Merlinleigh Station, mesa north of type section: Lutetian, Australia
collected by T.A. Darragh, G.W. Kendrick 1969
List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Cephalopoda
- Nautilida
- Aturiidae
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Aturia clarkei
Teichert 1944
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Bivalvia
- Cardiida
- Veneridae
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Periglypta weegeeree
Darragh and Kendrick 2010
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Dosinia (Kereia) numerosissima
Darragh and Kendrick 2010
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Bivalvia
- Cardiida
- Chamidae
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Chama sp.
Linnaeus 1758
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Bivalvia
- Carditida
- Carditidae
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Venericardia capricornis
Darragh and Kendrick 2010
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Bivalvia
- Arcida
- Glycymerididae
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Glycymeris cf. cainozoica
(Tenison Woods 1877)
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Gastropoda
- Lepetellida
- Fissurellidae
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? Tugali sp.
Gray 1843
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see common names |
Geography
Country: | Australia | State/province: | Western Australia |
Coordinates: | 24.3° South, 115.2° East (view map) | ||
Paleocoordinates: | 47.9° South, 100.6° East | ||
Basis of coordinate: | based on nearby landmark | ||
Geographic resolution: | outcrop |
Time
Period: | Paleogene | Epoch: | Eocene |
Stage: | Lutetian | 10 m.y. bin: | Cenozoic 2 |
Key time interval: | Lutetian | ||
Age range of interval: | 47.80000 - 41.20000 m.y. ago |
Stratigraphy
Formation: | Merlinleigh Sandstone | ||||
Stratigraphic resolution: | group of beds | ||||
Stratigraphy comments: From the presence of foraminifers Maslinella chapmani Glaessner and Wade, Operculina sp., Crespinina kingscotensis Wade and Rotalia sp., Cockbain (1981) confirmed a Late Eocene age for the Merlinleigh Sandstone, correlated in part with the Late Eocene Giralia Calcarenite of the Carnarvon Basin. Giralia Calcarenite later assigned Middle Eocene (Lutetian) age, Zone P12 of Berggren & Miller (1988). |
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology: | poorly lithified cherty/siliceous sandstone |
Lithology description: Poorly cemented, silicified quartz sandstone with subordinate siltstone and conglomerate | |
Environment: | shoreface |
Geology comments: Plant debris in the Merlinleigh Sandstone includes araucarian cones, proteaceous leaves, wood, a Banksia fructescence and other material (McLoughlin and Hill 1996). This, in close association with an assortment of marine fossils dominated by disarticulated bivalves from a shallow sandy infaunal habitat, poorly sorted coarse sandstone and conglomerate, and localised concentrations of plant material, including teredine-bored wood indicates a depositional environment featuring "local rivers in flood, depositing the poorly sorted sands and the plant material close to a marine sand bar" (McNamara and Scott 1983: pp. 186–187). The presence of rare very worn and damaged specimens of a turbinid gastropod and limpet are indications of transport of specimens from some distant rocky or hard ground habitat. The Aturia specimens suggest strandings on a shallow beach exposed to the open ocean; the extensive damage to almost all the specimens, particularly to the body chamber, suggests some kind of predation at sea involving large fish or cetaceans. |
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation: | body,replaced with silica |
Size of fossils: | macrofossils |
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods: | field collection | ||
Reason for describing collection: | taxonomic analysis | ||
Museum repositories: | WAM | ||
Collectors: | T.A. Darragh, G.W. Kendrick | Collection dates: | 1969 |
Metadata
Database number: | 179829 | ||
Authorizer: | M. Clapham | Enterer: | M. Clapham |
Modifier: | M. Clapham | Research group: | marine invertebrate |
Created: | 2016-07-02 15:55:33 | Last modified: | 2019-09-01 16:53:29 |
Access level: | the public | Released: | 2016-07-02 15:55:33 |
Creative Commons license: | CC BY |
Reference information
Primary reference:
59652. | T. A. Darragh and G. W. Kendrick. 2010. Eocene molluscs from the Merlinleigh Sandstone, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 26:23-41 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham] |