Cave opening and fossil accumulation in Naracoorte, Australia, through charcoal and pollen in dated speleothems

R Weij; JD Woodhead; JMK Sniderman; JC Hellstrom; E Reed; S Bourne; RN Drysdale; TJ Pollard

Journal article

Cave opening and fossil accumulation in Naracoorte, Australia, through charcoal and pollen in dated speleothems

R Weij, JD Woodhead, JMK Sniderman, JC Hellstrom, E Reed, S Bourne, RN Drysdale, TJ Pollard

Communications Earth and Environment | SPRINGERNATURE | Published : 2022

DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00538-y

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Abstract

Caves are important fossil repositories which provide records extending back over million-year timescales. While the physical processes of cave formation are well understood, the timing of initial cave development and opening—a more important parameter to studies of palaeontology, palaeoanthropology and archaeology—has proved more difficult to constrain. Here we investigate speleothems from the Naracoorte Cave Complex in southern Australia, with a rich record of Pleistocene vertebrate fossils (including extinct megafauna) and partly World Heritage-listed, using U-Th-Pb dating and analyses of their charcoal and pollen content. We find that, although speleothem formation began at least 1.34 mi..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Jon Woodhead Author

Kale Sniderman Author

John Hellstrom Author

Russell Drysdale Author

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Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

We acknowledge that we worked on the lands of the First Nations Peoples who have been the Custodians for thousands of years and we acknowledge and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We thank the Naracoorte Caves management team for providing access to the caves on the park as well as the owners of caves on private properties. We also thank our Naracoorte research partners Terre a Terre Pty Ltd, Department of Environment and Water, Naracoorte Lucindale Council, Wrattonbully Wine Industries Association Inc, South Australian Museum, and Defence Science and Technology Group. Thanks also to Petra Bajo, John Engel, Serene Paul, Roland Maas for laboratory and data processing assistance. R.W. thanks Robyn Pickering for her support. We thank Patrick Moss, Sylvia Reichelmann and one anonymous reviewer for their comments and suggestions. This work was facilitated by Australian Research Council grants FL160100028 to J.D.W., FT130100801 to J.C.H., LP160101249 to E.R., R.N.D. and J.C.H. and a Postgraduate Writing-Up Award supported by the Albert Shimmins Fund to R.W.