The environmental response of Middle Ordovician large organic walled microfossils from the Goldwyer and Nita formations, Canning Basin, Western Australia

Abstract

Middle Ordovician large organic walled microfossils (chitinozoans, scolecodonts, hydrozoans and foraminiferal linings) were recovered from the upper Goldwyer and lower Nita formations, Canning Basin, Western Australia, from three cores (WMC Santalum 1A, Kunzea 1 and Acacia 2). Petrophysical logs of these cores reveal an overall upward shallowing super-sequence, overprinted by numerous transgression/regression couplets that can be correlated over 100 km. Analysis of the abundance of the microfossils with respect to the gamma log signatures reveals that both chitinozoan abundance and diversity decrease as water depth shallows; however, the opposite is not always true and other factors probably intervene. Scolecodonts show an increase in abundance in transgressions, while hydrozoans and foraminiferal linings show no consistent response to trangressive or regressive phases. Cyathochitina hunderumensis tends to dominate chitinozoan assemblages where there is a transgression, while species of Belonechitina replace Cy. hunderumensis in regressive phases. Show more