Late Quaternary Small Mammal Faunas of the Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Area

Abstract

Abstractthe vertebrate fossil deposits of the naracoorte Caves in south eastern South Australia preserve a long-term record of local faunas. We provide here an updated list of small mammal faunas of late Quaternary (c. <50 ka) aged fossil assemblages from Wet, Robertson and blanche Caves as a basis for understanding past and future patterns in species occurrence. the updated list includes seven species previously unrecorded from the <50 ka period from this region. Of these, two species (Dasycercus sp. indet. and Pseudomys novaehollandiae) are new to the naracoorte fossil record and have no known regional historical (european colonisation to 1950) or contemporary (post 1950) distribution. Review of fossil collections such as these is crucial for providing up-to-date species occurrence data which can be used to establish baselines of past species diversity and information about the past geographic ranges of individual taxa through time.

Postglacial reorganization of a small‐mammal paleocommunity in southern Australia reveals thresholds of change

“…The uplifted section of the Gambier Limestone is overlain by the East Naracoorte Ridge, the oldest of the Pleistocene beach dune ridges that transect the southeastern region (Murray-Wallace et al 2001). There are 100 known fossil deposits spread across the cave system, ranging from Middle Pleistocene to Holocene age (c. 530-1 kyr BP; Prideaux et al 2007, Macken andReed 2013). The two deposits examined here (Wet Cave Entrance Chamber, 5U10; and Blanche Cave Third Chamber, 5U6) are broadly contemporaneous and together span the last glacial cycle, dating from c. 51.4 to 10.2 kyr BP (Darre´nougue´et al 2009, St Pierre et al 2012, Macken et al 2013aFig.…”

“…LGM is the last glacial maximum. been identified from Naracoorte fossil sites dated from c. 50-1 kyr BP (Macken and Reed 2013). Biological surveys in 1997 and museum records indicate that 26 small-mammal taxa were known from the region at the time of European arrival and through to more recent times (Robinson et al 2000, Foulkes et al 2003.…”

“…1). We focused here the late Quaternary-aged assemblages of Wet and Blanche Caves (c. 50-10 kyr BP; Table 1) because they preserve bone-rich, wellstratified, and well-dated samples of a small-mammal paleocommunity composed of many extant taxa (Macken et al 2012, Macken andReed 2013). The aims of the research were to examine the responses of the small-mammal paleocommunity to climate change associated with the last glacial cycle to (1) identify the magnitude of natural variability in diversity and turnover metrics of the small-mammal paleocommunity, (2) evaluate thresholds associated with paleocommunity reorganization, and (3) determine how sampling variation within and between sites, as well as temporal resolution, affected perceived patterns of variation and/or stability in the fossil assemblages.…”

An assessment of ancient DNA preservation in Holocene–Pleistocene fossil bone excavated from the world heritage Naracoorte Caves, South Australia

“…We were able to identify a range of marsupial and placental mammal, bird and amphibian families from each layer spanning the ages of ca. 950–18 500 cal a BP, including all the small mammal families that were identified morphologically by Macken and Reed (). In addition, we identified several large‐bodied marsupial families that have not been previously described from the RCEC fossil record (Vombatidae, Macropodidae), as well as families that can be difficult to distinguish morphologically (e.g.…”

“…(A) Location of the Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Area in south‐east South Australia, indicating the relative location of Robertson Cave (adapted from Macken and Reed, ). (B) Map of Robertson Cave Entrance Chamber (5U17), Naracoorte (surveyed by L. Reed and M. Kouklina in 2004, drawn by D. Grindley, adapted from CEGSA Map No.…”