1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of NSW.
2. River Junction Research, Wentworth, NSW.
McEacherns Cave is a pitfall trap in the Tertiary Gambier Limestone in Lower Glenelg National Park, SW Victoria. Fossil vertebrate deposits in the cave, containing both extinct megafauna and modern species, were first excavated in the mid-1960s (Wakefield 1967) and then in 1977 by Hope. Hopeís aim was to radiocarbon date Wakefieldís sequence in order to date the Late Pleistocene disappearance of the megafauna, as part of a broader study of megafaunal extinctions. However, there is a major stratigraphic disconformity in the sequence and the older sequence containing the megafauna was clearly well beyond radiocarbon limit. The younger sequence, dated to between 2-15ky, contains modern species representing a change from semi-arid to the current dry sclerophyll woodland through that time. The older sediments contain an unusual combination of modern species, suggesting a wet environment, as well as megafauna such as Zygomaturus, Zaglossus (the giant anteater), and Sthenurus spp. Also present is the ëweird and wonderfulí primitive wombat, Warendja wakefieldi, known only from this site and Comaum Forest Cave in SA, about 90k north of McEacherns (Hope & Wilkinson 1982, Flannery & Pledge 1987, Pledge 1992). A tentative reconstruction of the geomorphic history of the cave suggests that the older sediments could predate the last interglacial. Budde is currently re-assessing the very large collection of material excavated in the 1960s and 70s, with the aim of conducting a palaeoecological assessment using ecological diversity indices as described by Andrews et al (1979). Further stratigraphic work on the site is warranted, in particular the application of modern dating techniques.
Andrews, P.J., Lord, J.M. & Nesbit Evans, E.M. 1979 Patterns of ecological diversity in fossil and modern mammalian faunas. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 11: 177-205.
Hope, J.H. & Wilkinson H.E. 1982 Warendja wakefieldi, a new genus of wombat (Marsupialia, Vombatidae) from Pleistocene sediments in McEacherns Cave, Western Victoria. Memoirs of the National Museum Victoria 43:109-120.
Flannery, T.F. & Pledge, N.S. 1987 Specimens of Warendja wakefieldi (Vombatidae: Marsupialia) from the Pleistocene of South Australia. Pp. 356-68 in Possums and Opossums: studies in evolution ed. M .Archer. Surrey Beatty & Sons and the Royal Zoological Society of NSW: Sydney.
Pledge, N.S. 1992 The weird and wonderful wombat Warendja wakefieldi Hope & Wilkinson. The Beagle, Records of the Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, 9(1):111-114.
Wakefield, N.A. 1967 Preliminary report on McEacherns Cave, SW Victoria. Victorian Naturalist 84:363-383.