Late Permian Palynozones and Dated Tuffs from the Bowen Basin, Australia

The Bowen Basin in Queensland, Australia, is the focus of this dataset. It contains palynological and geochronological data from 11 tuff and 18 sedimentary core samples from the APLNG Meeleebee 5 well. The work, published by Geoscience Australia, attaches numeric CA-IDTIMS ages to palynostratigraphic units like the APP5 zone, aiding correlation of coal-bearing sequences.

Use Cases

• Calibrating the age of the Price (1997) APP5 spore-pollen zone based on associated tuff ages.
• Correlating regional coal-bearing sequences using the identified palynozones and subzones.
• Refining the estimated age of the Microreticulatisporites bitriangularis Subzone and Micrhystridium evansii acme event.
• Assessing the temporal span of the Dulhuntyispora parvithola zone relative to the Permian-Triassic boundary.

Strengths

• Integrates two distinct data types: palynological counts and high-precision CA-IDTIMS tuff ages.
• Quantitative palynological analyses were performed with counts up to 100 specimens per sample.
• Identifies specific index species and acme events, such as Dulhuntyispora parvithola and Micrhystridium evansii.

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 a single core from the Bowen Basin.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Palynological examination of core samples using light microscopy and CA-IDTIMS dating of tuff layers.

Time Range

Late Permian, specifically the APP5 zone spanning approximately five million years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 03:43:48.682828; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Bowen Basin, Queensland, Australia, from the APLNG Meeleebee 5 well.