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Abstract
The avifauna from the Glencrieff swamp deposit in North Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand, is described. Radiocarbon ages of moa bones bracket miring at the site to between 10,000 and 12,000 (uncalibrated) years BP. Heavy-footed moa (Pachyornis elephantopus) and eastern moa (Emeus crassus) dominated the moa assemblage at the site, while South Island giant moa (Dinornis robustus) and stout-legged moa (Euryapteryx curtus, formerly E. gravis (in part)) were rare. The total assemblage from the site consists of at least 1896 bones from 18 species of birds, of which nine are extinct and a further three locally extinct. In addition, we report on the discovery of the oldest known moa gizzard contents, the palynology of the Glencrieff deposit and comment on significant recent changes in site preservation conditions that are threatening the continued preservation of this significant fossil deposit.
Acknowledgements
Excavations were supported by funding from the Australian Research Council to Alan Cooper, and the manuscript was prepared under the tenure of an Australian Postgraduate Award (NJR). The 2007 excavation was conducted by I. and M. Dodson, R. Fuller, N. Rawlence, P. Scofield and J. Wood. We are indebted to M. Wilson and the Wilson family for permission to carry out the excavation. We are grateful for the help of Chris Turney, Richard Gillespie, Keith Fifield and Stewart Fallon with collagen preparation and radiocarbon dating. We thank Jeremy Austin, Jessica Metcalf, Maria Zammit and Alan Cooper for advice and editorial help on this manuscript. Finally we thank James Crampton and one anonymous reviewer for peer reviewing this manuscript.