Wellington Caves (M828) (Devonian of Australia)

Where: New South Wales, Australia (32.6° S, 149.0° E: paleocoordinates 9.0° S, 174.0° E)

• coordinate based on nearby landmark

• small collection-level geographic resolution

When: Garra Formation, Pragian (410.8 - 407.6 Ma)

• As do Lenz and Johnson (1985, ref.s 7167,7168), these authors interpret the formation as spanning Lochkovian to Pragian (specifically late Lochkovian to middle Pragian), based mainly on conodonts. As with the Lenz and Johnson brachiopods, the material here seems to be largely from the middle third. Strusz et al. (1999--PBDB ref.7152) conclude, based on brachiopods, that the material reported here is Pragian. Farrell (1992--PBDB ref. 7169), after studying the Garra in the type area to the south, concludes that the formation is diachronous, being younger here in the Wellington area, mainly Pragian sulcatus Zone, and late Lochkovian in the type area.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: shallow subtidal; grainstone and calcareous shale

• From Lenz and Johnson, ref. 7167: "The Garra limestones are the product of relatively shallow water deposition; the lower approximately one-third of the formation represents a progressive transgressive sequence, the middle portion is the product of still-sand and gradual infilling, and the upper one-third represents progressive shallowing to supratidal conditions." JA: fossils are from the middle third, said to be "deposited sub-tidally on a shallow platform"
• Lenz and Johnson (ref. 7167) basically just refer to "pure limestones," from which this material comes Strusz (1965, ref. 7170) mentions a broader suite of lithologies for the formation as a whole, as does Farrell (1992, ref. 7169). These are predominantly calcareous shale and detrital limestone, interspersed with biohermal and biostromal deposits. The detrial limestones include many types, but are mainly calcarenites. In some places there are algal limestones, pellet or oolite calcarenties.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: replaced with silica

Collection methods: JA: originally entered by Foote as a composite list for the formation; I have broken it down by collection

Primary reference: B. D. E. Chatterton, B. D. Johnson, and K. S. W. Campbell. 1979. Silicified Lower Devonian trilobites from New South Wales. Palaeontology 22(4):799-837 [M. Foote/M. Foote/M. Foote]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 69376: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 24.02.2007

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

• Trilobites only. JA: formation also yields "brachiopods, molluscs, and corals"
Show authors, comments, and common names
Trilobita
 Proetida - Proetidae
Proetus (Coniproetus) irroratus n. sp.
Proetus (Coniproetus) irroratus n. sp. Chatterton et al. 1979 trilobite