Marsupial translocations in the Circum–New Guinea archipelago and a model for prehistoric maritime mobility

Marsupial translocations provide one of the clearest zooarchaeological signatures of long-term maritime connectivity in the Circum–New Guinea Archipelago (CNGA). The presence of marsupials on islands beyond Australia and New Guinea has long posed a challenge for biogeographic interpretation because these mammals are generally poor over-water dispersers. Archaeological and zoological research has therefore suggested that many island populations reflect early human translocation. However, the evidence to support these translocations is varied, while broader temporal and behavioural patterns underlying these movements remain poorly understood. This study synthesises zooarchaeological, linguistic, and phylogenetic evidence to examine the timing and mechanisms of marsupial translocation across the CNGA. A compiled dataset of archaeological occurrences associated with introduced marsupials was analysed using stacked probability distributions in OxCal to explore regional chronological patterns. The results indicate that marsupial introductions were not isolated events, but instead cluster into episodic pulses spanning the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, corresponding with periods of intensified maritime interaction identified in archaeological, genetic, and linguistic records. These findings suggest that ethnophoresy, the human-mediated movement of wild animals, formed part of long-term strategies through which island communities transported and managed terrestrial resources across dispersed maritime seascapes.