Historic placenames as a source in identifying bygone faunal distributions: a double-edged sword

The purpose of this article is to exemplify how certain types of historic toponyms (placenames) can be employed as an aide to biogeographers in revealing past distributions of species and ecosystems, but also the need for additional interrogation of their likely veracity. Some of the toponyms bestowed by the Dutch explorer, Maerten van Delft, who surveyed the northern coasts of Australia’s Melville Island and the Cobourg Peninsula in 1705, serve as examples for further examination. The expedition conferred 61 toponyms and topographic descriptors, some of which are enigmatic given what we know of the ostensive distribution of Australian fauna in the region at the time. Presumably, the names referred to animals seen on the expedition. Cartographic, documentary, linguistic, and natural science sources were consulted to analyse the meanings of the toponyms. It shows that some the toponyms were based on misidentification due to unfamiliarity of the endemic fauna, whilst one did not refer to an animal at all. Another toponym raises the tantalising prospect that thylacines were present on Melville and Greenhill Islands at the time.