Planktic Foraminifera Biostratigraphy of the Coral Sea, Pleistocene-Holocene

Planktic foraminiferal biostratigraphic data from the Coral Sea offshore Queensland, Australia, covering the latest Pliocene to Holocene period. The dataset, from Geoscience Australia, examines 15 of 27 potential biostratigraphic events and proposes a formal zonal scheme with two new subzones. It includes the description of a new species, Bolliella praeadamsi, identified as an evolutionary intermediate.

Use Cases

• Establishing regional biostratigraphic zonation based on identified foraminiferal events.
• Studying faunal stability and dominance of spinose, oligotrophic taxa in planktic assemblages.
• Investigating potential reworking of sediments and its relation to sea-level fluctuations.
• Analyzing evolutionary relationships between foraminiferal species like Bolliella praeadamsi.

Strengths

• Proposes a formal zonal and subzonal scheme for the region, including two newly defined subzones.
• Describes a new species, Bolliella praeadamsi, with biostratigraphic utility.
• Examines 15 distinct planktic foraminiferal biostratigraphic events from the latest Pliocene-Holocene.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• A hiatus in one core prevented study of most of the early Pleistocene.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Analysis of planktic foraminifera from cores in the Coral Sea.

Time Range

Latest Pliocene to Holocene

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 15:41:19.693827; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Coral Sea, offshore Queensland, Australia