PL 3171 - 23.5 km north of Highway l, north of Walpole. (Eocene of Australia)

Where: Western Australia, Australia (34.8° S, 116.8° E: paleocoordinates 54.9° S, 102.2° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Pallinup Siltstone Formation, Priabonian (38.0 - 33.9 Ma)

• The Werillup Formation is regarded as late Middle Eocene. This is supported by the presence of the Dasycladcian algae, Larvana and Neomeris (Cockbain 1969) and the foraminifer Asterocylinia (Cockbain 1967). The Pallinup Siltstone is of similar age, again from the presence of the nautiloid Aturia clarkei and foraminifer reported by Backhouse (1969), Cockbain (1968a) and Quilty (1969). The foraminifers correspond with Ludbrook's "Tortachilla microfauna" (Cockbain 1968c).

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: offshore; lithified, brown, white, cherty/siliceous siltstone

• Was laid down in a shallow transgressive sea with negligible input of terrigenous material, allowing sponges to thrive. The Pallinup Siltstone formed in a shallow shelf environment with well circulated water of normal marine salinity. They inferred a depth of deposition of 76 m but Pickett (1982) suggested this estimate might be too great. Churchill (1973) and Clarke (1994) inferred a depth of deposition of approximately 150 m. The estimates of depth of deposition by Darragh and Kendrick (1980) are therefore possibly conservative.
• Cockbain (1968c) described the Pallinup Siltstone as typically 'white, brown or red siltstone and spongolite.'

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: replaced with silica

Reposited in the WAM

Primary reference: T. A. Darragh. 2011. A revision of the Australian fossil species of Zoila (Gastropoda: Cypraeidae). Memoirs of Museum Victoria 68:1-28 [P. Wagner/P. Wagner]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 176275: authorized by Pete Wagner, entered by Pete Wagner on 05.02.2016, edited by Wolfgang Kiessling

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Demospongiae
 Dictyoceratida - Vaceletiidae
Vaceletia progenitor n. sp. Pickett 1982 demosponge
Type locality or at least close by
Gastropoda
 Sorbeoconcha - Eocypraeidae
Willungia ovulatella Tate 1890 snail
 Sorbeoconcha - Cypraeidae
Zoila viathomsoni n. sp. Darragh 2011 cowry
 Sorbeoconcha - Triviidae
Semitrivia pompholugota Tate 1890 snail