Proterozoic Microfossils from the Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia

Approximately 1300 million-year-old microfossils from the McMinn Formation shales in Australia's Roper Group. The dataset, provided by the Australian Ocean Data Network, includes an assemblage of algal cells, filaments, and large acritarchs preserved with low thermal metamorphism. The flora's advanced state for its geological age and the organic matter's potential for oil generation are noted.

Use Cases

• Study early eukaryotic evolution based on described probable life cycles and endospory examples.
• Analyze microfossil preservation quality based on the described low degree of thermal metamorphism.
• Investigate paleoenvironments based on described fluvial, deltaic, estuarine, and marine depositional settings.
• Research organic matter maturation for hydrocarbon generation based on geochemical and petrographic studies mentioned.

Strengths

• Microfossils are described as being in a particularly good state of preservation due to low thermal metamorphism.
• The dataset provides a temporal anchor with a minimum age of approximately 1300 million years.
• The description details specific fossil types, including algal cells, filaments, and large acritarchs.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing on a single Australian formation.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au

Time Range

Proterozoic, minimum age approximately 1300 million years

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 00:17:12.492100; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia