Hellyer Gorge (Carboniferous of Australia)

Where: Tasmania, Australia (41.3° S, 145.5° E: paleocoordinates 68.6° S, 171.9° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Wynyard Formation, Gzhelian (303.7 - 298.9 Ma)

• About 280 m above the unconformity at the base of the Wynyard tillite

• group of beds-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: lacustrine - small; lithified claystone

• "the margins of a small shallow lake adjacent to or in association with glacial moraines. The sediment was almost certainly carried into the lake with the snow-melt." This basin likely developed due to extensional block faulting during the late Paleozoic, with sub-basins within the Tasmania Basin situated over 1000 m below adjacent highs. The glacigenic deposits occur in structural lows within the basin, which are interpreted to represent grabens or half-grabens.
• Rhythmitic claystone

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: adpression

Collected in 1972

Primary reference: E. F. Riek. 1973. A Carboniferous insect. Nature 244:455-456 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 77198: authorized by John Alroy, entered by John Alroy on 30.12.2007, edited by Matthew Clapham

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Rhacopteris ovata
  -
"Rhacopteris" ovata
Branchiopoda
 Anostraca -
Anostraca indet.
Anostraca indet. Sars 1867 branchiopod
Insecta
 Palaeodictyoptera - Psychroptilidae
Psychroptilus burrettae n. gen. n. sp.
Psychroptilus burrettae n. gen. n. sp. Riek 1976 winged insect
compared to Palaeodictyoptera and Megasecoptera