Late Quaternary fossil vertebrates of the Broken River karst area, northern Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Two new fossil deposits from caves of the Broken River area, northeast Queensland, provide the first regional records of vertebrate species turnover and extinction through the late Quaternary. Fossil assemblages from Big Ho and Beehive Caves are dominated by small-bodied vertebrates, especially mammals. They represent owl roost deposits, although limited presence of larger-bodied taxa such as macropodids may be the result of occasional pitfall trapping. U-series dating demonstrates that Big Ho dates to the penultimate glacial cycle (c. 165 ka) and Beehive to the early Holocene (c. 8.5 ka). A total of 34 mammalian taxa were identified; within the two deposits, seven taxa are unique to Big Ho and another seven are found only in Beehive. The deposits also preserve five extinct fossil taxa (bandicoots and rodents) that add to a growing list of small-bodied species known to have suffered extinction in the late Quaternary. The deposits further yield the remains of four species of bandicoots and rodents (Chaeropus yirratji, Notomys longicaudatus, Conilurus albipes, and Pseudomys gouldii) that suffered extinction post-European colonization. These new fossil records represent significant increases in the known geographic and temporal range of several species and begin to fill an important gap in our understanding of the faunal history of tropical northeast Australia.

Species identification of Australian marsupials using collagen fingerprinting

“…The development of ZooMS peptide markers for Australian marsupials is significant for zooarchaeological endeavours on the continent. Marsupial taxa form a significant component of Australian zooarchaeological and palaeontological assemblages, yet due to the challenges of discriminating between related taxa, they are currently rarely identified beyond the very broad family level [ 18 , 28 , 87 ]. This significantly limits the interpretive power of zooarchaeological and palaeontological studies on the continent [ 28 ].…”

“…For example, while eastern and western grey kangaroos (M. giganteus and M. fuliginosus, respectively) share an identical set of ZooMS peptide markers, the eastern species is today found in the eastern states of Australia, while the western species occurs in the southern and western parts of Australia [84]. However, the potential for recent local extinctions as well as range shifts should not be overlooked [19,[85][86][87]. Eastern and western kangaroo ranges overlap in south-central Australia, and a recent aDNA study has demonstrated that, historically, both species were found on Kangaroo Island, whereas it was previously thought that only the western variety had roamed there [88].…”