Abstract
A diverse conodont fauna of 28 species has been recovered from the Sluice Box Formation, exposed in the Maruia-Lake Daniels-Springs Junction area at the southernmost extension of the fossiliferous Lower Palaeozoic terranes in the south west Nelson region of New Zealand's South Island. The fauna is characterised by several zonal index species including important age-diagnostic pectiniform taxa such as Pygodus serra, P. anitae, Eoplacognathus suecicus, Yangtzeplacognathus foliaceus, Histiodella kristinae, Dzikodus tablepointensis, Polonodus newfoundlandensis and P. clivosus. All except P. serra are reported for the first time from New Zealand, and indicate a middle to late Darriwilian age (from the E. suecicus Zone to the Y. foliaceus Subzone of the basal P. serra Zone) for the assemblage. Biostratigraphically the Maruia conodont fauna is the most well constrained known from this time interval in eastern Australia and New Zealand, and is comparable with contemporaneous offshore shelf-edge to slope assemblages previously documented from Thompson Creek in NW Nelson and from central New South Wales.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 285-319 |
Number of pages | 35 |
Journal | Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 42 |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Keywords
- Biostratigraphy
- Conodonts
- Darriwilian
- Middle ordovician
- New zealand