Early Carboniferous Marine Benthic Communities in New South Wales (Visean)

Multivariate cluster analysis identifies recurrent fossil species associations from the Delepinea aspinosa Zone in New South Wales. The dataset likely contains community classifications for faunas of the Inflatia elegans and Linoprotonia tenuirugosa Subzones. It was published via the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling species community succession based on the described intergrading communities.
• Analyzing paleoenvironmental shelf settings based on inferred substrate depths like wave-base.
• Comparing faunal composition changes between subzones based on the persistence and modification of the Rhipidomella australis community.

Strengths

• Analysis is based on samples from all known fossiliferous intervals in the study area.
• Identifies four distinct communities within the Inflatia elegans Subzone.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data files are in PDF and HTML formats, which may require extraction for computational use.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au.

Collection Method

Multivariate (cluster) analysis of fossil samples using Euclidean distance and weighted-pair grouping.

Time Range

Early Carboniferous (Visean), specifically the Delepinea aspinosa Zone.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 13:27:35.859210; freshness should be verified.

Geography

New South Wales, Australia.