Early Carboniferous Marine Benthic Communities in New South Wales

Multivariate cluster analysis identifies recurrent species associations in marine shelf fossil communities from the Visean-Delepinea aspinosa Zone. The dataset describes four distinct communities in the Inflatia elegans Subzone and the persistence of the Rhipidomella australis community into the subsequent Linoprotonia tenuirugosa Subzone. Data was aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyzing species composition and overlap between fossil communities based on the described recurrent species associations.
• Modeling paleoenvironmental conditions on a marine shelf based on inferred substrate depths and prograding shoreline influences.
• Studying community succession and intergradation over geological subzones based on the described precursor and modified communities.

Strengths

• Analysis is based on samples from all known fossiliferous intervals in the study area, suggesting comprehensive spatial coverage for the target zone.
• Methodology employs standardized data, Euclidean distance, and weighted-pair grouping for cluster analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Multivariate (cluster) analysis of samples collected from fossiliferous intervals.

Time Range

Early Carboniferous (Visean-Delepinea aspinosa Zone)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06 23 05:27:52.307275; freshness should be verified.

Geography

New South Wales, Australia