Environmental conditions and microbial community structure during the Great Ordovician Bio

A multi-disciplinary study integrates palynological, petrographic, molecular, and stable isotopic analyses of four borehole cores from the Goldwyer Formation in Western Australia. Data indicate lateral and temporal variations in lipid biomarker assemblages, reflecting changing redox conditions in a Middle Ordovician epicontinental sea. The research, published in Global and Planetary Change in 2017, includes the oldest record of land plants in Australian Middle Ordovician strata and contributes to a molecular understanding of Ordovician marine environments.

Use Cases

• Modeling ancient marine redox conditions based on biomarker assemblage variations described in the study.
• Analyzing the ecological relationship between methanotrophs and Gloeocapsomorpha prisca based on correlated biosignatures and hopane indices.
• Studying the early geographical distribution of land plants based on cryptospore and terrestrial biomarker identification.
• Correlating microbial community structure with depositional environments using integrated palynological and isotopic data.

Strengths

• Integrates data from four distinct boreholes, providing spatial context.
• Combines multiple analytical methods: palynology, petrography, molecular, and stable isotope analysis.
• Includes the oldest identified cryptospores in Australia, a distinctive paleontological record.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified; the underlying study was published in 2017.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (via data_gov_au), associated with a published study in Global and Planetary Change.

Collection Method

Multi-disciplinary analyses of rock samples from four boreholes intersecting the Goldwyer Formation.

Time Range

Middle Ordovician period.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 19:13:43.161007; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia.