McEachern’s Deathtrap Cave (G-49)
Basic information
Sample name: McEachern’s Deathtrap Cave (G-49)
Reference: A. M. Kos. 2003. Pre-burial taphonomic characterisation of a vertebrate assemblage from a pitfall cave fossil deposit in southeastern Australia. Journal of Archaeological Science 30(6):769-779 [ER 3708]
Geography
Country: Australia
State: Victoria
Coordinate: 37° 59' 30" S, 141° 1' 1" E
Coordinate basis: based on nearby landmark
Time interval: Pleistocene - Holocene
Max Ma: 0.0117
Min Ma: 0.00182
Age basis: radiocarbon (uncalibrated)
Geography comments: "McEachern’s Deathtrap Cave is a natural pitfall cave located in the Lower Glenelg region of southeastern Australia, near the South Australian-Victorian border, 4 km from the present coastline".
AMS radiocarbon dates on charcoal obtained from various stratigraphic levels in the high mid to upper sequences of Trench A range from 11,700 ± 160 B.P. to 1,820 ± 110 B.P.
AMS radiocarbon dates on charcoal obtained from various stratigraphic levels in the high mid to upper sequences of Trench A range from 11,700 ± 160 B.P. to 1,820 ± 110 B.P.
Environment
Lithology: sandstone
Taphonomic context: cave,pitfall trap
Habitat comments: "The cave consists of a long narrow passage connected to the surface by two cylindrical entrance shafts (G-49 and G-50) that are 2 m in diameter. At the bottom of each entrance shaft, cone-shaped deposits of terrigenous sediment have formed".
"The stratigraphical succession is divided into three sequences (upper, middle, and lower) consisting of eight depositional facies".
"The diverse faunal composition and relative age frequency of taxa in the fossil deposit reflects the unbiased nature of natural pitfall trapping. There is no evidence of any carnivore accumulation, with the pitfall morphology of the cave likely preventing predatory accumulators or scavengers utilising the cave as a den or roost".
"The stratigraphical succession is divided into three sequences (upper, middle, and lower) consisting of eight depositional facies".
"The diverse faunal composition and relative age frequency of taxa in the fossil deposit reflects the unbiased nature of natural pitfall trapping. There is no evidence of any carnivore accumulation, with the pitfall morphology of the cave likely preventing predatory accumulators or scavengers utilising the cave as a den or roost".
Methods
Life forms: rodents,other large mammals,other small mammals
Sampling methods: quarry,screenwash
Sample size: 263 specimens
Sampling comments: "The fossil assemblage was sampled from the upper and middle sequences of Trench A from the G-49 sedimentary deposit. Samples collected were wet sieved in an off-campus warehouse owned by Monash University".
While more than one trench was originally excavated, "whilst processing was underway, ownership of the building was transferred to another government organisation, and a large number of sediment samples, not yet sieved, were disposed of by the new owners. This action reduced the original sample size to one quarter, a single trench 1000 x 250 mm in dimension, consisting of just five quadrants".
The counts below correspond to the identified mammalian remains (based on cranial skeletal elements) that are outlined and described in Andrew Kos's unpublished 1998 PhD thesis (pp. 121-146). Due to their historical nature, the Mus musculus and Leporidae indet. remains have been omitted here.
While more than one trench was originally excavated, "whilst processing was underway, ownership of the building was transferred to another government organisation, and a large number of sediment samples, not yet sieved, were disposed of by the new owners. This action reduced the original sample size to one quarter, a single trench 1000 x 250 mm in dimension, consisting of just five quadrants".
The counts below correspond to the identified mammalian remains (based on cranial skeletal elements) that are outlined and described in Andrew Kos's unpublished 1998 PhD thesis (pp. 121-146). Due to their historical nature, the Mus musculus and Leporidae indet. remains have been omitted here.
Metadata
Sample number: 3922
Contributor: Benjamin Carter
Enterer: Benjamin Carter
Created: 2022-03-23 12:21:32
Modified: 2022-03-23 01:33:50
Abundance distribution
25 species
5 singletons
total count 263
geometric series index: 38.7
Fisher's α: 6.789
geometric series k: 0.8426
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.8914
Shannon's H: 2.5897
Good's u: 0.9810
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts.
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