Proterozoic Microfossils from the Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia

An assemblage of approximately 1.3-billion-year-old microfossils from the McMinn Formation shales in Australia's Northern Territory. The microbiota includes algal cells, filaments, large acritarchs, and giant filaments, with evidence suggesting eukaryotic organisms. The Australian Ocean Data Network provides this data, which is noted for its exceptional preservation due to low thermal metamorphism.

Use Cases

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

Strengths

• Microfossils are 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.
• Geochemical and petrographic studies of the organic matter are referenced.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified despite a last updated date of 2026-06-27.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au

Collection Method

Likely contains data from geological and paleontological studies of shale samples.

Time Range

Proterozoic era, minimum age approximately 1.3 billion years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 16:42:02.135337

Geography

Roper Group, Northern Territory, Australia