Palynostratigraphy of the Bookpurnong Beds and related Late Miocene-Early Pliocene facies

Palynostratigraphy of the Bookpurnong Beds and related Late Miocene-Early Pliocene facies in the central west Murray Basin, part 1: dinoflagellates. The dataset, hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network, describes diagnostic dinoflagellate cyst species used to distinguish Late Miocene-Early Pliocene sediments from older Oligocene-Middle Miocene units. It was last updated on 2026-04-10.

Use Cases

• Correlating and dating Late Miocene-Early Pliocene sedimentary sequences based on diagnostic species like Melitasphaeridium aequabile and Tuberculodinium vancampoae.
• Distinguishing Bookpurnong Beds from lithologically similar older formations like the Winnambool Formation based on species presence/absence.
• Refining regional stratigraphic models for the Murray Basin using dinoflagellate biozones.
• Training or validating machine learning models for microfossil identification in palynological studies.

Strengths

• Focuses on diagnostic species for a specific geological problem, providing clear stratigraphic utility.
• Identifies key species restricted to the Bookpurnong Beds (e.g., Melitasphaeridium aequabile, Tectatodinium psilatum) and those diagnostic of older units (e.g., Apteodinium australiense).
• Last updated date is provided (2026-04-10).

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and data scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Likely contains taxonomic lists and stratigraphic interpretations from geological research.

Time Range

Late Miocene to Early Pliocene

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 17:31:56.684039; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Central west Murray Basin, Australia