6 p. : 2 maps ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 6)."A radiocarbon age determination of 1035 [+ or =] 50 years B.P. is given for a lemuroid bone from the prolific subfossil site at Ampasambazimba, Miarinarivo Province, Malagasy Republic. This is the first absolute date to have been obtained for a central plateau site, and, it is suggested, the most recent yet acquired for the subfossil lemuroids"--P. [1]

Standing, Herbert F.

Tattersall, Ian.

American Museum of Natural History Scientific Publications

A4iuiacMuusseumPUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORYCENTRAL PARK WEST AT 79TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. 10024NUMBER 2520 MAY 17, I973A Note on the Age of the Subfossil Site ofAmpasambazimba, Miarinarivo Province,Malagasy RepublicBY IAN TATTERSALL1ABSTRACTA radiocarbon age determination of 1035 = 50 years B. P. is given for a lemuroidbone from the prolific subfossil site at Ampasambazimba, Miarinarivo Province,Malagasy Republic. This is the first absolute date to have been obtained for acentral plateau site, and, it is suggested, the most recent yet acquired for thesubfossil lemuroids.INTRODUCTIONSubfossil remains of both extant and recently extinct lemuroids havebeen recovered from deposits in the center, south, and southwest of theisland of Madagascar. Certainly the best known, and almost equally cer-tainly the most productive, of all these sites is that of Ampasambazimba.Situated on the island's high central plateau, at an altitude of about 1100meters, the site is, unfortunately, covered today by rice paddies.Discovered in 1902 by Raybaud, a colonial administrator, Ampasam-bazimba has accumulated the largest literature of any Malagasy subfossilsite (e.g. Raybaud, 1902; Jully and Standing, 1904; Grandidier, 1905;Standing, 1908; Fontoynont, 1908; Perrier de la Bathie, 1927; Lenoble,1940; Battistini and Verin, 1967; Walker, MS). The most extensive exca-1 Assistant Curator of Physical Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, theAmerican Museum of Natural History.AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATESvations to have been carried out at the site were those performed between1903 and 1907 by Standing, whose series of reports on Ampasambazimbaand its fauna culminated in his monograph of 1908; later work was carriedout sporadically between 1919 and 1934 by Lamberton (e.g. 1929, 1934).Lemuroids known from the site include the following:EXTINCT LIVINGArchaeoindrisfontoynonti Avahi lanigerPalaeopropithecus maximus Indri indriArchaeolemur edwardsi Propithecus sp.Hadropithecus stenognathus Cheirogaleus sp.Megaladapis grandidieri Lemur sp.Mesopropithecus pithecoides Hapalemur griseusVarecia insignis Lepilemur mustelinusAmpasambazimba lies some 1.5 km. southwest ofthe village ofTsarazaza,Miarinarivo Province (fig. 1). The site is that of a former lake probablycreated by the damming of the River Mazy, to the north of a loop of whichthe fossiliferous deposits lie, by a lava flow; the eventual breaching of thisflow by the river led to the draining of the site to its present marshy con-dition (Standing, 1908; Walker, MS). The sediments laid down during theinfilling of the lake have been characterized by Standing as follows:"To a depth of about 1 metre below the present surface the depositsconsist of recent vegetable remains which rapidly turns to mud on admix-ture with water. This is superposed on a stratum of forest debris, consistingof leaves, twigs, seeds and fruits of numerous species. Below this again alayer of larger branches and tree trunks is frequently encountered . .. thebones begin in general with this layer of wood, though they are occasion-ally met with nearer the surface."In several places the bed of the marsh has been uncovered. It is foundto consist of a compact layer of pebbles cemented together by mineraldeposits ... These pebbles apparently form a nearly horizontal floor aboutthree metres below the present surface."Primate remains are found at all depths" (1908, pp. 63, 65).For a variety of reasons Standing proposed a recent origin for thedeposits, suggesting an age for the fossils of not more than 500 years. Sub-sequent authors have been in general agreement with this estimate, butdespite the fact that absolute dates for several other Malagasy subfossilsites have recently been determined (Mahe, 1965; Mahe and Sourdat,In press), no radiometric age determination has previously been availablefor Ampasambazimba. Recently, however, at my request, Miss TheyaMolleson submitted a tibial diaphysis (BM M 9927) of Megaladapisgrandidieri to J. C. Vogel for radiocarbon dating. The specimen was col-2 NO. 2520TATTERSALL: AMPASAMBAZIMBAFIG. 1. Outline map of the location of Ampasambazimba.lected by Standing during his excavations at Ampasambazimba, andyielded a date (Pta 739) of 1035 i 50 years B. P. Primate subfossils, asStanding noted, were recovered from all depths in the deposit, and thelevel at which BM M 9927 was found is not recorded.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DATEAs previously mentioned, Mahe (1965) and Mahe and Sourdat (Inpress) have provided radiocarbon dates for a number of Malagasy sub-fossil sites (fig. 2). All of these dated sites, however, are situated in thesouth and southwest of the island; Ampasambazimba is the first site to bedated which lies in the high central plateau and within the prehistoriclimit of the distinctive eastern floral zone of Madagascar (fig. 2). Althoughthe area around Ampasambazimba, like most of the plateau, is todayalmost entirely denuded of forest, at the time of deposition of the fossilif-erous sediments the region was covered with rain forest of the type stillcharacteristic of parts of the eastern, windward, side of the island; that31973AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATESN.* Dcated siteso Undated sites° 100 200 500 Km.FIG. 2. Subfossil sites, with dating where available, of Madagascar. The brokenline indicates the westernmost limit of the windward flora, as given by Battistiniand Verin (1967, fig. 1, p. 408)..jL=NO. 25204TATTERSALL: AMPASAMBAZIMBAthis was so is suggested not only by faunal evidence (of those living speciesgiven in the faunal list above, Indri indri and Avahi laniger, in particular,are strongly characteristic of the eastern rain forest of Madagascar), butalso by botanical (Perrier de la Bathie, 1927) and climatological (Battistiniand Verin, 1967) studies.Moreover, despite the fact that Mah6 (1965) and Mah6 and Sourdat(In press) have quoted a date of 980 200 years for the site of Itampolo,it is highly probable that the date for Ampasambazimba represents themost recent reliable date yet obtained for any of the subfossil lemuroids.Mahe and Sourdat have described a section through the site at Itampoloin which they define two fossiliferous layers, one between 60 and 90 cm.depth, and the other between 115 and 125 cm. The earlier date for thissite, 2290 90 years B. P., was obtained from a piece of wood recoveredat a depth of 120 cm., that is, close to the bottom of the lower fossiliferouslayer. But the younger date was obtained on a Hippopotamus bone foundjust below the surface, at a depth of only 15 cm. This is well above the topof the upper fossiliferous horizon. Lemuroid remains are rare at Itampoloin comparison with those of Hippopotamus, the dominant faunal elementat the site, and whether or not the presence of the latter this high in thesection is due to disturbance, it seems at the very least extremely probablethat the date of 980 years considerably postdates the last occurrences oflemuroids at this site.Finally, it is interesting to note that in the upper strata at Ampasam-bazimba there is clear archeological evidence of the contemporaneity ofman with the extinct lemurs. Not only have examples been found of a typeof pottery still in use on the plateau, but Standing (1908, p. 71) recordedthe presence of "coarse earthenware of Chinese manufacture," which heattributed to the influence of Arab traders. This can have found its wayto the site at the most only a few centuries ago, and suggests that the datedbone was recovered considerably lower down in the section. The mostrecent subfossil remains from Ampasambazimba, then, may even datefrom, or from not long before, the time period originally suggestedby Standing.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI am greatly indebted to Dr. J. C. Vogel, National Physical ResearchLaboratory, Pretoria, for performing the radiocarbon dating of BM M9927; to Miss Theya Molleson, Sub-Department of Anthropology, BritishMuseum (Natural History), for making the material available; and toMr. Nicholas Amorosi, Department of Anthropology, the AmericanMuseum of Natural History, who drew the figures.1973 5AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATESLITERATURE CITEDBATTISTINI, RENE, AND PIERRE VERIN1967. Ecologic changes in protohistoric Madagascar. In Martin, P. S., andH. E. Wright, Jr. (eds.), Pleistocene extinctions. New Haven and London,Yale Univ. Press, pp. 407-424.FONTOYNONT, M.1908. Les gisements fossilif&es d'Ampasambazimba (Compte Rendu desfouilles ex&cutees par l'Academie Malgache a Ampasambazimba en1908). Bull. Acad. Malgache (old ser.), vol. 6, pp. 3-8.GRANDIDIER, GUILLAUME1905. Recherches sur les lmuriens disparus et en particulier ceux qui vivaienth Madagascar. Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris (4 ser.), vol. 7,pp. 1-142.JULLY, A., AND HERBERT STANDING1904. Les gisements fossiliferes d'Ampasambazimba. Bull. Acad. Malgache(old ser.), vol. 3, pp. 87-94.LAMBERTON, CHARLES1929. Sur les Archaeoindris de Madagascar. Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci.Paris, vol. 188, pp. 1572-1574.1934. Contribution a la connaissance de la faune subfossile de Madagascar.Lemuriens et Ratites: Archaeoindris, Chiromys, Megaladapis. Mem. Acad.Malgache (new ser.), vol. 17, pp. 1-168.LENOBLE, A.1940. Le massif volcanique d'Itassy. Mem. Acad. Malgache, vol. 32, pp. 1-55.MAHE, JOEL1965. Les subfossiles Malgaches. Tananarive, Imprimerie National, pp. 1-11.MAHE, JOEL, AND M. SOURDAT[In press.] Sur l'extinction des vertebres subfossiles et l'aridification du climatdans le sud-ouest de Madagascar. M6m. Soc. Geol. France.PERRIER DE LA BATHIE, H.1927. Fruits et graines du gisement de subfossiles d'Ampasambazimba. Bull.Acad. Malgache (new ser.), vol. 10, pp. 24-25.RAYBAUD, M.1902. Les gisements fossiliferes d'Ampasambazimba. Bull. Acad. Malgache,(old ser.), vol. 1, pp. 64-66.STANDING, HERBERT F.1908. On recently discovered subfossil primates from Madagascar. Trans.Zool. Soc. London, vol. 18, pp. 69-162.WALKER, A. C.[MS.] Locomotor adaptation in recent and subfossil Madagascan lemurs.London, doctoral thesis, Univ. London, 1967.6 NO. 2520

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