ORIGINAL PAPER Late Holocene occupation of Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua) on Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island, Antarctica Steven D. Emslie • Kerry Baumann • Marcel van Tuinen Received: 17 July 2010 / Revised: 29 July 2010 / Accepted: 10 September 2010 / Published online: 1 October 2010 Ó Springer-Verlag 2010 Abstract We report excavations of an abandoned pen- guin colony on Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island, Ant- arctica, in austral summer 2008/2009. Nine abandoned pebble mounds were located on Devils Point, near an active Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) colony of about 3,000 nests, at an elevation of 40–45 m above sea level. Three of the nine mounds were excavated to recover organic remains for radiocarbon and ancient DNA analy- ses; two additional mounds were probed to obtain tissue samples for additional dating. All radiocarbon dates were corrected for the marine-carbon reservoir effect using a DR of 700 ± 50 years. Calibrated 2-sigma ranges in calendar years before present (B.P.) on 23 samples of egg membrane and bone provided an overall range of 40–1,150 B.P., with most of the dates falling between 225 and 465 B.P. Ancient DNA analysis confirmed that the tissues recovered from these excavations represent Gentoo Penguin. One radio- carbon date from the active Gentoo Penguin colony indi- cated an age of 285–480 B.P. for the initiation of this current occupation and corresponding in age with most of the abandoned mounds. Although geologic evidence indi- cates that Byers Peninsula has been ice free for at least 3,000 years, these results indicate that penguin occupation lagged behind deglaciation by over 2,000 years. Small numbers of Chinstrap Penguins (P. antarctica) also occupy the same breeding colonies as Gentoo Penguins at Byers Peninsula, but their absence in the ancient sediments sug- gests that they have only recently colonized this area. Keywords Gentoo Penguin Á Pygoscelis papua Á Abandoned colony Á Byers Peninsula Á Ancient DNA Introduction Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island (62838 0 S, 61805 0 N), is an extensive ice-free area of approximately 60 km 2 located on the west end of the island (Fig. 1). It is one of the largest ice-free areas in the Antarctic Peninsula and is well known for its numerous polar lakes (Bjo ¨rck et al. 1991, 1996; Quesada et al. 2009), complex geology and paleontology, and historic archaeological sites dating to the whaling and sealing era (Pearson et al. 2010). It was first recognized for its diverse fauna and flora and then later for its paleontological and geological resour- ces, producing fossils that provide evidence for a link between Antarctica and other continents in the southern hemisphere. Research began in this region in the 1950s and has continued since that time, most recently by the Spanish Polar Program. For these reasons, Byers Penin- sula was originally designated as Specially Protected Area (SPA) No. 10 in 1966, with additions and modifi- cations to this designation in 1975 (when it became a Site of Special Scientific Interest or SSSI 6) and 1991. It currently is recognized as Antarctic SPA 126 (SCAR 2003). Geologic evidence indicates that Byers Peninsula has been ice free since at least 3,000 years before present (B.P.). Cores from ten lakes were used to develop a deglaciation chronology of the peninsula by Bjo ¨rck et al. (1991, 1996). Bottom sediments indicated that some of these lakes were ice free by 5000 B.P., while others were not ice free until 3500–4000 B.P. Thus, these authors conclude that Byers Peninsula was largely ice free by 3000 S. D. Emslie (&) Á K. Baumann Á M. van Tuinen Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403, USA e-mail: emslies@uncw.edu 123 Polar Biol (2011) 34:283–290 DOI 10.1007/s00300-010-0886-9