Beehive Cave
Basic information
Sample name: Beehive Cave

Reference: G. J. Price, J. Cramb, J. Louys, K. J. Travouillon, E. M. A. Pease, Y. X. Feng, J. X. Zhao, and D. Irvin. 2020. Late Quaternary fossil vertebrates of the Broken River karst area, northern Queensland, Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 72(5):193-206 [ER 3744]
Geography
Country: Australia

State: Queensland

Coordinate: 19° 0' 3" S, 145° 59' 48" E
Latlng basis: based on nearby landmark

Formation: Jack

Time interval: Holocene

Ma: 0.0085

Age basis: U/Th

Geography comments: "A cave formed in the main outcrop of limestone in the southern part of the Jack Formation, part of the larger Broken River Province, in the Broken River area, Greenvale (basis of coordinate), northeast Queensland".
Five U-Th dates give an average age of 8.5 ka for the deposit.

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Environment
Lithology: breccia

Taphonomic context: bird accumulation, cave, pitfall trap

Habitat comments: "The deposit was located in a small chamber at floor level adjacent to a limestone wall. The outcrop runs around 3 m horizontally and is no more than c. 30 cm wide when measured from the wall".
"The fossils were preserved in a haematite-rich clay matrix-supported breccia. The site is particularly fossiliferous with clasts dominated by fragmentary small-bodied vertebrate remains. Larger clasts were rarely observed. The breccias are massive with no obvious sedimentary structures, including no evidence of stratification".
"The remains are dominated by small, mostly nocturnal, non-cavernous species. The fossils lack tooth markings suggestive of predation from carnivorous mammals. Thus, the most parsimonious interpretation is that the assemblage was produced predominately by owls". Larger-bodied taxa preserved within the breccia are likely victims of the cave acting as a pitfall trap".

Methods
Life forms: bats, rodents, other large mammals, other small mammals, birds, lizards, snakes, frogs

Sampling methods: quarry, screenwash

Sample size: 263 specimens

Years: 2012

Net or trap nights: 0

Basal area status: not applicable

Sampling comments: "Fossil breccias were collected during a short fieldtrip in May 2012. Due to the high degree of lithification, the breccias could only be removed by breaking them into smaller blocks for transport out of the cave; more traditional excavation techniques (e.g. top-down excavations with small hand tools such as trowels) were not possible".
"The breccias were dissolved using a weak (2-3%) acetic acid allowing the vertebrate fossils to be recovered. The loose sediments were then wet sieved with 1 mm mesh and fossilized skeletal remains were sorted under microscopes and magnifier lamps".

Metadata
Sample no: 3992

Contributor no: Benjamin Carter

Enterer: Benjamin Carter

Created: 2022-09-02 14:06:25

Modified: 2022-09-02 04:13:03

Abundance distribution
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts. Values are logged.
Statistics
30 species
7 singletons
total count 263
geometric series index: 50.8
Fisher's α: 8.724
geometric series k: 0.8573
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.8547
Shannon's H: 2.5699
Good's u: 0.9735
Register
Antechinus sp. 6
Phascogale tapoatafa (brush-tailed phascogale)5
Planigale sp. 2
"ingrami/tenuirostris"
Sminthopsis macroura (stripe-faced dunnart)11
Sminthopsis cf. murina (slender-tailed dunnart)2
†Chaeropus yirratji (northern pig-footed bandicoot)2
Isoodon obesulus peninsulae (southern brown bandicoot)1
"Isoodon peninsulae"
Isoodon sp. 1
"sp. 2"
Petaurus norfolcensis (squirrel glider)5
Trichosurus sp. 1
Macropodidae indet.1
Conilurus albipes 8
Leggadina forresti 17
Notomys longicaudatus 34
Notomys sp. 9
"sp. 2"
Pseudomys australis 87
Pseudomys cf. delicatulus 37.9 g
Pseudomys desertor 1
Pseudomys gouldii 13
Pseudomys gracilicaudatus 15
Zyzomys sp. 2
Melomys cervinipes 2
Rattus lutreolus 1
also 72 Rattus spp.
Microchiroptera indet.1
Anura indet.3
Scincidae indet.5
Agamidae indet.10
Varanus sp. 6
Elapidae indet.3
Aves indet.6