scholarly journals The identification of Oligo-Miocene mammalian palaeocommunities from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia and an appraisal of palaeoecological techniques

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Troy J. Myers ◽  
Karen H. Black ◽  
Michael Archer ◽  
Suzanne J. Hand
Keyword(s):  
Middle Miocene ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Early Miocene ◽  
Carbon Isotope Excursion ◽  
Ordination Techniques ◽  
Type Change ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Area North ◽  
First Time ◽  
Heritage Area

Fourteen of the best sampled Oligo-Miocene local faunas from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, north-western Queensland, Australia are analysed using classification and ordination techniques to identify potential mammalian palaeocommunities and palaeocommunitytypes. Abundance data for these faunas are used, for the first time, in conjunction with presence/absence data. An early Miocene Faunal Zone B and two middle Miocene Faunal Zone C palaeocommunities are recognised, as well as one palaeocommunity type. Change in palaeocommunity structure, between the early Miocene and middle Miocene, may be the result of significant climate change during the Miocene Carbon Isotope Excursion. The complexes of local faunas identified will allow researchers to use novel palaeocommunities in future analyses of Riversleigh’s fossil faunas. The utility of some palaeoecological multivariate indices and techniques is examined. The Dice index is found to outperform other binary similarity/distance coefficients, while the UPGMA algorithm is more useful than neighbour joining. Evidence is equivocal for the usefulness of presence/absence data compared to abundance.

scholarly journals Sheath-tailed bats (Chiroptera: Emballonuridae) from the early Pleistocene Rackham’s Roost Site, Riversleigh World Heritage Area, and the distribution of northern Australian emballonurid species

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e10857
Author(s):  
Tyler R. King ◽  
Troy J. Myers ◽  
Kyle N. Armstrong ◽  
Michael Archer ◽  
Suzanne J. Hand
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Modern Species ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
The Family ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Area North ◽  
Heritage Area ◽  
North Western ◽  
Cave Deposit

Sheath-tailed bats (Family Emballonuridae) from the early Pleistocene Rackham’s Roost Site cave deposit in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, north-western Queensland are the oldest recorded occurrence for the family in Australia. The fossil remains consist of maxillary and dentary fragments, as well as isolated teeth, but until now their precise identity has not been assessed. Our study indicates that at least three taxa are represented, and these are distinguished from other Australian emballonurids based on morphometric analysis of craniodental features. Most of the Rackham’s Roost Site emballonurid remains are referrable to the modern species Taphozous georgianus Thomas, 1915, but the extant species T. troughtoni Tate, 1952 also appears to be present, as well as a very large, as-yet undetermined species of Saccolaimus Temminck, 1838. We identify craniodental features that clearly distinguish T. georgianus from the externally very similar T. troughtoni. Results suggest that the distributions of T. georgianus and T. troughtoni may have overlapped in north-western Queensland since at least the early Pleistocene.

scholarly journals Functional and morphometric analysis of a middle Miocene bandicoot (Marsupialia, Peramelemorphia) skeleton from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen H Black ◽  
Kenny J Travouillon ◽  
Troy J Myers ◽  
Michael Archer ◽  
Suzanne J Hand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Miocene ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Axial Skeleton ◽  
Appendicular Skeleton ◽  
Regression Equations ◽  
Crown Group ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
Fossil Taxon ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Heritage Area

Peramelemorphia comprises four families: the extant Peramelidae (bandicoots), and Thylacomyidae (bilbies); the recently extinct Chaeropodidae (pig-footed bandicoot); and the extinct Yaralidae; with at least ten fossil species of uncertain familial affinity designated as Perameloidea incertae sedis. Extant taxa (18 species) are characteristically omnivorous, small to medium sized (0.1-4.9 kg) semi-fossorial/fossorial marsupials with a quadrupedal bounding gait. They occupy varied habitats from desert to rainforest in Australia and New Guinea. Fourteen pre-Pliocene taxa are currently described on the basis of cranial and/or dental material, yet none is known from its postcranial skeleton. Here we use qualitative morphological and morphometric data to analyse a partial skeleton of a new species of bandicoot from a middle Miocene cave deposit, AL90 Site, in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area. AL90 has been radiometrically dated at 14.7-15.1 Ma, however the species is abundant in numerous early to middle Miocene deposits at Riversleigh The AL90 specimen preserves the skull and dentaries, the fore-and hindlimbs, and elements of the manus, pes and axial skeleton. The species is estimated to have weighed approximately 300g (based on predictive marsupial craniodental regression equations) which is comparable among extant bandicoots to Perameles bougainville (Western barred bandicoot). Unlike modern species, the appendicular skeleton of the fossil taxon is less well-adapted for scratch-digging and fossorial behaviours. A striking contrast is the relatively elongate, gracile bones of the antebrachium of the fossil taxon compared with the generally short, robust forearm of modern bandicoots. Collectively, our data indicate a more generalized niche for this species than crown group peramelemorphians and may support suggestions that archaic bandicoots filled an ecological niche later dominated by small dasyurids during the late Cainozoic.

scholarly journals Earliest known record of a hypercarnivorous dasyurid (Marsupialia), from newly discovered carbonates beyond the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, north Queensland

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 137-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Archer ◽  
O. Christmas ◽  
S.J. Hand ◽  
K.H. Black ◽  
P. Creaser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Area North ◽  
Heritage Area

scholarly journals Functional and morphometric analysis of a middle Miocene bandicoot (Marsupialia, Peramelemorphia) skeleton from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, Australia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen H Black ◽  
Kenny J Travouillon ◽  
Troy J Myers ◽  
Michael Archer ◽  
Suzanne J Hand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Miocene ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Axial Skeleton ◽  
Appendicular Skeleton ◽  
Regression Equations ◽  
Crown Group ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
Fossil Taxon ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Heritage Area

Peramelemorphia comprises four families: the extant Peramelidae (bandicoots), and Thylacomyidae (bilbies); the recently extinct Chaeropodidae (pig-footed bandicoot); and the extinct Yaralidae; with at least ten fossil species of uncertain familial affinity designated as Perameloidea incertae sedis. Extant taxa (18 species) are characteristically omnivorous, small to medium sized (0.1-4.9 kg) semi-fossorial/fossorial marsupials with a quadrupedal bounding gait. They occupy varied habitats from desert to rainforest in Australia and New Guinea. Fourteen pre-Pliocene taxa are currently described on the basis of cranial and/or dental material, yet none is known from its postcranial skeleton. Here we use qualitative morphological and morphometric data to analyse a partial skeleton of a new species of bandicoot from a middle Miocene cave deposit, AL90 Site, in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area. AL90 has been radiometrically dated at 14.7-15.1 Ma, however the species is abundant in numerous early to middle Miocene deposits at Riversleigh The AL90 specimen preserves the skull and dentaries, the fore-and hindlimbs, and elements of the manus, pes and axial skeleton. The species is estimated to have weighed approximately 300g (based on predictive marsupial craniodental regression equations) which is comparable among extant bandicoots to Perameles bougainville (Western barred bandicoot). Unlike modern species, the appendicular skeleton of the fossil taxon is less well-adapted for scratch-digging and fossorial behaviours. A striking contrast is the relatively elongate, gracile bones of the antebrachium of the fossil taxon compared with the generally short, robust forearm of modern bandicoots. Collectively, our data indicate a more generalized niche for this species than crown group peramelemorphians and may support suggestions that archaic bandicoots filled an ecological niche later dominated by small dasyurids during the late Cainozoic.

scholarly journals A new family of bizarre durophagous carnivorous marsupials from Miocene deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Archer ◽  
S. J. Hand ◽  
K. H. Black ◽  
R. M. D. Beck ◽  
D. A. Arena ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Middle Miocene ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Weak Support ◽  
New Family ◽  
The World ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Original Interpretation ◽  
Heritage Area ◽  
Prey Items

Abstract A new specimen of the bizarrely specialised Malleodectes mirabilis from middle Miocene deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area provides the first and only information about the molar dentition of this strange group of extinct marsupials. Apart from striking autapomorphies such as the enormous P3, other dental features such as stylar cusp D being larger than B suggest it belongs in the Order Dasyuromorphia. Phylogenetic analysis of 62 craniodental characters places Malleodectes within Dasyuromorphia albeit with weak support and without indication of specific relationships to any of the three established families (Dasyuridae, Myrmecobiidae and Thylacinidae). Accordingly we have allocated Malleodectes to the new family, Malleodectidae. Some features suggest potential links to previously named dasyuromorphians from Riversleigh (e.g., Ganbulanyi) but these are too poorly known to test this possibility. Although the original interpretation of a steeply declining molar row in Malleodectes can be rejected, it continues to seem likely that malleodectids specialised on snails but probably also consumed a wider range of prey items including small vertebrates. Whatever their actual diet, malleodectids appear to have filled a niche in Australia’s rainforests that has not been occupied by any other mammal group anywhere in the world from the Miocene onwards.

Dry season camps of flying-foxes (Pteropus spp.) in Kakadu World Heritage Area, north Australia

1999 ◽  
Vol 247 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher R. Tidemann ◽  
Michael J. Vardon ◽  
Ronald A. Loughland ◽  
Peter J. Brocklehurst
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Flying Foxes ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Area North ◽  
Heritage Area

Current status of species-level representation in faunas from selected fossil localities in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Archer ◽  
Derrick Arena ◽  
Mina Bassarova ◽  
Robin Beck ◽  
Karen Black ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Current Status ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Heritage Area

Analyses of BioVOCs variation related to vegetation predominance in the natural park of ampezzo dolomites, UNESCO world heritage area of dolomites

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Raveane ◽  
Francesco Tisato ◽  
Ilena Isak ◽  
Pietro Traldi
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
Natural Park ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Heritage Area

Seacage aquaculture in a World Heritage Area: The environmental footprint of a Barramundi farm in tropical Australia

2010 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 1489-1501 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. David McKinnon ◽  
Lindsay A. Trott ◽  
Richard Brinkman ◽  
Samantha Duggan ◽  
Sarah Castine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Heritage ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Tropical Australia ◽  
World Heritage Area ◽  
Heritage Area
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