New U/Th ages for Pleistocene megafauna deposits of southeastern Queensland, Australia

A new species of Miocene wombat (Marsupialia, Vombatiformes) from Riversleigh, Queensland, Australia, and implications for the evolutionary history of the Vombatidae

“…This is not sur- Results of the phylogenetic analysis with additional species added (relative branching order of these additional taxa are shown here as not resolved) against the geological time scale (Gradstein et al, 2012). Age span of deposits containing all known wombat taxa are provided, with black bars indicating certainty (such as radiometrically dated sites) and grey indicating uncertainty (ages are based on Archer and Wade, 1976;Archer et al, 1989Archer et al, , 1997Archer et al, , 2016Arena et al, 2016;Beck, 2008;Beheregaray et al, 2000;Black et al, 2012b;Cupper and Duncan, 2006;Dawson, 1985;Hope and Wilkinson, 1982;Myers et al, 2001Myers et al, , 2017Piper et al, 2006;Pledge, 1992;Price et al, 2009Price et al, , 2011Prideaux et al, 2010;Vickers-Rich et al, 1991;Roberts et al, 2001;Stirton et al, 1967;Taylor et al, 1994;Tedford et al, 2006;Travouillon et al, 2006Travouillon et al, , 2011Whitelaw 1989Whitelaw , 1991Woodhead et al, 2014). Age of split between taxa is based on oldest possible deposits containing those taxa and as such will change as more information becomes available.…”

Application of sedimentary and chronological analyses to refine the depositional context of a Late Pleistocene vertebrate deposit, Naracoorte, South Australia

“…Thus, U/Th dating of speleothem will provide the true age of initial calcite crystallisation (Zhao et al, 2001;Prideaux et al, 2010). All teeth and straw stalactite samples were pre-treated and dated following techniques described in Zhao et al (2001), Yu et al (2006), Price et al (2009) andSt Pierre et al (2009). All U/Th dates are reported to 2σ error.…”

“…The proposition that U/Th dating of straw stalactites will provide maximum ages for associated stratigraphic units is based on the assumption that the straws formed prior to, and were incorporated into the deposit during, the main phase of sedimentation (Price et al, 2009;St Pierre et al, 2009). Thus, U/Th dating of such straws will yield maximum ages for the associated sediments.…”

Differential preservation of vertebrates in Southeast Asian caves

“…The unique environmental and geological conditions present in caves provides a focal point on the landscape for the accumulation of animal remains, and a physical means by which those remains might increase in number and subsequently undergo long-term preservation (Simms, 1994;Price et al, 2009b;Fairchild & Baker, 2012;McFarlane, 2013). Caves have long been recognised as a potential source of fossil vertebrate remains in Southeast Asia (Wallace, 1864), and over the last 150 years they have produced some of the most important deposits for understanding not only mammalian evolution in general, but also the origins and behavioural ecology of hominins (e.g., Dubois, 1891;Morwood et al, 2004;Liu et Vertebrate remains can accumulate in caves via different processes that can be classified into three categories (Simms, 1994): biotic autochthonous, biotic allochthonous and abiotic allocthonous processes.…”