Amphitheatre Cave
Basic information
Sample name: Amphitheatre Cave
Sample aka: Colliver's Cave
Reference: R. F. Baird. 1992. Fossil avian assemblage of pitfall origin from Holocene sediments in Amphitheatre Cave (G-2), south-western Victoria, Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 44(1):21-44 [ER 3707]
Geography
Country: Australia
State: Victoria
Coordinate: 38° 3' S, 141° 1' E
Latlng basis: stated in text
Time interval: Holocene
Ma: 0.00467
Age basis: radiocarbon (uncalibrated)
Geography comments: "Amphitheatre Cave (G-2) is located approximately 6 km north of the township of Nelson, south-western Victoria, in the central part of an easterly facing cliff, approximately 15 m above the Glenelg River".
The deposit is Holocene in age. A radiocarbon date of 4, 670 ± 90 B.P. was obtained on a tibiotarsus of Gallinula mortierii".
The deposit is Holocene in age. A radiocarbon date of 4, 670 ± 90 B.P. was obtained on a tibiotarsus of Gallinula mortierii".
Environment
Lithology: not described
Taphonomic context: cave, pitfall trap
Habitat comments: "The cave has three entrances to a high bifurcating joint controlled passage 80 m long and 18 m deep. The main chamber has a large aven. Two entrances are joint enlargements in the cliff face 15 m above river level, while the third entrance is an enlarged solution tube 30 m deep x 1.5 m diameter".
"Most of the material seems to have originated from a pitfall accumulation, based upon the large percentage of individuals and species with elements lacking the damage characteristic of vertebrate accumulators".
"Most of the material seems to have originated from a pitfall accumulation, based upon the large percentage of individuals and species with elements lacking the damage characteristic of vertebrate accumulators".
Methods
Life forms: bats, rodents, other large mammals, other small mammals, birds
Sampling methods: quarry
Sample size: 7346 specimens
Net or trap nights: 0
Basal area status: not applicable
Sampling comments: "The excavation was started by F.S. Colliver on April 20-21 1935, and completed over three subsequent trips".
"The material was collected by bringing handfuls of the flour [sediment within the cave] at a time and spreading it on the surface within a daylight area, and picking out any small bones, jaws or individual teeth that appeared. The bigger bones were felt within the flour and gently eased out".
The mammalian species and counts registered below correspond to the identified remains that were collected from the site and are now held at the Melbourne Museum. This data was recorded during a collections visit on 17 March 2022. The avian remains were obtained from the reference paper (Baird 1992).
"The material was collected by bringing handfuls of the flour [sediment within the cave] at a time and spreading it on the surface within a daylight area, and picking out any small bones, jaws or individual teeth that appeared. The bigger bones were felt within the flour and gently eased out".
The mammalian species and counts registered below correspond to the identified remains that were collected from the site and are now held at the Melbourne Museum. This data was recorded during a collections visit on 17 March 2022. The avian remains were obtained from the reference paper (Baird 1992).
Metadata
Sample no: 3921
Contributor no: Benjamin Carter
Enterer: Benjamin Carter
Created: 2022-03-21 14:23:38
Modified: 2022-03-21 03:25:07
Abundance distribution
Each square represents a species. Square sizes are proportional to counts. Values are logged.
Statistics
58 species
16 singletons
total count 7346
geometric series index: 94.3
Fisher's α: 8.589
geometric series k: 0.8746
Hurlbert's PIE: 0.8383
Shannon's H: 2.2532
Good's u: 0.9978
Register