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Stratigraphy and vertebrate fauna of the Otibanda Formation, New Guinea

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Created 13/01/2025

Updated 13/01/2025

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Late Tertiary intermontane lacustrine and fluviatile deposits in the Morobe District of New Guinea contain vertebrate fossils in association with dated pyroclastic rocks. Metamorphic rocks ranging in age from probable Palaeozoic to middle or late Cretaceous form a complex basement into which granodiorite plutons were intruded in the late Cretaceous or early Tertiary. From probable Oligocene or Miocene time porphyritic rocks intruded the metamorphics and granodiorite; this activity culminated in explosive vulcanism which produced vast quantities of agglomerate. The agglomerate blocked the drainages, and lacustrine and laterally restricted floodplain deposits formed behind the dams during the Pliocene. A formation, the Otibanda Formation, which includes lacustrine sediments, f100dplain deposits, and interbedded tuffs is formally defined. Its thickness cannot be estimated, but a measured section is more than 2500 feet thick. The type section at 'Sunshine' contains fossiliferous sandstone and mudstone with conglomerate and intercalated pyroclastic rocks which yield Potassium/Argon dates from below the mammal horizons of 6.1 and 7.6 million years. A 5.7 million year date higher in the section is associated with the type faunal locality, which has produced an incisor of the earliest known rodent from the Australian region and new representatives of the marsupial families Ma«ropodidae and Diprotodontidae. The fauna also includes gastropods, crocodilians, snakes, birds, and a dasyurid. Fossil vertebrates have been collected from 21 widely scattered localities.

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Field Value
Title Stratigraphy and vertebrate fauna of the Otibanda Formation, New Guinea
Language eng
Licence notspecified
Landing Page https://devweb.dga.links.com.au/data/dataset/13266687-81c2-435a-8020-5801bb938e80
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[144.0, -7.0], [145.5, -7.0], [145.5, -5.0], [144.0, -5.0], [144.0, -7.0]]]}
Data Portal data.gov.au

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on data.gov.au "Stratigraphy and vertebrate fauna of the Otibanda Formation, New Guinea". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://devweb.dga.links.com.au/data/dataset/stratigraphy-and-vertebrate-fauna-of-the-otibanda-formation-new-guinea