Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Acknowledgments
Part I
Chapter 1. Geography and Geology
Chapter 2. Terrestrial Flora and Fauna
Chapter 3. Human History
Chapter 4. Birds Living and Dead, on Islands and in Museums
Part II
Chapter 5. Melanesia
Chapter 6. West Polynesia
Chapter 7. East Polynesia
Chapter 8. Micronesia and Remote Central Pacific Islands
Part III
Chapter 9. Megapodes
Chapter 10. Rails
Chapter 11. Pigeons and Doves
Chapter 12. Parrots
Chapter 13. Other Nonpasserine Landbirds
Chapter 14. Passerines
Chapter 15. Seabirds
Part IV
Chapter 16. Extinction
Chapter 17. Dispersal, Colonization, and Faunal Attenuation
Chapter 18. Equilibrium and Turnover
Chapter 19. Species-Area Relationships
Chapter 20. Community Ecology
Chapter 21. Conservation Biology
Chapter 22. Conclusions, and Suggestions for Future Research
Appendix
Literature Cited
Index
"When I was a kid, everyone thought that the Pacific Ocean islands had never had many bird species, and that those that had been lost died at the hands of European sailors and their cats, rats and goats. This book shows how wrong we were. The islands once abounded with birds, and their extinction was almost entirely due to the Lapita people. Their ’blitzkrieg’ approach to exploiting natural resources often exterminated most of an island’s larger birds in a century or less. Steadman’s remarkable volume reveals what may have been the greatest vertebrate extinction of modern times."
Biological Sciences: Paleobiology, Geology, and Paleontology | Tropical Biology and Conservation
Earth Sciences: Paleontology
Geography: Environmental Geography
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