Permian Brachiopod Fossils from Western Australia with Over 3,000 Specimens

Over 3,000 well-preserved specimens represent the brachiopod super-family Productacea in the Permian faunas of Western Australia. The collection includes at least 34 species across seven genera, documented from three major sedimentary basins covering approximately 150,000 square miles. This material from Geoscience Australia enables study of shell structure, musculature, and living position for these ancient marine organisms.

Use Cases

• Taxonomic classification and species distribution mapping based on the documented occurrences across the Canning, Carnarvon, and Irwin Basins.
• Morphological analysis of brachiopod shells based on described features like shell structure, attachment scar, and trail.
• Paleoecological reconstruction of Permian marine environments based on the described fossiliferous formations and glacial sediment succession.
• Phylogenetic studies of Productacea genera like Aulosteges, Dictyoclostus, and Taeniothaerus based on the species counts provided.

Strengths

• Collection consists of well over three thousand specimens, most described as well preserved.
• Documents at least 34 species across multiple genera, providing a substantial taxonomic sample.
• Spatial coverage is specific, detailing three major sedimentary basins in Western Australia.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Study of a physical fossil collection.

Time Range

Permian period

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 01:22:36.050346; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Western Australia, specifically the Canning, Carnarvon, and Irwin Basins.