Palynology of the Oligocene-Miocene sequence in the Oakvale-1 corehole, western Murray Bas

South Australia's western Murray Basin contains palynological data from the marine Oligocene-Miocene Geera Clay and Renmark Group in the Oakvale-1 corehole. The dataset describes diverse and well-preserved assemblages of spores, pollen, and dinoflagellates, including records for extant Australian taxa and first Australian fossil records for some species. A quantitative zonation based on major pollen taxa frequencies divides the sequence into two major zones, with the younger zone further divided into four sub-zones.

Use Cases

• Modeling past vegetation and climate change based on pollen and spore assemblage composition.
• Correlating stratigraphic sequences using the identified Triporopollenites bellus Zone and quantitative pollen zonation.
• Studying the evolution and paleobiogeography of specific plant families (e.g., Myrtaceae, Nothofagus, Podocarpaceae) based on their fossil pollen records.
• Analyzing marine-terrestrial linkages through the co-occurrence of terrestrial pollen/spores and marine dinoflagellate cysts.

Strengths

• Description indicates 'diverse and well-preserved assemblages' of microfossils throughout the sequence.
• Provides 'first fossil record in Australia' for pollen of Utricularia and Gardenia.
• Includes a 'quantitative zonation... statistically calculated' based on frequencies of major pollen taxa.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is delivered as PDF/HTML reports, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Palynological analysis of core samples from the Oakvale-1 corehole.

Time Range

Oligocene to Miocene geological epochs.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 18:00:52.218002; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Oakvale-1 corehole, western Murray Basin, South Australia.