A late nineteenth century collection of fossils from the Naracoorte Caves highlights the role of the South Australian Museum in the history of the site

Abstract

The Naracoorte Caves World Heritage site is renowned for its well-preserved deposits of fossil vertebrates spanning the last 500,000 years. Palaeontological research at the Caves began in earnest in 1969 following the discovery of the Fossil Chamber in Victoria Cave. Prior to that, records of fossil discoveries were largely restricted to incidental finds of material during caving activities or cave tourism developments in the Caves Reserve and the broader Naracoorte cave complex. The Reverend Julian Tenison-Woods first reported vertebrate fossils from Naracoorte Caves in 1858. However, there is no record of museum accession for this material and its current whereabouts is unknown. Discovery of megafauna fossil material was widely reported in 1908 and later, but there is very limited information regarding fossil collections made at Naracoorte during the middle to late nineteenth century. Here we report on fossil material collected from Naracoorte Caves and curated at the South Australian Museum by Amandus Zietz in 1888. The collection includes a range of small bones that are labelled and mounted, suggesting they were once used for public outreach or display. These fossils may represent the earliest museum collection currently known from Naracoorte Caves and highlight the South Australian Museum’s long association with the caves and the early history of palaeontological investigation at this globally significant locality.