Dry Creek Sands - Holden's Bore, Adelaide (Miocene of Australia)

Also known as Bore 81

Where: South Australia, Australia (34.9° S, 138.6° E: paleocoordinates 40.5° S, 137.0° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Dry Creek Sands Formation, Late/Upper Miocene (11.6 - 5.3 Ma)

• STRATIGRAPHIC RELATIONS: Presumably unconformably underyling Pliocene Hallett Cove Sandstone (Pleistocene-Recent in Fig. 2 of Ludbrook 1954) The Dry Creek Sands are a correlate of the Bookpurnong Fm (Beu and Darragh 2001). THICKNESS: Typically the Dry Creek Sands are less than 200 ft thick based on Fig. 2 of Ludbrook (1954). AGE: Previously regarded as Pliocene in age (Ludbrook 1954, 1963). However more recent idependent assessments of foraminifera and dinoflagellates (Brown and Stephenson 1991; Macphail and Kellett 1993) and Mollusca (Beu and Darragh 2001) suggest that the lower Dry Creek Sands (greater than 105-115 m) are of Bairnsdalian-Mitchelian age (latest Middle Miocene-early Late Miocene). A Late Miocene age is adopted here = Mitchelian. STRATIGRAPHIC POSITION: Composite list for Dry Creek Sands. From multiple horizons between 330 and 420 ft in the bore.

• formation-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: coastal; unlithified, fine-grained, shelly/skeletal, gray, white sandstone

• ENVIRONMENT: Deposited in a shallow bay or gulf after depression of older strata, submerged during the early Tertiary; sandy bay, protected. Not an estuarine or restricted embayment fauna, so here assigned to a "siliciclastic-coastal indet." environment.
• SPECIFIC LITHOLOGY: Ligh-grey-silery, fine, sharp sands and clays, with intercalated bands of grey and white limestone; pale-grey shelly sands. LITHIFICATION: Unlithified, possibly occasionally poorly-lithified.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: original aragonite, original calcite

Collection methods: core,

• COLLECTOR: Collected by multiple parties during the irregular construction of bores within the vicinity of Adelaide. Reported on by previous authors including Tate (1890, 1898), Tate and Dennant (1896), Hall and Pritchard (1902), Howchin (1914, 1928) and Chapman (1916). These authors reported piecemeal this fauna, while Ludbrook (1954-1956) presents more detailed taxonomy and thorough covereage of all bores. REPOSITORY: Most material reposited in Tate Collection, University of Adelaide, while some is preserved in the MNHM in Paris and BMNH.

Primary reference: N.H. Ludbrook. 1953. The molluscan fauna of the Pliocene strata underlying the Adelaide Plains. Part 1. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 77:42-64 [A. Miller/A. Hendy/A. Hendy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 63436: authorized by Austin Hendy, entered by Austin Hendy on 15.08.2006

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• COVERAGE: Exhaustive for molluscan groups. No other taxa specifically listed. NOMENCLATURE: Authoritative series of publications, but with rather oudated nomenclature. This is remedied by revisions of Australian Mollusca by Darragh (1970), and various publications by Darragh (post 1970).
unclassified
  -
Gastropoda
 Cerithioidea - Diastomatidae
 Cerithioidea - Turritellidae
"Turritella (Haustator) acricula" = Gazameda acricula3
"Turritella (Haustator) acricula" = Gazameda acricula3 Tate 1893 turret shell
Subspecies: T. (H.) acricula adelaidensis
 Sorbeoconcha - Triphoridae
 Sorbeoconcha - Ranellidae
 Neogastropoda - Marginellidae
"Marginella (Eratoidea) glaessneri" = Eratoidea4
"Marginella (Eratoidea) glaessneri" = Eratoidea4 margin shell
 Sorbeoconcha - Naticidae
Sigaretotrema subinfundibulum4 Tate 1893 moon snail
 Sorbeoconcha - Eatoniellidae
 Sorbeoconcha - Adeorbidae
 Sorbeoconcha - Rissoidae
 Trochoidea - Turbinidae
"Astraea (Bellastraea) hesperus" = Astralium2
"Astraea (Bellastraea) hesperus" = Astralium2 snail
 Trochoidea - Liotiidae
 Trochoidea - Trochidae
Polyplacophora
 Neoloricata - Acanthochitonidae
Bivalvia
 Pectinida - Pectinoidae
"Chlamys (Chlamys) polyaktinos" = Austrohinnites polyaktinos1
"Chlamys (Chlamys) polyaktinos" = Austrohinnites polyaktinos1 Ludbrook 1955 scallop
 Arcida - Limopsidae
 Lucinida - Lucinidae
 Cardiida - Mesodesmatidae
 Cardiida - Mactridae
"Mactra (Electromactra) howchiniana" = Electromactra howchiniana1
"Mactra (Electromactra) howchiniana" = Electromactra howchiniana1 Tate 1887 clam
 Cardiida - Psammobiidae
 Carditida - Carditidae
Cardita compta1 Tate 1886 clam
 Carditida - Condylocardiidae