Analisis Sisa Gajah Dari Kecamatan Tamban, Kabupaten Batola (Kalimantan Selatan): Suatu Pengumuman

Dalam tahun 1987 Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasio­nal diminta untuk mengoreksi suatu temuan yang baru dilakukan oleh Bidang Permuseuman Sejarah dan Purba­kala Kantor Wilayah Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebu­dayaan Propinsi Kalimantan Selatan. Penemuan tersebut dituangkan dalam sebuah laporan yang dilengkapi dengan beberapa buah foto dan denah lokasi penemuan. Di da­lam laporan itu diinformasikan bahwa berdasarkan ukur­an tulang yang besar-besar, tim yang bersangkutan me­nyatakan bahwa sisa-sisa binatang fosil yang ditemukan itu berasal dari suatu individu yang disebut sebagai go­rila. Setelah dilakukan pengamatan terhadap foto-foto yang dilampirkan, Pusat Penelitian Arkeologi Nasional mengidentifikasikan sebagai salah satu individu Bangsa Proboscidea (Bangsa berbelalai atau gajah)

Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution and Extinction of the Largest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae)

BACKGROUND: The largest living lizard species, Varanus komodoensis Ouwens 1912, is vulnerable to extinction, being restricted to a few isolated islands in eastern Indonesia, between Java and Australia, where it is the dominant terrestrial carnivore. Understanding how large-bodied varanids responded to past environmental change underpins long-term management of V. komodoensis populations. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We reconstruct the palaeobiogeography of Neogene giant varanids and identify a new (unnamed) species from the island of Timor. Our data reject the long-held perception that V. komodoensis became a giant because of insular evolution or as a specialist hunter of pygmy Stegodon. Phyletic giantism, coupled with a westward dispersal from mainland Australia, provides the most parsimonious explanation for the palaeodistribution of V. komodoensis and the newly identified species of giant varanid from Timor. Pliocene giant varanid fossils from Australia are morphologically referable to V. komodoensis suggesting an ultimate origin for V. komodoensis on mainland Australia (>3.8 million years ago). Varanus komodoensis body size has remained stable over the last 900,000 years (ka) on Flores, a time marked by major faunal turnovers, extinction of the island's megafauna, the arrival of early hominids by 880 ka, co-existence with Homo floresiensis, and the arrival of modern humans by 10 ka. Within the last 2000 years their populations have contracted severely. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Giant varanids were once a ubiquitous part of Subcontinental Eurasian and Australasian faunas during the Neogene. Extinction played a pivotal role in the reduction of their ranges and diversity throughout the late Quaternary, leaving only V. komodoensis as an isolated long-term survivor. The events over the last two millennia now threaten its future survival

The effect of area and isolation on insular dwarf proboscideans

Aim We investigated the hypothesis that insular body size of fossil elephants is directly related to isolation and surface area of the focal islands. Location Palaeo-islands worldwide. Methods We assembled data on the geographical characteristics (area and isolation) of islands and body size evolution of palaeo-insular species for 22 insular species of fossil elephants across 17 islands. Results Our results support the generality of the island rule in the sense that all but one of the elephants experienced dwarfism on islands. The smallest islands generally harbour the smallest elephants. We found no support for the hypothesis that body size of elephants declines with island isolation. Body size is weakly and positively correlated with island area for proboscideans as a whole, but more strongly correlated for Stegodontidae when considered separately. Average body size decrease is much higher when competitors are present. Main conclusions Body size in insular elephants is not significantly correlated with the isolation of an island. Surface area, however, is a significant predictor of body size. The correlation is positive but relatively weak; c. 23% of the variation is explained by surface area. Body size variation seems most strongly influenced by ecological interactions with competitors, possibly followed by time in isolation. Elephants exhibited far more extreme cases of dwarfism than extant insular mammals, which is consistent with the substantially more extended period of deep geological time that the selective pressures could act on these insular populations

An integrative geochronological framework for the pleistocene So'a basin (Flores, Indonesia), and its implications for faunal turnover and hominin arrival

Flores represents a unique insular environment with an extensive record of Pleistocene fossil remains and stone artefacts. In the So\u27a Basin of central Flores these include endemic Stegodon, Komodo dragons, giant tortoises, rats, birds and hominins, and lithic artefacts that can be traced back to at least one million years ago (1 Ma). This comprehensive review presents important new data regarding the dating and faunal sequence of the So\u27a Basin, including the site of Mata Menge where Homo floresiensis-like fossils dating to approximately 0.7 Ma were discovered in 2014. By chemical fingerprinting key silicic tephra originating from local and distal eruptive sources we have now established basin-wide tephrostratigraphic correlations, and, together with new numerical ages, present an update of the chronostratigraphy of the So\u27a Basin, with major implications for the faunal sequence. These results show that a giant tortoise and the diminutive proboscidean Stegodon sondaari last occurred at the site of Tangi Talo ∼1.3 Ma, and not 0.9 Ma as previously thought. We also present new data suggesting that the disappearance of giant tortoise and S. sondaari from the sedimentary record occurred before, and/or was coincident with, the earliest hominin arrival, as evidenced by the first records of lithic artefacts occurring directly below the 1 Ma Wolo Sege Tephra. Artefacts become common in the younger layers, associated with a distinct fauna characterized by the medium-sized Stegodon florensis and giant rat Hooijeromys nusatenggara. Furthermore, we describe a newly discovered terrace fill, which extends the faunal record of Stegodon in the So\u27a Basin to the Late Pleistocene. Our evidence also suggests that the paleoenvironment of the So\u27a Basin became drier around the time of the observed faunal transition and arrival of hominins on the island, which could be related to an astronomically-forced climate response at the onset of the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT; ∼1.25 Ma) leading to increased aridity and monsoonal intensity

LUKISAN DINDING GUA DI PULAU MUNA, SULAWESI TENGGARA : IDENTIFIKASI JENIS HEWAN

Penelitian ini memberikan gambaran tentang lukisan yang ada di dinding Gua Pulau Muna. Berdasarkan hasil observasi, penelitian data pustaka serta analisis kualitatif, kuantitatif dan analogi. Diketahui bahwa terdapat beberapa jenis hewan yang di lukis di dinding gua-gua Pulau Muna, seperti musang, rusa, anjing, kuda, kucing, ular, lipan, buaya, babi. Kemudian berdasarkan kajian yang dilakukan dengan terhadap data sejarah diperkirakan bahwa usia relatif lukisan dinding gua di Pulau Muna di buat sekitar abad XIII M dan mungkin lebih muda lagi

Figure 7 in A new species of giant marabou stork (Aves: Ciconiiformes) from the Pleistocene of Liang Bua, Flores (Indonesia)

Figure 7. Leptoptilos robustus sp. nov., left femur (LBA-XI-03). A, caudal view; B, cranial view. Abbreviations: cl, condylus lateralis; cm, condylus medialis; ct, crista trochanteris; faa, facies articularis antitrochanterica; fcd, facies caudalis; fcr, facies cranialis; fp, fossa poplitea; ii, incisura intercondylaris; licd, linea intermuscularis caudalis; licr, linea intermuscularis cranialis; pf, pneumatic foramen; sp, sulcus patellaris; tf, trochanter femoris; tfi, trochlea fibularis. Scale bar = 50 mm. Photographs by E. Kruidenier.Published as part of Meijer, Hanneke J.M. & Due, Rokus Awe, 2010, A new species of giant marabou stork (Aves: Ciconiiformes) from the Pleistocene of Liang Bua, Flores (Indonesia), pp. 707-724 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 160 (4) on page 715, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00616.x, http://zenodo.org/record/575749