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The Geological Context Of Middle Pleistocene Crater Lake Deposits And Fossil Birds At Ulupau Head, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, Paul Hearty, H. F. James, S. L. Olson

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Pleistocene lake deposits in Ulupau Crater on Oahu contain the oldest fossil bird remains known from the Hawaiian Islands. These fossils are important for documenting evolutionary rates in a variety of lineages of land and water birds from the islands. Detailed stratigraphic analysis reveals distinct cycles of deposition involving interbedded lacustrine deposits, colluvium, and paleosols. The volcanic basin was breached by marine erosion prior to the peak of the last interglaciation (marine isotope stage or ‘MIS’ 5e) over 125 ky ago, constraining the age of the lake sediments to the middle Pleistocene. The three cycles of deposition (Units III, IV, …