Photos Abaco Marks the Spot
Aside from the bats, the only other mammal fossils belonged to a hutia, which is a large rat, and a 10 to 13-year old human found buried in the sinkhole. The individual, who lived on the island around 1,050 years ago, represents the earliest known human occupant of the northern Bahamas. "What's also notable is that, aside from the humans in the later periods, here is an ecosystem where reptiles, rather than mammals, were the big carnivores," Steadman said, adding that preliminary chemical studies reveal the crocodiles on the island were mostly terrestrial, as opposed to aquatic, feeders. Fossils of pine trees, Acacia, Ficus and other woody species indicate the island once consisted of grassy pineland that changed to more of a tropical, dry evergreen forest. The findings appear in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Steadman hopes the new knowledge about locally extinct species may lead to their reintroduction to Abaco in future. Already, the University of Exeter's Peter Mumby and his colleagues have found that a once near-extinct predator, the Nassau grouper, is returning by itself to a coral reef Bahaman ecosystem. "Caribbean reefs are still trying to recover from the devastating effects of an El Nino bleaching event in 1998, which caused widespread damage to coral around the world," Mumby said. In addition to aiding island conservation efforts, Steadman hopes the study will inspire further exploration of accessible limestone blue holes, mostly in tropical areas around the world. He said, "I expect there are other 'treasure chests' full of exquisite fossils that have yet to be discovered and opened." Related Links: |
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