00:00.00 S_ Granarius Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of arche animals the show all about zoo archeology and today with you is ah me as always simmona fellanga and with me yeah, and. 00:11.70 ALEX Alex Fitzpatrick 00:34.28 S_ Granarius Well, ah in this episode we're carrying on with our mini seriesies which are we've titled where in the world but we sort of try to deviate a bit from British Zo Archeology which we do tend to fossilize ourselves onto a bit much but ah bear with us. So we we're both ah working British Archaeology um yeah but thanks to these mini seriesies. We've been trying to um, look at various different world regions. Um, and today we'll be covering Oceania. 01:25.50 ALEX Yeah I mean the previous episodes we've kind of broken down and by continent and Oceania isn't really a continent but it is a region which does consist of Australia Asia. Which is Australia New Zealand ah malanesia which includes Fiji vanuatu and Papu New Guinea Micronesia which includes the marshall islands the Caroline islands the Gilbert Islands and the mariana islands. And Polynesia which includes Hawaii Smoa ah rappa nui aka Easter Island and Tonga and we also want to note um, occasionally throughout this episode we will be referring to ah aboriginal dreaming or dream time stories. These terms referred to aboriginal cosmologies and beliefs that often describe how things came into being so they're they're commonly referred to as dreaming or dreamtime stories and that will be peppered in as it's obviously extremely important to. Discussing animals in this region. 03:58.30 S_ Granarius Certain and the relationship they and they had with its inhabitants. Um. 03:56.18 ALEX Ah, of course. Yeah, so guess we will start as always. 04:18.00 S_ Granarius Yes, So I guess um, um, yes, because in for the None part of the show. We'll be covering ah the wild taxa that ah native to this region and then we're going to be moving on to domesticated species and. Right? at the end in the None instalment as always will be covering our case. Studies. 04:53.32 ALEX Yeah, so we might as well start off with some of the wild species that are native to this region and we will start off with the North Island brown kiwi 05:30.42 S_ Granarius Uprics Month leave I'm not even being prompted now I'm just doing it. 05:25.20 ALEX I wasn't I wasn't sure if you were stumped there. There's some ah some difficult ones in this episode from what I can see. So yeah, who but yeah. 05:55.44 S_ Granarius Um, ah, test me. 06:01.10 ALEX So it's a subspecies of the kiwi the North Island brown kiwi is well unsurprisingly found on the North Island of New Zealand however Ancient Dna research has shown that they were actually ones much more widespread throughout New Zealand in addition a Dna work or ancient Dna work undertaken in 2011 on over 100 kahu kiwi which are cloaks that are made out of kiwi feathers are worn primarily by Mayaui leaders. Ah, the adna work actually indicated that they were predominantly made using north island brown kiwi feathers which has been interpreted to mean that it was likely the North Island of New Zealand was probably an area with substantial coquet kiwi production. Should also be noted because it's it's a nice, fun fact that apparently the North Island brown kiwi holds the record for the largest egg laid in proportion to its size and that makes my body hurt just thinking about it. 08:35.90 S_ Granarius It up that that's just me when I've had too much. Food isn't it. 08:29.83 ALEX Iss very tiny. The the kiwi is a very tiny bird and then you look at the egg and you're like oh boy my goodness. But yeah, Noah and also the ad andna work is really interesting. The idea it's something that I've always been really interested in. Um, and I've had some potential projects in the ah the backburner in terms of using ad work and Zoom ah zoos which is as zooar galli g by mass pitrometry. Sorry about that forgot for a none we've talked about these two techniques before in the past as a very kind of more common nowadays scientific approaches to zooareology and looking at species identification but I'm really interested in that. Using that on things that are you know in collections in museums that are we we definitely know our from animal remains but maybe aren't necessarily sure of the species. So. It's cool that they were able to identify it down to subspecies. 10:52.14 S_ Granarius Well yeah, absolutely because it's something that you just would not be able to do like you can use all the morphology and the biometry in the world. But for certain things you have to use a Dna um. 11:08.12 ALEX Yeah, especially with feathers I mean it's really cool and yeah so I think maybe we'll move on from little kiwi birds to something maybe a bit more iconic. 11:44.80 S_ Granarius To oh absolutely iconic I mean um on ah arguably I mean there was I guess one of the symbols of Australia um, just the queensland koala. So. 11:48.68 ALEX Arguably. 11:59.78 ALEX Just yeah. 12:21.10 S_ Granarius Fascoarto Chi Geneio saddusus so um the so the queensland koala is found throughout eastern and Southern Australia um and a course you know it is one of the most iconic. 12:15.16 ALEX Wow I Thought you were gonna get tripped up by that one. 12:55.60 S_ Granarius Australian mammals are perhaps only second to kangaroos um, but ah, you know while they're very popular today I mean they have always been prevalent within within indigenous australian culture and occasionally featured featured indigenous art and iconography. Fun fact. Um, they are often referred to as koala bears except bears they are not and they are in fact marsupials and now because ah, um, um, because I am very very keen on fun facts today. They also have the smallest brains in proportion to their bodies. 13:56.48 ALEX The mood relatable. 14:14.42 S_ Granarius If you want to go down the fun fact Road I Believe they also like so only feed on eucalyptus leaves. 14:19.38 ALEX Who igmud. 14:34.46 S_ Granarius But it I mean then not not me i'd'd rather not feed solely on on eucalyptus leaves. Um, but yeah I get guess one of the most interesting recent uses of Koala remain sort of like go going back to the Archaeology. Um, has been in genomics Research. It's I think Koalaskins in museum collections sort of like tying into what you were talking about earlier. 15:01.22 ALEX Further. 15:31.58 S_ Granarius And this allowed scientists to recreate the evolution of particular retrovirus that may be potentially damaging to Koala populations today. 15:39.60 ALEX Yeah, it's really interesting research I think this episode has a lot of interesting, genetic and adna research that we'll be talking about and. It's Also it's also nice to have an example I don't think we get to talk about it a lot but there are a lot of examples of archaeology and zoo archeology being used and applied to more present day issues. Especially when it comes to archaeology with conservation. 16:51.72 S_ Granarius Well that that's exactly what I was going to say because we is um, clearly very interesting to learn about the past and past the human animal interactions. Clearly we wouldn't be here otherwise to be able to produce a piece of research that can actually have a positive impact. And um, the epology of a certain species that that's just the big plus isn't it. 17:31.80 ALEX Yeah, definitely and I think we'll moved on to the next one which is I think someone is very interested in hearing or potentially talking about the platypus. 18:17.74 S_ Granarius Ormitorinus anatinus. 18:15.72 ALEX It's mostly found in Eastern Australia and it's also possibly most known for being one of 5 mammalian species that can lay eggs the other 4 being various inkinna species. Now. There's one aboriginal dreamtime story which describes how the platypus originates from a duck which was abducted by a water rat and eventually gave birth to Platypuss Plater Platy Platypusa Platypus plapuses via egg. Another dreamtime story describes how the platypus in being asked by the birds the marsupials and the fish to join their respective families declines all of them as it wants to remain friends with all of them as it shares traits with each group and these are such great stories. It's so. Instructive of a platypus because yeah, a plapus is kind of it's all those things in that. 20:24.72 S_ Granarius Can we just stop about her for a minute and think how wild that is because it's still like cause I've known that a platypus where a viporus like for for a long time but he's just. 20:24.78 ALEX Um. 20:55.16 S_ Granarius Just something you can't quite wrap your head around like a mammal that lays eggs in like a but war our nature. 20:54.16 ALEX And it's it and it's like a duck but it's also like a little rodent. What? so. 21:16.38 S_ Granarius Yeah, great and also yeah and I do like ah but the dream time stories like especially so the last one but like the platypus just wants to get along with everyone so he won't choose great. 21:33.30 ALEX Yeah, it's very. It's very Sweet. So ah, maybe not slightly not as sweet. Maybe but it's still important to talk about how the platypus was also important because it provided a lot of nutrients for aboriginal peoples who did hunt the platypus. For food as their tails are actually particularly very fatty. But unfortunately once European colonial settlers arrived. They were mostly hunted for their fur by the Europeans and yeah. And unfortunately to make matters worse as colonial error Science Natural Science progressed many of these platypus were also captured and killed for dissection of their reproductive systems because obviously that was. Extremely intriguing to the Europeans and as well as they were captured for their eggs and unfortunately that will be another bit of a through lie in this episode with regards to colonial science kind of W wrecking a bit of ah havoc in the. Australian and ah larger oceanic regions. 24:15.40 S_ Granarius Yeah to to to move from that. The sad sad state of affairs we have another fun fact of that. It's not that fun really from a a producer Tristan who's ah whispering from the sightlines. 24:33.22 ALEX Um. 24:45.24 S_ Granarius That the platypus is also one of the few living mammals to produce venom. 24:44.46 ALEX The other mammal being me. 25:04.44 S_ Granarius But but. Um, and we'll move back to iconic australian mammals. Ah, and this time you know we've we've covered the koala and of course we felt like we had to cover the red kangaroo. Ahsrante of Rufus um, just to make you like sure if you know it's the red one rufus the right one which is the largest kangaroo the largest australian terrestririan mammal and the largest existing marsupial. So ah, yes, much look. Ah the koala. 25:53.64 ALEX This this is business. 26:31.80 S_ Granarius The icon of Australia a peasant day. The red kangaroo is found throughout western and central australia and interestingly one of the most important archaeological contributions that red Kangaroo have made are modern ones through not ad and a this time. But. Isotopic analysis of modern kangaroo and wallaby populations. Archaeologists have actually been able to identify um correlations between the isotopic variability and ecological change which can then be applied and reuse to recreate australian paleo environments. 27:33.12 ALEX Yeah, lot of science in this episode for Sure. It's ah, really interesting and I guess it's also there's ah so much biodiversity and very specific types of species in the oceanic region that I guess is not surprising that. There's a lot of really interesting science going on. 28:28.44 S_ Granarius Yeah, if you don't hear me talking. It's just as my brain is melting from all the science. 28:20.40 ALEX And is a bit hot. Is it? Oh it's oh from the science is also a bit hot. Um, so I will continue to bring down the mood then with our final example which I feel like. 28:57.84 S_ Granarius Ah. 28:56.18 ALEX We had to talk about because it's very important even if it's very sad and it's the thylacine. 29:17.30 S_ Granarius So Selachinos Chino chaalus 29:13.36 ALEX So probably the icon we were talking about icons this episode and sadly the thylacine is probably the icon for humanin influenced extinctions. The thylacine was the largest marsupial carnivore prior to. Its untimely extinction in about one thirty six it was found widely throughout Australia and Tasmania at one point but eventually it was horrifically vilified by european settlers who claimed that the thyacine were killing their sheep and their livestock. So between this kind of vilification and the desire by now they they didn't yeah um, why would they lie anyway. So between that kind of vilification and the desire. 30:38.00 S_ Granarius Spoiler I I didn't. 30:58.32 ALEX By natural history and zoo archaeological not zoarch al well sorry zooological garden collectors. You know the the precursors to the modern day zoos to have the specimens of their own bounties made the capture and or killing of thylacines a pretty lucrative business. So there were bounties also put for just killing Thylacine because again there was this propaganda that they were killing sheep and livestock now. The last thylacine was a captive named Benjamin held at the hobart zoo in Tasmania who sadly died in 1 36 but there's still alleged sightings of thylacines in the wild. Although none of them have really been confirmed. So maybe they're out there. We don't know for sad. 32:44.26 S_ Granarius I mean hopefully but I think is one of those things that it's ah it's better to think about. It's better to think that in spite of all sort of the oppression and slaughter of this beautiful animal or but maybe it survived and it's still out. There is probably a much better thought to. 32:50.46 ALEX Yeah. 33:22.96 S_ Granarius Reconcile with than no, we have obliterated this animal. You know. 33:20.52 ALEX Yeah I know that occasionally hot shots will post like massive bounties for evidence of a thylacine and you know, um, we will cover this in the next part but there is a species that looks a bit. Similar to the thylaccene that a lot of these sightings tend to be. But yeah I Guess there's a lot of lot of hope and optimism. Maybe that? Ah, they've escaped this horrible fate and they're just chilling as far away from humans as possible which I don't blame them and ah. 34:37.17 S_ Granarius Think it just not a bad thing to do I mean I would. 34:30.68 ALEX With that extremely. Yeah, so with that extremely depressing thought I think we'll take a break and we'll we'll we'll hopefully chip ah get get bit chipper again and start our next section after this.