Devonian Fish Fossil Remains from the Canning Basin, Western Australia

Fragmentary Late Devonian (likely Famennian) fish remains from the Knobby Sandstone in the eastern Canning Basin, Western Australia. The fauna includes a new species of Bothriolepis, other antiarch placoderm fragments, and rhipidistian teeth and scales, preserved as moulds in coarse sandstone. The data is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated on 2026-05 04.

Use Cases

• Classifying Devonian antiarch placoderm species based on described dermal plates and ornamentation.
• Correlating Late Devonian vertebrate faunas across the Canning Basin based on fossil assemblages.
• Reconstructing high-energy depositional environments based on fragmentary preservation and associated plant remains.
• Studying the paleoecology of non-marine clastic formations that are potential petroleum reservoirs.

Strengths

• Includes description of a new species of the antiarch Bothriolepis.
• Specifies a likely Late Devonian (Famennian) age for temporal context.
• Provides geological context including formation name (Knobby Sandstone) and basin location (eastern Canning Basin).

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Scientific description of fossil specimens.

Time Range

Late Devonian (likely Famennian)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-04 23:21:53.571337; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Billiluna, eastern Canning Basin, Western Australia