Late Miocene-Early Pliocene Dinoflagellate Fossils from the Murray Basin

Dinoflagellate microfossil data from the Bookpurnong Beds and related facies in the central west Murray Basin. The dataset, hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network, includes species such as Melitasphaeridium aequabile and Tuberculodinium vancampoae, which are diagnostic for distinguishing Late Miocene-Early Pliocene sediments from older Oligocene-Middle Miocene formations like the Winnambool Formation.

Use Cases

• Correlating Late Miocene-Early Pliocene marine sediments based on diagnostic dinoflagellate species mentioned in the description
• Distinguishing Bookpurnong Beds from lithologically similar Oligocene-Middle Miocene facies based on species assemblages
• Refining stratigraphic models for the Murray Basin using fossil marker species

Strengths

• Identifies specific diagnostic species for the Bookpurnong Beds, including Melitasphaeridium aequabile and Tuberculodinium vancampoae
• Provides a method for distinguishing Late Miocene-Early Pliocene from Oligocene-Middle Miocene sediments

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

Time Range

Late Miocene to Early Pliocene

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 03:55:24.788418; freshness should be verified

Geography

Central west Murray Basin, Australia