Extinction of endemic vertebrates on islands: The case of the giant rat Canariomys bravoi (Mammalia, Rodentia) on Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)

Hervé Bocherens (1, 2) , Jacques Michaux (1, 3) , Francisco Garcia Talavera (4) , Johannes van Der Plicht (5, 6)

1 UMR ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier
2 Institute für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters
3 EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études
4 Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre
5 Faculty of Archaeology
6 CIO - Centre for Isotope Research [Groningen]

Fossil bone collagen 14C dating and δ13C and δ15N isotopic measurements of the rodent Canariomys bravoi from Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) were used to test two different hypotheses about the causes of extinctions of endemic vertebrates on islands, climate versus humans. For the Tenerife giant rat, we show that it survived the climatic change that occurred between the Middle and Late Holocene, but not the settlement of humans on the island.

Mots clés: Murinae; Holocene; Climate; Anthropogenic cause; Insular endemism; Extinction; Isotopes; Canary Islands

Hervé Bocherens, Jacques Michaux, Francisco Garcia Talavera, Johannes van Der Plicht. Extinction of endemic vertebrates on islands: The case of the giant rat Canariomys bravoi (Mammalia, Rodentia) on Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). Comptes Rendus. Palevol, 2006, 5 (7), pp.885-891. ⟨10.1016/j.crpv.2006.04.001⟩. ⟨halsde-00339185⟩