Where: South Australia, Australia (32.4° S, 137.9° E: paleocoordinates 0.0° N, 0.0° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Skillogalee Dolomite Formation (Burra Group), Tonian (1000.0 - 850.0 Ma)

• From cherty units in the middle to upper third of the Skillogalee Dolomite. The depositional age of the Skillogalee Dolomite is constrained between 659 +/- 6 Ma (U-Pb zircon age from a tuffaceous horizon in the lower Wilyerpa Formation; Fanning and Link, 2008) and 777 +/- 7 Ma (U-Pb zircon age from the Boucaut Volcanics at the base of the Burra Group; presented as personal communication without isotopic data in Preiss, 2000). A revised TIMS U-Pb age for the Boucaut Volcanics yielded 788 +/- 6 Ma (Armistead et al., 2021). Preiss et al. (2009) also dated volcaniclastic rocks of the Kooringa Member of the Skillogalee Dolomite at 787 +/- 7 Ma, and indicated that the porphyry intruding the Kooringa Member at the Burra Mine is 794 +/- 4 Ma. The Skillogalee Dolomite is separated from the Sturtian glacial deposits by∼2-3 km of sedimentary rocks, and the Sturtian glacial deposits unconformably overlie the Burra Group. Although the radiometric bracketing includes the Cryogenian, the stratigraphic relationships indicate a Tonian age, likely close to 780-790 Ma.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lagoonal or restricted shallow subtidal; lithified, black, cherty/siliceous dolomite

Size class: microfossils

• "Ghosts" of algal sheaths are preserved near the periphery of the vein, but are obscured in the center.

Preservation: permineralized, original carbon, replaced with silica

Collected by C.R. Dalgarno in 1965, 1966

Collection methods: peel or thin section,

• Repository: Harvard University Paleobotany Collection

Primary reference: J. W. Schopf and E. S. Barghoorn. 1969. Microorganisms from the Late Precambrian of South Australia. Journal of Paleontology 43:111-118 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 215807: authorized by Barbara Seuss, entered by Barbara Seuss on 24.11.2020, edited by Matthew Clapham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)