palaeontology
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Legacy product - no abstract available
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Abstract Sedimentary and palaeontological samples from steep, deepwater, escarpments of the Wallaby (`Cuvier') Plateau, a vast marginal plateau with an area of some 100,000km² west of Carnarvon, Western Australia, represent the first collected soft rock geologic data from this immense bathymetric high. The impetus for this frontier, integrated study was to better understand the unresolved geologic history of the Wallaby Plateau, which to date has been hampered by a paucity of real rock data, especially due to difficulties in sampling in 2200 to 5700 m water depths; only modern carbonates, largely altered tholeiitic basalts and volcaniclastic rocks have been recorded previously. Variably fossiliferous to unfossiliferous claystone, siltstone and sandstone samples from 12 southern Wallaby Plateau stations (3015 to 5159 m water depths) range from interpreted paralic to shallow water marine settings, and contain low to moderately diverse assemblages of Bivalvia, Gastropoda, Ostracoda, Foraminifera, palynomorphs, very rare nannofossils, and teleost fish fragments, which collectively point to an age range of latest Berriasian to Barremian-Aptian in the Early Cretaceous that pre-dates, straddles and post-dates the breakup and opening of the Cuvier Abyssal Plain. Seismic imaging of the Wallaby Plateau shows a substantial thickness of both dipping and flat-lying, sub-parallel reflectors beneath parts of the Early Cretaceous Gondwanan break-up unconformity. This information, taken together with the recent identification of Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian foraminifera from the same location, may indicate the presence of pre-breakup sedimentary section beneath parts of the the Wallaby Plateau. Keywords: Systematic palaeontology; Mollusca; Foraminifera; Ostracoda; dinoflagellate cysts; Early Cretaceous; Wallaby Plateau; Australia
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fossils housed in Canberra, and administered by the Australian Geological Survey Organization (AGSO), previouslyknown as the Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology & Geophysics (BMR). It originated with the appointment of aCommonwealth Palaeontologist in 1927, and since the 1950's has grown from a small collection of about 1,000specimens to its current size of over 30,000 specimens which have been described, figured, or referred to in scientificpublications. The rapid increase in size in recent years reflects a strong research effort to document fossil faunas andfloras from important localities throughout Australia, as well as Papua New Guinea, Australian Antarctic Territory,and the seafloor of our continental shelves. All of these areas have been the subject of geological investigations byAGSO. The CPC forms a taxonomic database which underpins all biochronological dating of AustralasianPhanerozoic sedimentary sequences, and thus forms the basis for biochronological age control using various fossilgroups, which is an integral part of most geological investigations concerned with stratified rocks. Such investigationsinclude geological mapping projects, and subsurface analysis of Australasian sedimentary basins, which areundertaken by AGSO in support of petroleum and mineral exploration and land use activities throughout the continent.
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Legacy product - no abstract available
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Legacy product - no abstract available
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Legacy product - no abstract available
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Legacy product - no abstract available