published 10 Dec. 2013 © Verlag Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, 2013 Paleornithological Research 2013 Proceed. 8 th Internat. Meeting Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution Ursula B. Göhlich & Andreas Kroh (Eds) – 195 – Introduction The Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues are situated in the south-western Indian Ocean (Fig. 1). Despite their compara- tively close proximity to each other, each island differs topographically and the islands have gen- erally distinct avifaunas. The Mascarenes were the last major group of islands to be colonised by humans, so remained in a comparatively pristine state into the era of written history. Arab traders were aware of them from at least the 13 th cen- tury and the Portuguese in the early 16 th century (North-Coombes 1980, 1994a; hall 1996), but as far as known no attempt at settlement was made by either. It was with the chance discov- ery by a Dutch East India Company (VOC) feet under Vice-Admiral Wybrandt Warwijck in September 1598, who claimed Mauritius for the Netherlands, that the documented history of the Mascarenes began (moree 1998; Cheke & hume 2008). The endemic fauna was sketch- ily described or illustrated in ships’ logs and journals, which became the source material for popular articles and books and, along with col- lected specimens, enabled monographs such as that by striCklaNd & melville (1848) on the dodo Raphus cucullatus (liNNaeus, 1766) to be produced. striCklaNd and melville based their osteological analysis on the surviving rem- nants of a dodo once exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and a dodo foot preserved in the British Museum in London (hume et al. 2006). For the next two centuries, the islands’ ecosystems were irreversibly destroyed due to anthropogenic activities, which resulted in the extinction of the majority of endemic vertebrates (Cheke & hume 2008). The discovery of subfos- sil material in 1786 on Rodrigues (although the frst major discovery was not made until 1865), in 1865 on Mauritius and in the late 20 th century on Réunion resulted in the description of new avian fossil taxa and also provided some corroboration with species described in early accounts. In gen- A synopsis of the pre-human avifauna of the Mascarene Islands JULIAN P. HUME Bird Group, Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Tring, UK Abstract — The isolated Mascarene Islands of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues are situated in the south- western Indian Ocean. All are volcanic in origin and have never been connected to each other or any other land mass. Despite their comparatively close proximity to each other, each island differs topographically and the islands have generally distinct avifaunas. The Mascarenes remained pristine until recently, resulting in some documentation of their ecology being made before they rapidly suffered severe degradation by humans. The frst major fossil discoveries were made in 1865 on Mauritius and on Rodrigues and in the late 20 th century on Réunion. However, for both Mauritius and Rodrigues, the documented fossil record initially was biased toward larger, non-passerine bird species, especially the dodo Raphus cucullatus and solitaire Pezophaps solitaria. This paper provides a synopsis of the fossil Mascarene avifauna, which demonstrates that it was more diverse than previously realised. Therefore, as the islands have suffered severe anthropogenic changes and the fossil record is far from complete, any conclusions based on present avian biogeography must be viewed with caution. Key words: Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, ecological history, biogeography, extinction