Also known as Victoria Cave, 5U1; Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Area

Where: South Australia, Australia (37.0° S, 140.8° E: paleocoordinates 37.0° S, 140.8° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Middle Pleistocene (0.8 - 0.1 Ma)

• The absolute age is said to have been obtained from the “flowstone on the surface of the deposit” by means of “Uranium series” (Reed & Bourne, 2000) without any further specification of the decay product.

Environment/lithology: cave; poorly lithified, brown siltstone

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: permineralized, original phosphate

Collected by CEGSA, SAM, FU in 1969-recent

Collection methods: bulk, surface (in situ), mechanical, acetic, sieve,

• The Lagerstätte referred to as the Main Fossil Chamber (Reed & Bourne, 1990) was discovered in 1969 by members of the Cave Exploration Group of South Australia (CEGSA) and thus was the first fossil deposit that was discovered in the Victoria Cave system. First investigations were made by the CEGSA in association with the South Australian Government Tourist Bureau (Smith, 1971). Subsequent excavations were conducted by the South Australian Museum (SAM) and the Flinders University, Adelaide, both holding the majority of the collected material (Reed & Bourne, 2000).

•The silt mechanically removed from larger bones was sieved to obtain smaller bones, bone fragments and teeth. Silt still adhering to the bones was brushed away dry and/or washed away with water. Lime encrustrations were removed using acetic acid and the so treated bones had to be stabilized subsequently with dissoluted Bedacryl (Smith, 1971).

Primary reference: M. J. Smith. 1971. Small fossil vertebrates from Victoria Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. I. Potoroinae (Macropodidae), Petauridae and Burramyidae (Marsupialia). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 95(4):185-198 [J. Mueller/T. Liebrecht]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 28364: authorized by John Alroy, entered by Erin Leckey on 10.02.2003, edited by Jason Head, Torsten Liebrecht, Nicholas Visalden and Graeme Lloyd

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)