Abermain No. 3 shaft, near Cessnock (Permian of Australia)

Where: New South Wales, Australia (32.8° S, 151.4° E: paleocoordinates 67.1° S, 164.8° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Branxton Formation, Kungurian (279.3 - 272.3 Ma)

• Lower Branxton Stage. Localities in the formation contain brachiopods of the Echinalosia preovalis (upper), E. maxwelli, E. davidi, and E. discinia zones, ranging in age from the APP3.2 to APP4.1 palynomorph zones. Laurie et al. (2016) dated zircons from the top of APP3.2 (Rowan Formation) as 271.60 and 271.89 Ma, constraining its upper part to Roadian, given a Roadian-Wordian boundary around 266.9 Ma (Wu et al., 2020). The base of APP3.2 is not constrained radiometrically, so it is unclear whether the zone is entirely Roadian, but likely extends into the Kungurian. Strata in Western Australia assigned to APP4.1 yielded U-Pb ages of 269.25 Ma or younger, constraining the upper boundary of APP3.3 to the late Roadian. The top of APP4.1 may be Wordian, constrained by earliest Capitanian radiometric dates in the lower part of APP4.2 (Laurie et al., 2016). The Broughton Formation, higher in the Sydney Basin succession, also yields an early Capitanian radiometric date (262.51 Ma) from its uppermost part, belonging to the upper part of APP4.2 (Metcalfe et al., 2015). Because this collection is from the lower part of the formation, a Kungurian age is assigned.

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; lithified siliciclastic sediments

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: mold/impression

Collection methods: Repository: Australian Museum, Sydney

Primary reference: H. O. Fletcher. 1945. A new genus Glyptoleda and a revision of the genus Nuculana from the Permian of Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 21(6):293-312 [M. Patzkowsky/J. Bonelli/J. Bonelli]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 161838: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 13.09.2014

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Bivalvia
 Nuculanida - Polidevciidae
"Nuculana darwini" = Phestia darwini, Polidevcia nodulosa n. sp., "Nuculana ovata" = Polidevcia ovata
"Nuculana darwini" = Phestia darwini de Koninck 1877 clam
Polidevcia nodulosa n. sp. Waterhouse 1964 clam
"Nuculana ovata" = Polidevcia ovata Laseron 1910 clam