palaeontology
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Conodont Biostratigraphy of the upper Devonian reef complexes of the Canning Basin, Western Australia
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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