“Shorebirds are uncommon in the fossil record, so discovering many in one cavern(Blanche Cave )was a surprise,” stated Flinders University Ph.D. prospect Karl Lenser.

“This reveals that the wetlands and mudflats, where birds like plovers, sandpipers and snipes feed, were a lot more typical in the area throughout the last Ice Age.”

Environment modification and diminishing environment are triggering living shorebird populations in Australia to fall.

Comprehending how these types reacted to previous environment modification might be essential to forecasting how populations will be impacted in the future.

Lenser and his coworkers were especially puzzled by the fossils of one bird.

The plains-wanderer– a little, threatened bird which is discovered mainly in little populations in Victoria and New South Wales– was among the most typical types determined in the research study.

Over half of the almost 300 bones taken a look at by the authors were recognized as plains-wanderers.

“Living plains-wanderers are now extremely selective about their environment, however other fossils from Naracoorte program that the location was most likely a forest … a far cry from the treeless open meadows plains-wanderers live in today,” Lenser stated.

Naracoorte is the only fossil website in Australia where plains-wanderers are discovered in such high numbers, recommending that occasions in the last 14,000 years triggered a big decrease in populations of this interesting bird.

This decrease was related to the plains-wanderer ending up being restricted to a narrower series of environments where trees are missing, rather various to the forests it inhabited throughout the last hundred thousand years.

“This sample of shorebirds is likewise additional unique as it records migratory types that yearly fly from the northern hemisphere to invest the boreal winter season in Australia,” stated Flinders University’s Dr. Trevor Worthy.

“These consist of 3 types of sandpipers in the genus Calidris and the Latham’s snipe (Gallinago hardwickii.”

“Also typical in the fossil assemblage is the double-banded plover which moves from Australia to New Zealand to reproduce.”

“Two birds were less than a years of age showing that they had actually flown as recentlies established the 2,000 km range from New Zealand just to be recorded by an owl near Blanche Cave at Naracoorte,” Dr. Worthy stated.

“There is still a lot we do not learn about birds in Australia throughout the last Ice Age, however fossils from caverns like those at Naracoorte are assisting to fill this space,” Lenser included.

“The Naracoorte Caves protects a half million-year record of biodiversity in southeast South Australia,” stated Adelaide University’s Dr. Liz Reed.

“As this research study plainly shows, the caverns offer a window into pre-European landscapes and yield details appropriate to the preservation of threatened types today.”

“Visitors to Naracoorte Caves can see the excavations and find out more about the science of South Australia’s only World Heritage Area.”

The findings were released online in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica

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Karl M. Lenser et al2026. Fossil shorebirds (Aves: Charadriiformes) expose patterns in Pleistocene wetlands at Naracoorte Caves, South Australia. Palaeontologia Electronica 29 (1 ): a2; doi: 10.26879/ 1608