Early Carboniferous Marine Benthic Communities in New South Wales

Multivariate cluster analysis identifies recurrent species associations in marine shelf faunas from the Visean-Delepinea aspinosa Zone. The dataset likely contains results from samples collected across all known fossiliferous intervals of the Inflatia elegans and Linoprotonia tenuirugosa Subzones. This data was aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyzing paleoecological community structure based on recurrent species associations identified via cluster analysis.
• Studying species distribution and overlap across different marine shelf settings mentioned in the description.
• Investigating faunal succession and community evolution between the Inflatia elegans and Linoprotonia tenuirugosa Subzones.
• Modeling environmental gradients and substrate influences on benthic communities in a prograding shoreline setting.

Strengths

• Analysis is based on samples from all known fossiliferous intervals in the study area.
• Identifies four distinct communities within the Inflatia elegans Subzone.
• Documents community persistence and modification into the subsequent Linoprotonia tenuirugosa Subzone.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided only in PDF and HTML formats, which may complicate direct computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Early Carboniferous (Visean-Delepinea aspinosa Zone)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 22:12:47.299302; freshness should be verified.

Geography

New South Wales, Australia