Ordovician Biomarker and Fossil Data from the Canning Basin, Australia

A multi-disciplinary study integrates palynological, petrographic, molecular, and stable isotopic analyses of rock cores from four boreholes intersecting the Goldwyer Formation. Data indicate lateral and temporal variations in lipid biomarker assemblages and include the oldest record of land plants in Australian Middle Ordovician strata. This research contributes to understanding Ordovician marine environments from a molecular perspective.

Use Cases

• Modeling ancient marine redox conditions based on biomarker assemblage variations.
• Studying the early evolution of land plants based on cryptospore and terrestrial biomarker records.
• Investigating ecological relationships in Ordovician seas based on correlations between Gloeocapsomorpha prisca biosignatures and methanotroph indicators.
• Comparing depositional environments across geological units using integrated palynological and geochemical data.

Strengths

• Integrates data from four distinct boreholes, providing spatial context.
• Includes multiple analysis types: palynological, petrographic, molecular, and stable isotopic.
• Contains the oldest identified record of land plants in Australian Middle Ordovician strata.

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; last metadata update was 2026-04-30.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Analyses of cores from four boreholes intersecting the Goldwyer Formation.

Time Range

Middle Ordovician period

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 13:33:25.398490; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia