Not long ago, it would have been impossible to adopt an official Hawaiian fossil because Hawaiian fossils were unknown. Who would look for fossils on a volcanic island, especially when the only vertebrate animals that had lived there were birds and bats? Birds are seldom big to begin with, and have evolved light, fragile bones for flying. Even birds that can no longer fly generally have fragile bones, which are seldom fossilized. Birds don’t even have teeth, which can sometimes be used to identify prehistoric mammals.
But in 1971, Joan Aidem found the complete skeleton of a flightless goose in a sand dune on Molokai. Since she was a naturalist, she knew it was important. Her discovery encouraged scientists to search for more Hawaiian bird fossils.
They found tens of thousands of them on several islands. Some were found in “sinkholes,” pits that had been dissolved in limestone. Others were found in sea cliffs or in collapsed lava tubes — tunnellike caves that formed after the molten lava inside drained away. Still more skeletons were found under fifteen feet of fresh water in a flooded cavern.
Sites where people lived proved a great source. Centuries ago, people didn’t haul their garbage far away to dumps. As they ate dinner, they might just throw the bones on the ground or into a pit nearby. The discovery of birds in such sites prove that they were alive when people first arrived in Hawaii.
What was Hawaii like when the first people landed on its sandy beaches? Hawaii’s forests were filled with many plants that grew nowhere else in the world. We can imagine an eagle soaring over the trees as Hawaiian ravens fight over a fish on the beach.
The hungry explorers’ dogs begin to bark as they spot a group of large animals nearby. They look like big, awkward geese. However, scientists say they evolved from ducks and gave them the first name Thambetochen, “astonishing goose.” (There are several species.)
Their jaws sport bony, toothlike projections. They probably browsed or grazed on plants, similar to a cow. A similar group of birds had very broad, flat lower jaws, similar to a turtle. The upper jaw was extremely heavy and was higher than it was long.
Such a bizarre bird would be quite a tourist attraction today. Big, good to eat, and flightless, it probably wasn’t long before all these birds became extinct.
Ancient Hawaii had real geese as well. They appear to have evolved from Canada geese (Branta canadensis) that flew to the islands long ago. Some species had short wings and may have been flightless. Others fossils are from a smaller goose that could fly. In fact, this bird still lives today. It is Hawaii’s state bird, the nene (Branta sandvicensis). The last name recalls the fact that the Hawaiian Islands were once called the Sandwich Islands.
The nene spends its time on volcanic slopes, rather than in water. That’s why its feet aren’t as deeply webbed as are those of its cousin, the Canada goose.
Ibises lived in ancient Hawaii, too. Modern ibises are long-legged birds with long, curved beaks. They wade in water and are excellent flyers. No one had ever heard of a flightless ibis until fossils of several species were found on Molokai and Maui. Scientists were surprised at their short legs. Apparently, these ibises had adapted to life on land.
Among the most common flightless birds on islands around the world today are rails. Fossils tell us that several species of flightless rails lived in Hawaii as well. Each of the main islands seems to have had at least one species, and Molokai had three. Two Hawaiian rails survived until modern times, one on Hawaii and one on Laysan, a tiny atoll far to the west.
Why did each island have its own bird species? To survive in Hawaii, birds had to adapt to whichever island they lived on. And since each island is different, the birds that lived on them became different.
Hawaii is famous for its songbirds, and they, too, were more diverse when Polynyesians discovered Hawaii. Why would people want to eat tiny songbirds? They probably didn’t.
But such birds could have been killed by dogs and pigs. Some might have been doomed by changing habitats. And Hawaiians did hunt some songbirds for their feathers, which they used to make fabulous cloaks.
It is hard to even guess how many Hawaiian birds have become extinct. Birds probably lived on the tiniest islets of far western Hawaii at one time. As the islands changed and grew smaller and smaller, the birds became extinct.
How long ago did Hawaii’s extinct birds live? The oldest of the main islands, Kauai, was formed about six million years ago. The youngest island, Hawaii, may be less than a million years old. And land birds couldn’t live on these islands until the volcanoes had eroded and formed enough soil for plants to grow in. The Ice Age was probably more than half finished before land birds lived on the Big Island.
Birds whose fossils we will never find lived on what are now tiny islets in far western Hawaii lived much longer ago. And many birds have become extinct since Captain Cook discovered Hawaii a little over 200 years ago. Their bones haven’t had time to become fossilized.
Hawaii’s birds, some of which were discovered only recently, are still becoming extinct. Rare forest beauties like the o’o, nukupuu, Maui parrotbill, poo-uli, and iiwi are sometimes seen only once every few years.
Hawaiians don’t need to adopt an official fossil, because their state bird is a living fossil. Because it can fly, it escaped extinction at the hands of Hawaiians. But it almost became extinct after rats and mongooses arrived in Hawaii. Fortunately, Hawaiians had adapted to the fact that we need to let Nature decide when a species should become extinct. They decided to save the nene, and they did.
Geology & Fossils
Hawaii was the last state twice. It was the 50th state to join the union. Millions of years earlier, it was the last state to become dry land.
Scientists think there is a “hot spot” that the Pacific Ocean slowly passes over. Molten rock sometimes pours out of this hot spot and hardens. Very slowly, the hardened lava grows higher and higher. It reaches toward the surface of the sea and beyond to form islands.
The earth under the Pacific Ocean moves on and molten rock pours out again, forming a new island. This has happened many times. Today, Hawaii includes many islands spread over 2,000 miles. The youngest and largest in the east, the oldest smallest in the west.
The only Hawaiian volcanoes that are active at present are on the island of Hawaii, home of Volcanoes National Park. In 1959, a low volcano named Kilauea sent a lava fountain 1,900 feet into the sky. Flaming curtains of lava sometimes shoot out of the Puna Rifts. In 1881 a lava flow from Mauna Loa reached the edge of the city of Hilo in eastern Hawaii. Hilo residents were again reminded of the surrounding ring of fire in 1960. In that year a powerful earthquake in the South American nation of Chile produced a tsunami, or “tidal” wave, that wiped out part of their city.
But volcanoes erode even while they’re erupting. Red volcanic soils on the big island support lush forests and even grasslands where cattle are raised. Tourists can search for another volcanic treat — a black sand beach.
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