Provenance of the Ordovician–lower Silurian Tumblagooda Sandstone, Western Australia

Kettanah, Yawooz A.; Mory, Arthur J.; Wach, Grant D.; Wingate, Michael T.D.

doi:10.1080/08120099.2015.1117020

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…1) (Hocking & Mory, 2006). Other outcrops can be found in the Hutt River to the south of Kalbarri and to the east at Pencell Pool (Kettanah et al, 2015). The Tumblagooda Sandstone gently dips (around 5°) to the north-west, therefore the progression from south to north of the study area is progressing stratigraphically upward.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The Tumblagooda Sandstone is up to 2000 m thick and forms the lowest unit in the Kalbarri Group which unconformably overlies gneissic basement and records deposition during the Early Palaeozoic rifting in East Gondwana (Markwitz et al, 2017). The formation is dominated by compositionally mature quartz arenite and subarkose sandstones (Kettanah et al, 2015) with abundant trough and tabular low-angle crossbedding, planar lamination and well-preserved bioturbated intervals (Hocking, 1991). The study area contains a composite section that is 1300 m thick and is well-exposed in the lower parts of the Murchison River in Kalbarri National Park and around the coastal cliffs south of Kalbarri ( Fig.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The applicability of modern tidal analogues to pre‐vegetation paralic depositional models

et al. 2018

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In modern siliciclastic environments terrestrial and aquatic vegetation binds substrate, controls weathering and erosion rates, influences run-off, sediment supply and subsequent depositional architecture. This study assesses the applicability of modern depositional models that are impacted by vascular vegetation, as analogues for ancient pre-land plant systems. A review of pre-Devonian published literature demonstrates a paucity of described tidal successions; this is possibly due to the application of modern analogues for interpreting the record when there is a lack of tidal indicators. This paucity suggests a need for revised models of tidal deposition that consider the different environmental conditions prior to land plant evolution. This study examines the OrdovicianSilurian Tumblagooda Sandstone, which is exposed in the gorge of the Murchison River and coastal cliffs near Kalbarri, Western Australia. The Tumblagooda Sandstone comprises stacked sand-rich facies, with well-preserved bedforms and trace fossils. Previous interpretations of the depositional setting have proposed from a mixed sheet-braided fluvial and intertidal flats; to a continental setting dominated by fluvial and aeolian processes. An enigmatic element is the rarity of mud-rich facies preserved in the succession. Outcrop logging, facies and petrographic analysis record dominantly shallow water conditions with episodes of emergence. Abundant ichnotaxa indicate that marine conditions and bi-directional flow structures are evidence for an intertidal and subtidal depositional environment. A macrotidal estuary setting is proposed, with evidence for tidal channels and repeated fluvial incursions. Physical and biogenic sedimentary structures are indicative of tidal conditions. The lack of clay and silt resulted in the absence of flaser or lenticular-bedding. Instead cyclic deposition of thin beds and foreset bioturbation replaced mud drape deposits. Higher energy conditions prevailed in the absence of the binding activity of plants in the terrestrial and marine realm. This is suggestive of different weathering processes and a reduction in the preservation of some sedimentary features.

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Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The applicability of modern tidal analogues to pre‐vegetation paralic depositional models

et al. 2018

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“…Other Early Palaeozoic vertebrate traces include those reported by McNamara (2014), who describes a possible tetrapod trackway from the Tumblagooda Sandstone of Western Australia, the age of which remains uncertain between Late Ordovician and Early Silurian (Kettanah et al 2015). This find would considerably predate the oldest record of tetrapod footprints from the Middle Devonian (Givetian) (Lucas 2015), but it does not fulfil the recognition criteria of tetrapod tracks and trackways and probably results from the activity of an arthropod (Minter et al 2016).…”

Section: Interpretation and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The fish swimming trace Undichna unisulca from the Silurian of Sweden: probably the oldest vertebrate locomotion trace fossil

Knaust

Minter

2018

LET

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The fish swimming trace Undichna unisulca is reported from a sandstone block collected from the Upper Silurian (Ludlow) Burgsvik Formation of Gotland, Sweden. It represents the oldest record of a vertebrate trace (apart from coprolites), predating previous finds from the Lower Devonian by at least 10 Ma. A thelodont or acanthodian fish may have produced the sinusoidal trails with the aid of their caudal or anal fins while browsing slowly over the sediment whilst searching for food.

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“…When considered alongside the c. 430 Ma Rb-Sr ages for regional uplift across SW Australia (Libby & De Laeter, 1998;McNamara, 2014), which were dated using biotites from the Yilgarn Craton (a minor provenance source for the Tumblagooda Sandstone; Figure 1 is highlighted by the blue box. Kettanah et al 2015), there is circumstantial evidence that the unit is likely Silurian. Our fieldwork supports the contention that there are no palaeosols in the Tumblagooda Sandstone, in agreement with previous work (Hocking, 1991;Trewin, 1993b;Evans et al 2007;McNamara, 2014;Kettanah et al 2015;Bradley et al 2018).…”

Section: A Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kettanah et al 2015), there is circumstantial evidence that the unit is likely Silurian. Our fieldwork supports the contention that there are no palaeosols in the Tumblagooda Sandstone, in agreement with previous work (Hocking, 1991;Trewin, 1993b;Evans et al 2007;McNamara, 2014;Kettanah et al 2015;Bradley et al 2018). As such, there is no evidence for the palaeosol 'pedostratigraphy' of Retallack (2009), who considered the Tumblagooda Sandstone to have been deposited continually throughout the entire 45 Ma duration of the Ordovician Period.…”

Section: A Agementioning

confidence: 99%

The Tumblagooda Sandstone revisited: exceptionally abundant trace fossils and geological outcrop provide a window onto Palaeozoic littoral habitats before invertebrate terrestrialization

Shillito

Davies

2020

Geol. Mag.

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The establishment of permanent animal communities on land was a defining event in the history of evolution, and one for which the ichnofauna and facies of the Tumblagooda Sandstone of Western Australia have been considered an archetypal case study. However, terrestrialization can only be understood from the rock record with conclusive sedimentological evidence for non-marine deposition, and original fieldwork on the formation shows that a marine influence was pervasive throughout all trace fossil-bearing strata. Four distinct facies associations are described, deposited in fluvial, tidal and estuarine settings. Here we explain the controversies surrounding the age and depositional environment of the Tumblagooda Sandstone, many of which have arisen due to the challenges in distinguishing marine from non-marine depositional settings in lower Palaeozoic successions. We clarify the terminological inconsistency that has hindered such determination, and demonstrate how palaeoenvironmental explanations can be expanded out from unambiguously indicative sedimentary structures. The Tumblagooda Sandstone provides a unique insight into an early Palaeozoic ichnofauna that was strongly partitioned by patchy resource distribution in a littoral setting. The influence of outcrop style and quality is accounted for to contextualize this ichnofauna, revealing six distinct low-disparity groups of trace fossil associations, each related to a different sub-environment within the high-ichnodisparity broad depositional setting. The formation is compared with contemporaneous ichnofaunas to examine its continued significance to understanding the terrestrialization process. Despite not recording permanent non-marine communities, the Tumblagooda Sandstone provides a detailed picture of the realm left behind by the first invertebrate pioneers of terrestrialization.

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Provenance of the Ordovician–lower Silurian Tumblagooda Sandstone, Western Australia

Cited by 12 publications

References 24 publications

The applicability of modern tidal analogues to pre‐vegetation paralic depositional models

The applicability of modern tidal analogues to pre‐vegetation paralic depositional models

The fish swimming trace Undichna unisulca from the Silurian of Sweden: probably the oldest vertebrate locomotion trace fossil

The Tumblagooda Sandstone revisited: exceptionally abundant trace fossils and geological outcrop provide a window onto Palaeozoic littoral habitats before invertebrate terrestrialization

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