Gosford Quarry (BMNH coll): Spathian - Bithynian, Australia
collected by M. Blunt, A. Lambert

List of taxa
Where & when
Geology
Taphonomy & methods
Metadata & references
Taxonomic list
Chondrichthyes - Cestraciontidae
Cestraciontidae indet. Bonaparte 1838
Palaeonisciformes - Palaeoniscidae
Myriolepis clarkei Egerton 1864
Palaeonisciformes - Redfieldiidae
Actinopteri - Pholidophoriformes - Pholidophoridae
Actinopteri - Peltopleuriformes - Peltopleuridae
BMNH P.6278, 6274 (by exchange, 1890)
Actinopteri - Semionotiformes - Semionotidae
Actinopteri - Perleidiformes - Cleithrolepidae
BMNH P.6280-81 (by exchange, 1890)
Amphibia - Temnospondyli - Brachyopidae
Stephens 1887 1 specimen
NSWGS 12572, skull and partial postcranium (holotype)
Amphibia - Temnospondyli
Cosgriff 1972 1 specimen
AM MF.165, mould of skull roof (holotype)
Dipnoi
Saurichthyiformes - Saurichthyidae
see common names

Geography
Country:Australia State/province:New South Wales
Coordinates: 33.4° South, 151.3° East (view map)
Paleocoordinates:77.3° South, 114.6° East (Wright 2013)
Basis of coordinate:based on nearby landmark
Time
Period: Triassic Epoch: Early Triassic - Middle Triassic
Stage: Olenekian - Anisian 10 m.y. bin: Triassic 1 - Triassic 2
Key time interval: Spathian - Bithynian
Age range of interval: 248.1 - 244.24 m.y. ago
Stratigraphy
Geological group:Narrabeen Formation:Terrigal
Stratigraphic resolution:group of beds
Stratigraphy comments: a bed "5 ft 3 in thick". Upper part of the Terrigal Formation (formerly Gosford Formation), which is the uppermost unit of the Narrabeen Group. The Narrabeen Group extends from Late Permian–early Anisian, suggesting a late Spathian to early Anisian age for this locality (Warren & Marsicano 1998).
Lithology and environment
Primary lithology:planar lamination,gray lithified muddy,sandy "shale"
Lithology description: "at the top of a group of flaggy hard sandstones, alternating with purplish grey shales with occasional bands of clay ironstone"; the sandstones are "strongly ripple-marked" and the bed itself consists of "Sandy shale and laminated mudstone, purplish grey" that is "immediately" overlain by "a lenticular band of coarse pebbles" interpreted as a flood deposit, later described as "a layer of dark grey shale"; "numerous plant remains" are variably said to be from the "intercalated shaly beds" or "the fine muds," suggesting that these are alternating laminations in the same bed
Environment:lacustrine indet.
Geology comments: "some land-locked lake or sheltered estuary"
Taphonomy
Modes of preservation:mold/impression,adpression
Size of fossils:macrofossils
Collection methods and comments
Collection methods:salvage,selective quarrying,survey of museum collection
Reason for describing collection:taxonomic analysis
Museum repositories:BMNH
Collectors:M. Blunt, A. Lambert
Collection method comments: discovered by "Mr. Blunt, Railway Contractor, when opening a quarry for railway balast"; some material was collected by A. Lambert and most by "the Geological Survey Collector"
Specimens also in Australian Musuem and Geological and Mining Museum of the New South Wales Geological Survey
Metadata
Also known as:Railway Ballast Quarry
Database number:131926
Authorizer:M. Clapham, R. Butler, J. Alroy Enterer:P. Vazquez, J. Alroy, R. Butler
Modifier:M. Carrano Research group:vertebrate
Created:2012-08-02 10:00:38 Last modified:2025-02-22 15:12:02
Access level:the public Released:2012-08-02 10:00:38
Creative Commons license:CC0
Reference information

Primary reference:
39283. A. S. Woodward. 1890. The fossil fishes of the Hawkesbury Series at Gosford. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of New South Wales. Palaeontology 4:1-57 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]

Secondary references:

63816 F. Chapman. 1914. Australasian Fossils. A Students’ Manual of Palaeontology 1-341 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
43610 J. W. Cosgriff. 1972. Parotosaurus wadei, a new capitosaurid from New South Wales. Journal of Paleontology 46:545-555 [R. Butler/R. Butler]
89724 S. F. Poropat, P. R. Bell, L. J. Hart, S. W. Salisbury, and B. P. Kear. 2023. An annotated checklist of Australian Mesozoic tetrapods. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 47(2):129-205 [M. Carrano/M. Carrano]
43649 M. A. Stephens. 1887. On some additional labyrinthodont fossils from the Hawkesbury sandstones of New South Wales (Platyceps wilkinsoni, and two unnamed specimens). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 1:1175-1192 [R. Butler/R. Butler]
43651 W. J. Stephens. 1888. On some additional labyrinthodont fossils from the Hawkesbury sandstone of New South Wales. Second note on Platyceps wilkinsonii. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 2:156-158 [R. Butler/R. Butler]
43650 A. Warren and C. Marsicano. 1998. Revision of the Brachyopidae (Temnospondyli) from the Triassic of the Sydney, Carnarvon and Tasmania Basins, Australia. Alcheringa 22:329-342 [R. Butler/R. Butler]
38893 A. S. Woodward. 1895. Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History), Part III. Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes in the British Museum (Natural History) III:1-544 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham/M. Uhen]