Fossil Mammals of Rivensleigh, Northwestern Q,Ueensland
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FossilMammals of Rivensleigh, NorthwesternQ,ueensland: PreliminaryOverview of Biostratigraphy, Correlationand EnvironmentalChange MichaelArcherr, Henk Godthelpl, Suzanne J. Handl and Dirk Megirian2 Abstract Aspects of the results of studies of the fossil-rich Cainozoic deposits of Riversleigh, nofthwestern Queensland, are reviewed. A summary of five selected Riversleigh faunas representing the primary cerioCs of the region's Cainozoic history is provided. Faunal and environmental changes over the last 25 000 004 vears n the Riversleigh region are identified and changes in Australia s rainforest mammal comlnunities over the same period are discussed. Evidence for the origin of Australia s modern mammal qroups front ancestors now known to have lived in the l'ertiary rainforests of northern Australia is reviewed. fhe geological record for Riversleighs more than 100 local faunas is considered. At least three primary inteNals ol Oligo-Niocene deposition, one of Pliocene and ntany of Pleistocene and Holocene depc.ssttbn are identified. An appendix is provided in which the princioal faunal assemblages from Riversleigh are allocated to these depositional intervals. The evidence for ccrrelating Riversleigh local faunas with faunal assemblages in the rest of Australia and the world is reviewed. Oligo-Niocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene marsupial anci monotreme fossils correlate Riversleigh's local faunas with others from central and eastern Australia; bats correlate them with faunal assemblages in Europe: rodertts correlate them with Pliocene assemblages in eastern Australia. Ke.v words: Monotremata, Marsupiaira.Chiroptera. Muridae. Pisces,Amphibia, Reptilia.Aves. A4am- malia. Evolution,Extinction. Rainforest. Freshwater Limestone. Tertiary, Oligocene. Miocene. Pliocene. Pleistocene,Holocene. Correlation,Stratigraphy. Palaeoecoiogy. INTRODUCTION summary of the currentbiostratigraphic data with a focus on Riversleigh'smammai record and its interpretationin Despitelon-cl-term interest in the distinctivemammais a local as well as general context. ManV students and of modern Australia.understanding about their origin colleaguesinvolved in analysesof Riversleighrnaterials and diversificationhas laggedfar behind that of all other have contributedto the ideas presentedhere and tc the conrinenis except Antarctica(Alcher anci Bartholomai growing awarenessof the significanceof the Riversieigh i 978, Arcner 1984, Hand i 984. Woodburne ef al 1985). discoveries. The reasons for this are manifold but primary among them has been the apparent scarcityo[ rich Cainozct.. Although Riversieighs fossil marnmal deposits wert: fossil deposits.Until 1983 rnost investigationsinto the: onginallythought to representone distincrassemblage early diversificationof Australia'sterrestrial mammals of medial Mioceneanimals (the RiversleighLocal Fauna focussecion the Oligo-Miocene deposits of the Lakt of Tedford 1967.from his SitesA-D). we nou' recognise Eyre Basrnand Frome Embayment of South Australia about 100 local faunasfrom this area representrng:l. at and isolated early Miocene faunal assemblagesfrorn least thre--periods of Oligo-Miocenetime (about 25 to year richly fossiliferous Tasmania. In that the extent of l5 miliion vears BP) which we define as Svstems A-C Tertiary depositsat Riversleigh(Fig. I ), some of whrc[ witn System A beinq between late C)ligoceneto earli' nad beeri systematicallystuciied as eariv a:' 1967 Mrocerre in arte, Systern B possibly early to nriddle (Tedford (Archer, 1967), began to become apparent Mioceneand Systen':C oossiblymiddle Mioceneto early Hand and Codthelpl986). lateMiocene: 2, at leastone Plioceneassemblage (about Examination of these Riversleigh deposits, which 3-5 millionyears BP1. Rackham's Roost Local Fauna; 3, appear to span the last 25OOO000 years, has led to manv Pleistoceneassemblages (between 2 million and many publications (e.9., Archer, Hand and Codthelp l0 000 yearsBP) from caveand ancientriverine deposits 1988b, Anon. I 9B9a,b)and on-going researchfocussed such as TerraceSite; and 4 many Holocene(r.e., Recent) on individualtaxonomic groups. Here we presenta broad assemblages(less than 10 000 yearsBP) some ol which appear to span the arrivalof introduced mamnrals and 'Nodhern Universi\_ol f'lew South Wales lrrrlor\'Museuni Europeans. June 1989 Australian Zoologist. Vol. 25(2,) 29 This overview includes: 1, a faunal list from Riversleigh'sUpper Site Local Fauna to introduce the biostratigraphic issues involved; 2, a summary of speciesJevel diversity (for mammals) in six representa- 'Site tive, different-aged local faunas (Riversleigh LF from D'; Upper Site L.F; Bitesantennary LF; Dwornamor LF from Cag Site; Rackham's Roost LF; and the modern (stillJiving) fauna of RiversleighStation); 3, a considera- tion of apparent trends in Australia'srainforest mammal communities through time; 4, a summary of what we at present interpret to be the stratigraphic relationships of representativeRiversleigh local faunas; 5, some of the bases for approximating the ages of Riversleigh'slocal faunas; and 6, an appendix listing the prir.cipal local faunas under study with a tentative assessment of their relative ages. Systematic nomenclature used for marsupial groups follows Aplin and Archer (1987); that for bats follows : Guttof Z, Hand (1984); that for non-Riversleigh faunal Carpentaria|1 assemblagesand stratigraphyfollows Archer (1984) and Woodburne et a/. (1985). In the species list, the author- ship of a taxonomic name is followed by the author's last CE a comma and the date of publication. [f no o name, = o Normant0n comma separatesan author from the date of publication E (the format also used here for a conventional text refer- G, Burketown a work in which the taxon is l*J ence), the reference is to O Riversleigh discussed or perhaps re-defined. = & The term rainforest covers a multitude of vegetation t! l. types (e.g., Webb, Tracey and Williams 1984; Webb, I Camooweal Tracey and Jessup 1986). Our interpretation of the &, (3 o Oligo-Miocene rainforests of Riversleigh,based on the z, faunas they contained, are that they were dense, species- Mountlsa 9zg persist -l rich gallery rainforests probably similar to those that km today in mid-montane New Guinea. Fossil collecting localities in Riversleigh are called 'sites' (e.g., Upper Site, Cag Site, Outasite). Regionally Fig. 1. The location of Rivercleigh within the Gulf country of to be superpositionally-related northwesternQueensland. (After Archer, Hand and Godthelp clusteredsites that apPear 1986). (differing in age but not significantly in position) and/or space-related (spatially isolated but approximately con- temporaneous) comprise what we have come to call 'systems'. Considering the vast exPanse and complexity of the Our aim in using these concepts is to draw Riversleighsediments, the large number of local faunas, attention to the apparent age-related (sequential or the early state of analyses of both the geology and the comparable) nature of sites that occur as geographically defined clusters (the Systems) in the Riversleighregion. faunas and the fact that this summary does not include 'System' the preliminary results of the non-mammal data under Our restricted use of the term should not be study, the diagrams and summaries presented here confused with the stratigraphic analogue of the 'period' (e.g., must be treated as preliminary assessments'lt would be chronologic term the Tertiary System and naive of us to presume that after a combined total of Tertiary Period;Raup and Stanley 1971). Nor should our only 12 months spent in the field at Riversleigh,we would Systems be interpreted as regional faunas or be aware of all major features of the area. With each assemblages of contemporaneous faunas because (at successive expedition, more is learned about the inter- Systems B and C least)are clearlytime-transgressive. relationshipsof the various sediments within the region We regard each site in a Riversleigh System to be and about the faunal assemblagesthey contain. As more potentially unique in time as well as space. In contrast, of the various sediments are processed, the diversity, each Riversleigh System is interpreted to have accumu- relationships and non-Riversleighoccurrences of some lated over a fwed interval of time within a specific area. of the Riversleighanimals necessitatea continual revis- For example, Gag Site (which may be middle Miocene 'big' ing or refining of the picture. in age) occurs as an isolated bone-rich deposit within 30 Australian Zoologist, VoL25(2) June 1989 the Gag Plateau (a major topographic feature in the Upper Site Local Fauna Riversleighregion) and is part of System C which as a Mollusca whole appears to span middle Miocene to early late Gastropoda(snails; pers. comm. Coleman, Australian Miocene time. However, all of these preliminary strati- Museum) graphic concepts will require revision as understanding Family? about the nature and relationships of the sediments --Genusand sp. develops. Family? --Genusand sp. An assemblage of animals from a single site is called Family? a local fauna (often abbreviated LF; plural, lfs or LFs if --Genusand sp. specific sites are named; e.9., the Upper Site LF, the Arthropoda (pers. comm. P. Jell, Queensland Outasite and Upper Site LFs). A few local faunal names Museum) differ from their corresponding site names (e.9., Diplopoda Dwornamor LF from Cag Site) but most are the same Family? (no. of genera undet.) as the site name, commonly but not alwaysless the word --Genusand sp. 1 'site' (e.g., Henk's Hollow