PL3029 - Upper Bed, Table Cape (Miocene of Australia)

Also known as Fossil Bluff, Table Cape, Wynyard

Where: Tasmania, Australia (41.0° S, 145.7° E: paleocoordinates 53.3° S, 144.6° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Fossil Bluff Sandstone Formation, Aquitanian (23.0 - 20.4 Ma)

• Early Longfordian, planktonic foram zone N4, Foraminifera indicate both the Freestone Cove Sandstone and Fossil Bluff Formations were deposited during earliest Miocene time (Foram Zone N5/Faunal Unit 6 of Carter 1958) although a Late Oligocene (Faunal Unit 5 of Carter 1958) date remains possible for the former (Quilty 1972, Quilty & Teller 1994). Volcanics capping the section are not suitable for potassium-argon dating (L. Sutherland, pers. comm.) but indirect independent age control is provided by a section at Maude near Geelong, Victoria, where a 21.4 Ma basalt occurs between two limestones which preserve essentially the same marine fauna as the basal glauconitic sandstone unit in the Fossil Bluff Formation (Quilty 1966, Abele & Page 1974).

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: shoreface; lithified, glauconitic, calcareous sandstone and lithified siltstone

• Foraminifera data indicate the glauconitic sandstones near the base of the Fossil Bluff Formation accumulated in water depths of between 9-18 m and the upper section of calcareous sandstones, siltstones and calcarenites in water depths of up to 30 m.
• fine siltstones and shales, and glauconitic calcareous sandstone

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: original phosphate

Primary reference: H. H. Scott. 1914. Notes on a fossil whale from Wynyard, Tasmania. Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 1913:167-172 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 28307: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Mark Uhen on 06.02.2003, edited by Austin Hendy and Pete Wagner

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Cephalopoda
 Nautilida - Aturiidae
"Aturia australis" = Aturia cubaensis6
"Aturia australis" = Aturia cubaensis6 Lea 1841 nautiloid
Gastropoda
 Sorbeoconcha - Cypraeidae
Umbilia (Umbilia) angustior3 Pritchard 1896 cowry
Malacostraca
 Decapoda - Goneplacidae
Ommatocarcinus corioensis7 Creswell 1886 crab
Chondrichthyes
 Odontaspidida - Isuridae
"Isurus minutus" = Oxyrhina minuta2
"Isurus minutus" = Oxyrhina minuta2 Agassiz 1843 mackerel shark
 Hybodontiformes - Acrodontidae
Strophodus eocenicus2 Tate 1894 elasmobranch
 Heterodontiformes - Heterodontidae
Cestracion coleridgensis2 Chapman 1918 bullhead shark
Cestracion cainozoicus2 Chapman and Pritchard 1904 bullhead shark
Heterodontus cainozoicus4 Pledge 1985 bullhead shark
 Rhinopristiformes - Pristidae
Pristis recurvidens2 Chapman and Cudmore 1924 sawfish
 Lamniformes - Odontaspididae
"Odontaspis cuspidata" = Araloselachus cuspidatus2, "Odontaspis rutoti" = Palaeohypotodus rutoti2
"Odontaspis cuspidata" = Araloselachus cuspidatus2 Agassiz 1843 sand tiger shark
"Odontaspis rutoti" = Palaeohypotodus rutoti2 Winkler 1878 sand tiger shark
 Lamniformes - Carchariidae
Carcharias taurus4 Rafinesque 1810 sand shark
 Lamniformes - Lamnidae
Isurus retroflexus2 Agassiz 1838 mackerel shark
 Lamniformes - Otodontidae
"Lamna apiculata" = Otodus apiculatus2
"Lamna apiculata" = Otodus apiculatus2 Agassiz 1838 mackerel shark
 Chimaeriformes - Callorhynchidae
Ischyodus mortoni4 Chapman and Pritchard 1907 plownose chimaera
Mammalia
 Cetacea -
Odontoceti indet. Flower 1867 toothed whale
Prosqualodon davidis n. sp.5 Flynn 1923 toothed whale
 Theriamorpha - Wynyardiidae
Wynyardia bassiana1 Spencer 1901 diprotodont marsupial
 Life - Ostraciontidae
Aracana kershawi n. sp.2 Chapman and Cudmore 1924