Marsupial fossils from Wellington Caves, New South Wales; the historic and scientific significance of the collections in the Australian Museum, Sydney
Abstract
Since 1830, fossil vertebrates, particularly marsupials, have been collected from Wellington Caves, New South Wales. The history of these collections, and particularly of the collection housed in the Australian Museum, Sydney, is reviewed in this paper. A revised faunal list of marsupials from Wellington Caves is included, based on specimens in museum collections. The provenance of these specimens is discussed. The list comprises 58 species, of which 30 are extinct throughout Australia, and a further 12 no longer inhabit the Wellington region. The deposit also contains bones of reptiles, birds, bats, rodents and monotremes. On the basis of faunal correlation and some consideration of taphonomy in the deposits, the age range of the fossils represented in the museum collections is suggested to be from the late Pliocene to late Pleistocene (with a possible minimum age of 40,000 years BP). Data from new collections indicate that at least three distinct periods of deposition are represented in the cave system.
