Proterozoic Microfossils from the Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia

Microfossil assemblage from shales in the McMinn Formation of the Roper Group, Australia, dated to approximately 1300 million years ago. The dataset includes algal cells, filaments, large acritarchs, and giant filaments, preserved with low thermal metamorphism. Geochemical studies indicate the organic matter composition is appropriate for oil generation.

Use Cases

• Study early eukaryotic evolution based on described algal cells, filaments, and possible life cycle evidence.
• Analyze paleoenvironmental conditions based on the described fluvial, deltaic, estuarine, and marine depositional settings.
• Assess organic matter maturation for hydrocarbon generation based on the geochemical and petrographic studies mentioned.
• Compare preservation quality of microfossils in siliciclastic versus carbonate environments as discussed in the description.

Strengths

• Fossils are described as being in a particularly good state of preservation due to low thermal metamorphism.
• The geological age of the Roper Group is specified as approximately 1300 million years.
• The depositional environment is described in detail, ranging from fluvial to marine.

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 analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Collection and analysis from shale samples in the McMinn Formation.

Time Range

Proterozoic era, approximately 1300 million years ago.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 04:25:04.293001; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia.