Ordovician Environmental and Microbial Data from the Canning Basin, Australia

Middle Ordovician data from five boreholes in the Canning Basin, Western Australia, integrates palynological, petrographic, molecular, and stable isotopic analyses. The dataset was published by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in June 2026. It focuses on the Goldwyer Formation to determine depositional environments and microbial diversity during a major biodiversification event.

Use Cases

• Modeling ancient marine redox conditions based on biomarker indices like Pristane/Phytane ratios and gammacerane.
• Tracking the evolution of early land plants based on the presence of cryptospores and terrestrial biomarkers like retene.
• Analyzing microbial community shifts based on biomarker evidence for methanotrophic bacteria and specific organisms like Gloeocapsomorpha prisca.
• Correlating sea-level transgression events with changes in sediment composition and fossil assemblages across different formation units.

Strengths

• Integrates multi-disciplinary analyses including palynology, petrography, molecular data, and stable isotopes.
• Focuses on a specific, crucial geological period (Middle Ordovician) and event (Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event).
• Provides data from five distinct boreholes, allowing for spatial comparison within the Canning Basin.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the single study area in Western Australia.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Analyses of cores from five boreholes intersecting the Goldwyer Formation.

Time Range

Middle Ordovician period

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06 27 17:07:53.990688; freshness should be verified

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia