Datasets associated with: Late Holocene spread of pastoralism coincides with endemic megafaunal extinction on Madagascar

Recently expanded estimates for when humans arrived on Madagascar (up to ~10,000 years ago) highlight questions about the causes of the island’s relatively late megafaunal extinctions (~2000-500 years ago). Introduced domesticated animals could have contributed to extinctions, but the arrival times and past diets of exotic animals are poorly known. To conduct the first explicit test of the potential for competition between introduced livestock and extinct endemic megafauna in southern and western Madagascar, we generated new radiocarbon and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from the bone collagen of introduced ungulates (zebu cattle, ovicaprids, and bushpigs, n=66) and endemic megafauna (pygmy hippopotamuses, giant tortoises, and elephant birds, n=68) and combined these data with existing data from endemic megafauna (n=282, including giant lemurs). Radiocarbon dates confirm that introduced and endemic herbivores briefly overlapped chronologically in this region between 1000 and 80...