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Palynology of Tertiary Lake Bunyan, Cooma, New South Wales

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Created 20/01/2025

Updated 20/01/2025

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Pollen and spore assemblages have been recovered from coaly lenses and marginal facies of Tertiary lacustrine sediments at Lake Bunyan, north of Cooma, southern New South Wales. Remains of lake sediments in the area are extensive , and a variety of facies has been recognised. Clays are dominant, but volcanogenic conglomerates, sands, silts , coals, diatomites , and a marginal quartzose facies also occur. Palynological assemblages have been recovered from coaly lenses and from the marginal facies. The pollen and spore suite is poorly diversified. Pollen of Nothofagus dominates, and that of podocarpaceous conifers is well represented. Myrtaceous pollen is common in a few samples only, proteaceous pollen is very rare , and there is occasional local dominance by aquatic taxa. Dating is made difficult by a lack of known stratigraphic marker species. In general, the assemblage resembles microfloras of the Proteacidites tuberculatus Zone, which spans the early Oligocene through early Miocene interval in the Gippsland Basin. The presence of Haloragacidites haloragoides, however, is more in accord with the Triporopollenites bellus Zone, of late early to late Miocene age. Detailed comparison with other palynological suites from highland sites dated by association with basalts suggests an age for the Lake Bunyan deposit of 12-21 m.y. , i.e. late early to middle Miocene. In comparison with other Miocene pollen floras from southeastern Australia , the Bunyan assemblage lacks forms indicative of subtropical rainforest, and forms indicative of cool temperate rainforest are poorly diversified. These features, combined with the relative abundance of conifer pollen in the assemblage, may reflect conditions somewhat cooler than other areas of southeastern Australia during the Miocene. An interpretation of pollen spectra from the deposit suggests that a variety of lake edge and bog communities successively surrounded the sites examined.

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Title Palynology of Tertiary Lake Bunyan, Cooma, New South Wales
Language eng
Licence notspecified
Landing Page https://devweb.dga.links.com.au/data/dataset/cc31bdcd-4413-45fd-bbe1-8890d1630273
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[149.0, -36.4], [149.5, -36.4], [149.5, -35.8], [149.0, -35.8], [149.0, -36.4]]]}
Data Portal data.gov.au

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on data.gov.au "Palynology of Tertiary Lake Bunyan, Cooma, New South Wales". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://devweb.dga.links.com.au/data/dataset/palynology-of-tertiary-lake-bunyan-cooma-new-south-wales