From Geoscience Australia
JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

Youngest Permian marine macrofossil fauna from the Bowen and Sydney Basins, eastern Australia

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

The marine invertebrate macrofauna from the upper part of the Blenheim Subgroup of the Bowen Basin and the Kulnura Marine Tongue of the Sydney Basin is described. The fauna is assigned to 12 genera, one of which - Pseudonucula - is newly recognised, and to 13 species, of which one is new. On the basis of these descriptions and existing published information, three zones are recognised in the Blenheim subgroup, in ascending order, the Martiniopsis magna, the Martiniopsis pelicanensis and the Martiniopsis havilensis zones. An explanation is given of the conclusions of Waterhouse and Jell (1983) about the lower part of the subgroup. From the fauna, particularly the occurrence of Martiniopsis havilensis, it is concluded that a hiatus occurs in the Blenheim Subgroup between the Black Alley Shale and the Peawaddy Formation in the southwestern part of the Bowen Basin, and that the Black Alley Shale is equivalent to the MacMillan Formation in the central part of the basin and the Exmoor Formation in the northeastern part. The upper part of the Blenheim Subgroup (zone of Martiniopsis havilensis) seems to be younger than the Mulbring Shale of the Sydney Basin, and the Kulnura Tongue is not likely to be significantly younger than the Blenheim Subgroup. The faunas described appear to be younger than Kungurian, but are not likely to be younger than the Kazanian. They are rather low in diversity relative to older Permian faunas in the two basins, and this probably reflects the rather restricted marine conditions at the end of the open sea in the two basins.

Files and APIs

Tags

Additional Info

Field Value
Title Youngest Permian marine macrofossil fauna from the Bowen and Sydney Basins, eastern Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/9ed3940d-6242-401d-9624-dcd6e3d836ff
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage Australia
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Youngest Permian marine macrofossil fauna from the Bowen and Sydney Basins, eastern Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/youngest-permian-marine-macrofossil-fauna-from-the-bowen-and-sydney-basins-eastern-australia