Rowells Beach (Cretaceous of Australia)

Also known as Rowell's Beach

Where: Victoria, Australia (38.5° S, 145.4° E: paleocoordinates 76.8° S, 116.7° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Wonthaggi Formation (Strzelecki Group), Aptian (125.0 - 113.0 Ma)

• "The Eumeralla Formation includes the informal ‘Wonthaggi’ formation of the Gippsland Basin mentioned in some 50 references; these units are lithologically continuous and represent a single depositional (Otway-Gippsland) basin formed by Early Cretaceous rifting between Australia and Antarctica" (Benson et al. 2013).

•informal formation name for upper Strzelecki Group

•"Eumeralla (=Wonthaggi) Formation (early–middle Aptian; Wagstaff & McEwan-Mason 1989)"

•informal "Wonthaggi Formation" used to represent "upper Strzelecki Group"

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: channel lag; conglomeratic sandstone

• The Eumeralla deposits accumulated in a braided fluvial system and is dominated by multi-storey sandstone packages reaching in excess of 100 m thick. Where complete fluvial cycles are present, they consist of a series of channel-fill sands that fine upwards and grade into mudstone-dominated floodbasin units, commonly containing thin sandstone beds and coal seams. The bases of these cycles are marked by scoured surfaces and contain mudstone rip-up clasts, plant remains including large logs, and isolated bones of freshwater 65 and terrestrial tetrapods and invertebrates. This material was transported by spring thaw floods travelling westwards towards the sea (e.g., Rich et al. 1989, Benson et al. 2012). The fauna represents a palaeoenvironment characterized by at least three months of winter 70 darkness (Rich & Rich 1989), and likely high levels of seasonality resulting in extreme cold intervals (Gregory et al. 1989, Constantine et al. 1998).

Size class: macrofossils

Collected by M. Cleeland, K. Kool, A. Constantine in 1990–1992, 2002, 2008

Collection methods: surface (in situ), mechanical,

• NMV P: Museum of Victoria, Palaeontology

Primary reference: A. Warren, T. M. Rich, and P. Vickers-Rich. 1997. The last last labyrinthodont?. Palaeontographica Abteilung A 247:1-24 [R. Butler/R. Butler]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 137194: authorized by Richard Butler, entered by Richard Butler on 11.12.2012, edited by Roger Benson and Matthew Carrano

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Reptilia
 Plesiosauria - Pliosauridae
? Pliosauridae "indet. large taxon"1
? Pliosauridae "indet. large taxon"1 Seeley 1874 plesiosaur
NMV P198945, the robust tooth of a large-bodied plesiosaurian, likely a pliosaurid
 Dinosauria -
Dinosauria indet.2
Dinosauria indet.2 Owen 1842 dinosaur
Amphibia
 Temnospondyli - Chigutisauridae
Koolasuchus cleelandi n. gen. n. sp.
Koolasuchus cleelandi n. gen. n. sp. Warren et al. 1997 tetrapod
NMV P 186213 (holotype), mandible. NMV P 186040, 186145, 186146, 186214, 186237, 186239, 186249
1Benson et al. 2013; 2Rich and Vickers-Rich 2020