Burney David A, Robinson Guy S, Burney Lida Pigott
Department of Biological Sciences, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Sep 16;100(19):10800-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1534700100. Epub 2003 Sep 5.
Fossil spores of the dung fungus Sporormiella spp. in sediment cores from throughout Madagascar provide new information concerning megafaunal extinction and the introduction of livestock. Sporormiella percentages are very high in prehuman southwest Madagascar, but at the site with best stratigraphic resolution the spore declines sharply by approximately 1,720 yr B.P. (radiocarbon years ago). Within a few centuries there is a concomitant rise in microscopic charcoal that probably represents human transformation of the local environment. Reduced megaherbivore biomass in wooded savannas may have resulted in increased plant biomass and more severe fires. Some now-extinct taxa persisted locally for a millennium or more after the inferred megafaunal decline. Sites in closed humid forests of northwest Madagascar and a montane ericoid formation of the central highlands show only low to moderate Sporormiella percentages before humans. A subsequent rise in spore concentrations, thought to be evidence for livestock proliferation, occurs earliest at Amparihibe in the northwest at approximately 1,130 yr B.P.
来自马达加斯加各地沉积物岩芯中的粪生真菌孢子虫属（Sporormiella spp.）化石孢子，为巨型动物灭绝和家畜引入提供了新信息。在马达加斯加西南部人类出现之前，孢子虫属的比例非常高，但在具有最佳地层分辨率的地点，孢子在距今约1720年（放射性碳年前）急剧下降。在几个世纪内，微观木炭随之增加，这可能代表了人类对当地环境的改造。树木繁茂的稀树草原中巨型食草动物生物量的减少，可能导致了植物生物量增加和更严重的火灾。一些现已灭绝的分类群在推断的巨型动物数量下降后的当地持续存在了一千年或更长时间。马达加斯加西北部封闭潮湿森林和中部高地山地欧石南形成区的地点在人类出现之前仅显示出低到中等的孢子虫属比例。孢子浓度随后的上升被认为是家畜繁殖的证据，最早在西北部的安帕里希贝（Amparihibe）出现在距今约1130年。
