ocene-Oligocene ostracoda from south Australia and Victoria, Australia.

Abstract

Australian Eocene-Oligocene Ostracoda have been little reported hitherto, this paper representing the first substantial taxonomic study. The 80 species which we identified came from the Late Eocene Gull Rock Member of the Blanche Point Formation in the Willunga Embayment, South Australia (16 species) and the lower fossiliferous bed of the Late Oligocene Angahook Formation at Bells Headland, Victoria (70 species); only 6 species are common to both formations. We describe 4 new genera, 38 new species and 2 new subspecies.

In the Late Eocene Gull Rock Member the most commonly occurring families are Cytherellidae, Bythocyprididae, Pontocypridi­dae, Paracyprididae, Krithiidae and Trachyleberididae; at Bells Headland (Late Oligocene) the most commonly represented families are Cytherellidae, Bairdiidae, Paracyprididae, Cytheruridae, Thaerocytheridae, Trachylebe­rididae and Hemicytheridae. Both assemblages are interpreted as indicating offshore facies, of which the Gull Rock Member was deposited in deeper water than the Bells Headland facies which, however, indicates (large count of Hemicyt­heridae) cooler seawater palaeotemperatures in the Late Oligocene than during the Late Eocene. Some Early-Middle Miocene records, from the Gellibrand Marl and the Fishing Point Marl (Victoria), are also incorporated for biostratigraphical and palaeobiographical reasons.