Lower Cretaceous Palynological Study of the Surat Basin, Australia

A palynological study of Aptian and Albian sediments from the Surat Basin in southeastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales. The work documents 38 genera and 72 species of spores, 18 genera and 21 species of pollen grains, and 35 genera and 60 species of dinoflagellates, proposing several new species. It was published by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Stratigraphic correlation based on defined spore, pollen, and dinoflagellate zones.
• Taxonomic classification of fossil dinoflagellate cysts based on paratabulation and archaeopyle formation.
• Reconstruction of past environments and palaeogeography based on proportional abundance analysis of microfossil groups.
• Study of early angiosperm pollen evolution, tracking the first appearance of forms like Clavatipollenites hughesii in the Albian.

Strengths

• Documents a substantial taxonomic inventory, including 72 spore species, 21 pollen species, and 60 dinoflagellate species.
• Proposes multiple new species, including four new spores and eight new fossil dinoflagellates.
• Provides a detailed stratigraphic framework with defined zones for spores/pollen and dinoflagellates across the Aptian and Albian.

Limitations

• Data is presented in PDF/HTML formats, which may require extraction for computational analysis.
• Row count and sample-level data structure are unknown.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the textual study.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Palynological analysis of sediment samples.

Time Range

Aptian to middle Albian stages of the Lower Cretaceous.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 22:04:33.863950; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Surat Basin, southeastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales, Australia.