• Description. Grey/brown siltstones/mudstones with an incipient

•nodular texture, with decimetre scale bedding overlain by finegrained

•cross-bedded and rippled grey/brown sandstones with some

•small bivalves identical to those at locality 96-16. The mudstones

•are abundantly rooted with long Equisetites rhizomes. Birisia is

•common. Both fertile and sterile Arctopteris occurs together with

•Sphenopteris sp. Podozamites is rare but when it occurs the leaves are

•large while Pityophyllum is absent. Three Nilssonia species occurred

•in close proximity in the grey/brown mudstones. Arctopteris,

•Nilssonia, Equisetites and large-leafed Ginkgo are the most common

•taxa at this site. The fern fronds are often minimally fragmented

•although many specimens are preserved not flat on bedding planes,

•but curved or rolled within the poorly bedded sediment.

•Interpretation. Near-channel and possibly near-marine overbank

•environment periodically, but not frequently, invaded by sediment.

•The flora appears to represent a later successional stage of community

•development than that seen in the exposure at locality

•96-11. Sediments were extensively bioturbated by roots suggesting

•the vegetation was well established. Woody taxa are in a minority

•and no large woody remains were seen. The succession may

•have begun with an Equisetum/Birisia marsh but this community

•was subsequently invaded by a diversity of ferns, cycadophytes

•and ginkgoes. Salinity may have played a lesser role in determining

•community composition compared to the Birisia marsh of

•locality 11.