The Stratigraphy and Palaeontology of Teapot Creek, MacLaughUn River, NSW Leanne Armand'-^, W. D. L. Ride' and Graham Taylor^ 'Department of Geology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200; ^Current contact address: Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-77, Hobart 7001, Tasmania, Australia (
[email protected]); ^Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Evolution and Mineral Exploration, University of Canberra, ACT 2601 . Armand, L., Ride, W.D.L. and Taylor, G. (2000). The stratigraphy and palaeontology of Teapot Creek, MacLaughlin River, NSW. Proceedings of the Linean Society of New South Wales 122, 101-121. The stratigraphy and the Quaternary depositional history of Teapot Creek, a tributary of the MacLaughlin River in the Southern Monaro, southeastern New South Wales, are given and discussed. Other fossil-mammal bearing deposits in the MacLaughlin Valley are reported. The valley of Teapot Creek contains a sequence of terraces. The highest and oldest of these is characterised by poorly sorted conglomerate deposits typical of stream-deposited longitudinal bars. Palaeomagnetic results obtained from this terrace are interpretable to the Bruhnes normal polarity interval (<0.78 Ma). A second, lower terrace is set into the highest terrace. Deposition of this terrace began before 5320±80yr BP and is characterised by overbank deposits. The lowest and youngest terrace, consisting mostly of fine clays and silts, represents lateral accretions inside meander loops during modem flooding events. The youngest terrace contains the remains of modern introduced mammals. The intermediate terrace has yielded fossils of modem Macropus and an unidentified murid. The highest terrace contains the remains of fossil mammals found in Plio-Pleistocene fossil deposits elsewhere in Eastern Australia. Species identified from it are Macropus altus, M. ferragus, M. titan, Procoptodon goliah, P. pusio, Protemnodon anak, P. "roechus/brehus", Sthenurus atlas, S. occidentalis, S. newtonae, Troposodon minor, and Phascolonus gigas, but no modem species of Macropus kangaroos or wallabies. Pleistocene fossil mammals have been located in four other sites in the valley of the MacLaughlin River. A fifth site. Chalk Pool, is sedimentologically different and at a lower level relative to the modern river than the other terraces. Species identified in the Chalk Pool deposit are regarded as Plio/Pleistocene forms (Macropus pan, Protemnodon chinchillaensis and P. "roechus/P. brehus "); of these, P. chinchillaensis is known only from the Pliocene. Manuscript received 1 July 2000, accepted for publication 13 November 2000. KEYWORDS: Chalk Pool, Macropodidae, Marsupial, Monaro, Pleistocene, Pliocene, Teapot Creek, Vombatidae. INTRODUCTION Background The Monaro region is the highest part of the southern tablelands of New South Wales. Work on mammal fossils from alluvial deposits in the region has previously been confined to a study on the northern part of the region (Ride et al. 1989; Davis 1996; Ride and Davis 1997), although in the 1930's fossil mammal remains had been collected from Proc. Linn. Soc. n.s.w., 122. 2000
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