First complete record of the early Sheinwoodian carbon isotope anomaly from Australia

The early Silurian Ireviken Event is one of the most profound intervals of species turnover during the Paleozoic that has been identified to date. This event is associated with a prominent carbonate carbon isotope anomaly, an early Sheinwoodian carbon isotope anomaly that reaches up to 5‰ δ13C (Cramer et al., 2013). This perturbation of carbon cycle has been reported from different areas of Baltica, Lauretia, Avalonia and Perunica, but data on the early Sheinwoodian carbon isotope anomaly from eastern Gondwana is sparse. Theonly available measurements are 5 elevated δ13Ccarb values reported by Talent et al. (1993) from the Boree Creek formation, a unit of limestones and volcaniclastic sediments from the middle Paleozoic Waugoola Group, in the Lachlan Fold Belt of central western New South Wales, Australia. Conodont faunas from the Boree Creek Formation give insights into extinctions during the event (Molloy & Simpson 2012). Here we report for the first time a complete and high-resolution record of the early Sheinwoodian carbon isotope anomaly fromAustralia and discus the relationship between biogeochemical cycling, extinction, and sedimentology