Northern Australian Marine Invertebrate Photos and Taxonomy Sheets

Onboard photographs and taxonomic identification sheets for benthic invertebrate samples collected from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf and Timor Sea between 2009 and 2012. The surveys were conducted by Geoscience Australia on the R.V. Solander as part of government energy security and environmental research programs. Sponges were fully identified, though many are unnamed or undescribed species.

Use Cases

• Cross-reference species images with location and depth data based on the included taxonomic identification sheets.
• Study the biodiversity of sponges and other benthic invertebrates in the Oceanic Shoals Commonwealth Marine Reserve.
• Identify unnamed or undescribed species from the high proportion noted in the sponge collection.

Strengths

• Includes all onboard photographs taken from identified samples.
• Surveys were conducted over three years (2009-2012) in collaboration with scientific institutions.
• Sponges were the only group for which all samples were identified to species level.

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 and temporal bias inherent to the specific survey areas and period.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Institute of Science, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

Collection Method

Benthic sled deployments on R.V. Solander surveys, with onboard sorting, photography, and subsequent taxonomist identification.

Time Range

2009-2012

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 05:43:25.824674; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf and the Timor Sea, overlapping the Oceanic Shoals Commonwealth Marine Reserve, Northern Australia