Ordovician Environmental and Microbial Data from the Canning Basin, Australia

Geoscience Australia Data integrated palynological, petrographic, molecular, and stable isotopic analyses from five boreholes intersecting the Middle Ordovician Goldwyer Formation. The study detected major transgression events, anoxic and oxygenated conditions, and identified marine organisms and the oldest cryptospores in Australian Middle Ordovician strata. This research contributes to a molecular perspective on Ordovician marine environments and early land plant evolution.

Use Cases

• Modeling ancient marine depositional environments based on biomarker indices like Pristane/Phytane ratios and gammacerane.
• Studying microbial community evolution based on the presence of methanotrophic bacteria indicated by 3-methylhopane indices.
• Analyzing the geographic spread of early land plants based on cryptospore and terrestrial biomarker records like retene and benzonaphthofurans.
• Investigating paleo-redox conditions during the Ordovician period using isotopic (δ13C) and petrographic data from core samples.

Strengths

• Multi-disciplinary analysis integrates palynological, petrographic, molecular, and stable isotopic data.
• Data originates from five distinct boreholes, providing multiple sampling points within the Goldwyer Formation.
• Includes identification of the oldest cryptospores in Australian Middle Ordovician strata, a key paleontological finding.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical modeling.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific Canning Basin study area.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Integrated analysis of cores from five boreholes, including palynological, petrographic, molecular, and stable isotopic (δ13C of biomarkers) techniques.

Time Range

Middle Ordovician period

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 12:47:27.241001; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia