Proterozoic Microfossils from the Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia

Geoscience Australia Data provides a collection of microfossils from the approximately 1.3-billion-year-old Roper Group. The microbiota includes algal cells and filaments, large acritarchs, and giant filaments of uncertain affinity, preserved in a low thermal metamorphism state. The data was last updated on 2026-04-20.

Use Cases

• Classifying early eukaryotic life forms based on described algal cells, filaments, and acritarchs.
• Studying taphonomy and organic matter preservation in low-metamorphism shale environments.
• Comparing microbiota from siliciclastic environments to carbonate stromatolitic environments mentioned in the description.
• Investigating the hydrocarbon generation potential of ancient organic matter based on geochemical studies noted.

Strengths

• Microfossils are described as being in a particularly good state of preservation due to low thermal metamorphism.
• The flora is described as very advanced for its geological age of approximately 1.3 billion years.
• Includes organic matter analysis appropriate for oil generation studies.

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 and HTML formats, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Extracted from shale samples of the McMinn Formation in the Roper Group.

Time Range

Proterozoic era, approximately 1.3 billion years ago.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 02:55:35.931048; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia.