 countries (including locations in Central America and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, and south and southeast Asia) contributed 66 563 sample results. Age, symptom status, and study design contributed most to model performance followed by temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, and soil moisture. Probability of Shigella infection exceeded 20% when both precipitation and soil moisture were above average and had a 43% peak in uncomplicated diarrhoea cases at 33°C temperatures, above which it decreased. Compared with unimproved sanitation, improved sanitation decreased the odds of Shigella infection by 19% (odds ratio [OR]=0·81 [95% CI 0·76-0·86]) and open defecation decreased them by 18% (OR=0·82 [0·76-0·88]). The distribution of Shigella is more sensitive to climatological factors, such as temperature, than previously recognised. Conditions in much of sub-Saharan Africa are particularly propitious for Shigella transmission, although hotspots also occur in South America and Central America, the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta, and the island of New Guinea. These findings can inform prioritisation of populations for future vaccine trials and campaigns. NASA, National Institutes of Health-The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Hidden diversity in semi-fossorial Melanesian forest snakes: A revision of the Toxicocalamus loriae complex (Squamata, Elapidae) from New Guinea

With its conservative set of scalation characters, Toxicocalamus loriae is a morphologically confusing species to which a wide array of phenotypes has been assigned. Careful analysis of 224 museum specimens reveals that multiple distinct species remain hidden under the name T. loriae and that diagnostic, species-level differences are more nuanced in this group of snakes than among other members of the genus. Our taxonomic reassessment leads us to resurrect the species T. lamingtonicomb. nov., T. loennbergiicomb. nov., and T. nymanicomb. nov. from synonymy with T. loriae, retain only T. pratti as a synonym, and describe three new species. As a consequence, T. loriae is no longer recognized as ranging throughout the entire island of New Guinea but is instead restricted to the southern versant of the Papuan Peninsula, and T. lamingtoni and T. spilorhynchussp. nov. are species restricted to that same peninsula’s northern versant. Toxicocalamus loennbergii is known only from the type series taken on the Onin Peninsula in West Papua, Indonesia, Toxicocalamus atratussp. nov. is a high-elevation (800–2200 m) Central Highlands endemic, and T. vertebralissp. nov. ranges from the Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea eastward into the Wau area of Morobe Province. Toxicocalamus nymani inhabits a geologically more heterogenous region, occurring from the Central Highlands eastward to the Huon Peninsula, including Karkar Island, and adjacent areas of Madang Province as well as the northernmost reaches of the Papuan Peninsula. We expect that denser geographic sampling across New Guinea and focussed specimen collection of a few known populations will result in the recognition of additional species in this complex.

Melanesia holds the world’s most diverse and intact insular amphibian fauna

Identifying hotspots of biological diversity is a key step in conservation prioritisation. Melanesia—centred on the vast island of New Guinea—is increasingly recognised for its exceptionally species-rich and endemic biota. Here we show that Melanesia has the world’s most diverse insular amphibian fauna, with over 7% of recognised global frog species in less than 0.7% of the world’s land area, and over 97% of species endemic. We further estimate that nearly 200 additional candidate species have been discovered but remain unnamed, pointing to a total fauna in excess of 700 species. Nearly 60% of the Melanesian frog fauna is in a lineage of direct-developing microhylids characterised by smaller distributions than co-occurring frog families, suggesting lineage-specific high beta diversity is a key driver of Melanesian anuran megadiversity. A comprehensive conservation status assessment further highlights geographic concentrations of recently described range-restricted threatened taxa that warrant urgent conservation actions. Nonetheless, by world standards, the Melanesian frog fauna is relatively intact, with 6% of assessed species listed as threatened and no documented extinctions; and thus it provides an unparalleled opportunity to understand and conserve a megadiverse and relatively intact insular biota.

Evolution: The evolutionary rat race in New Guinea and Australia

A new molecular phylogeny of a remarkable radiation of New Guinean and Australian rodents indicates multiple transitions between biomes and biogeographical regions within the group, and suggests that a key role was played by the geological history of New Guinea.