Late Miocene-Early Pliocene Dinoflagellate Fossils from the Murray Basin

Dinoflagellate microfossils provide a reliable method for distinguishing Late Miocene-Early Pliocene sedimentary layers in the Murray Basin. The dataset, published by Geoscience Australia, lists species diagnostic of the Bookpurnong Beds, such as Melitasphaeridium aequabile and Tuberculodinium vancampoae, and those indicative of older formations like the Winnambool Formation. This stratigraphic data was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Correlating Late Miocene-Early Pliocene sedimentary units based on diagnostic dinoflagellate species mentioned in the description
• Distinguishing Bookpurnong Beds from older, lithologically similar formations like the Winnambool Formation using the listed fossil taxa
• Refining regional stratigraphic models for the central west Murray Basin based on the described palynological assemblages

Strengths

• Lists specific diagnostic fossil species for key geological formations, including Melitasphaeridium aequabile and Apteodinium australiense
• Focuses on a proven biostratigraphic method for distinguishing lithologically similar marine sediments
• Data originates from the authoritative national geological survey, Geoscience Australia

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Palynological analysis of sedimentary rock samples.

Time Range

Late Miocene to Early Pliocene

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 01:24:01.045558; freshness should be verified

Geography

Central west Murray Basin, Australia