Goldwyer Formation Biomarker and Microfossil Data

Western Australia's Canning Basin provides rock core data from four to five boreholes intersecting the Middle Ordovician Goldwyer Formation. The dataset integrates palynological, petrographic, molecular, and stable isotopic analyses to reconstruct depositional environments and microbial diversity during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. It includes evidence of the oldest cryptospores in Australian Middle Ordovician strata and biomarker signatures for organisms like Gloeocapsomorpha prisca.

Use Cases

• Reconstructing paleo-redox conditions based on biomarker assemblages and Pristane/Phytane ratios.
• Studying early terrestrial organic matter input using cryptospore and benzonaphthofuran data.
• Investigating microbial ecology and methanotroph relationships via 3-methylhopane indices and Gloeocapsomorpha prisca biosignatures.
• Correlating depositional facies across boreholes using acritarch, chitinozoan, conodont, and graptolite distributions.

Strengths

• Multi-disciplinary analysis integrates palynology, petrography, molecular, and stable isotope data.
• Contains a notable paleontological record: the oldest cryptospores found in Australian Middle Ordovician strata.
• Samples come from a defined geological formation (Goldwyer Formation) across multiple boreholes (Theia-1, Solanum-1, Santalum-1A).

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts exist: the number of boreholes is listed as both four and five across sources.
• Core dataset attributes like row count, column names, file size, and license are uniformly listed as unknown or None.
• Documentation is limited to descriptions; no structured column schema or sample data is provided.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Analysis of cores from boreholes intersecting the Goldwyer Formation.

Time Range

Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian age)

Freshness

2026-05-05 01:06:58.430145

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia