Abstract
McEachern's Deathtrap Cave (G49/50) is a classic pitfall trap located in southeastern Australia, which has been collecting terrestrial animals since the Late Quaternary. Dispersal and breakage of fossil bone elements are recognised as dominant taphonomic processes. The sedimentary sequence contained within the cave consists of an upper and lower sequence, where two distinct types of bone modification are identified. The degree of bone breakage gradually increases with depth and is attributed to sediment compression and trampling. Minor in situ breakage has occurred as a result of rock-fall and/or trampling. Bone dispersal processes are indicated by a deficit in element representation required to account for whole skeletons based on MNI calculations. Bone elements that are easily transportable by flowing water have a low frequency of representation in the sedimentary sequence. In the cave floor bone lag deposit, shallow, intermittent flowing water is suggested by the dominance of transverse limb orientations and the low frequency of stable orientations that only occur in the most sensitive flow indicators, e.g. pelves.
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