Electron spin resonance dating of the fossil deposits in the Naracoorte Caves, South Australia

The caves near Naracoorte, South Australia, contain one of the richest and most diverse fossil faunal assemblages on the Australian continent. Three s ites were selected for electron spin resonance (ESR) dating because elastic , fossiliferous sediments were sandwiched between speleothem layers. This a llows independent age control by highly precise thermal ionization mass-spe ctrometry (TIMS) U-series dating. We find that all ESR results agree within the constraints given by the U-series dates, and allow further refinement of the age of the fauna analysed, indicating that most of the fauna in the large Victoria Cave Fossil Chamber is twice journal of Quaternary Science a s old as reported previously. Our dating results, spanning from 280 to 500 ka for the Fossil Chamber, Vic toria Cave, to about 125 ka for the Grant Hall, Victoria Cave, and 170 to 2 80 ka for the Fossil Chamber, Cathedral Cave, indicate little change, if an y, in the megafaunal assemblage from the early Middle to the early Late Ple istocene. This changed dramatically after the last interglacial, when a lar ge proportion of the megafauna suddenly disappeared. Copyright (C) 2001 Joh n Wiley & Sons, Ltd.