The record of fauna, and accumulating agents of hair and bone, found in middens of stick-nest rats (Genus Leporillus) (Rodentia : Muridae)

Abstract

Middens built by stick-nest rats (Leporillus apicalis and/or Leporillus conditor) contain information relating to the animals that lived in the arid areas of Australia. The hair and bones recovered from stick-nest rat middens in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia provide information about the former distribution and community composition of species in arid Australia. Some of the species recorded from the middens are no longer present in the surrounding areas. The bone and hair materials appear to have been derived from the scats of small carnivorous mammals and incorporated into middens by stick-nest rats. The material has been radiocarbon dated and, in some cases, represents over 2000 years of accumulation in the middens of stick-nest rats.