Marine Plain (Pliocene of Antarctica)

Also known as Vestfold Hills

Where: Antarctica (68.6° S, 78.1° E: paleocoordinates 68.4° S, 76.9° E)

• coordinate stated in text

• local area-level geographic resolution

When: Graveyard Sandstone Member (Sorsdal Formation), Zanclean (5.3 - 3.6 Ma)

• member-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: marine; poorly lithified siltstone

• The depositional setting was interpreted by Daniels (1996; see also Harwood et al. 2000) as sheltered shallow inner shelf, stenohaline and glacio-marine.
• Sorsdal Formation of Quilty et al. (2000), massive to poorly-bedded muddy siltstone with locally abundany subangular granules and spare larger clasts, and occasional marine invertebrates (especially pectinid bivalves). The siltstone is consolidated but for the most part poorly lithified; horizons of fossiliferous carbonate-cemented nodules occur in the upper part. The siltstone is mostly thinner than 8 am; it is subhorizontal over Precambrian basement, and is in turn overlain by till of presumed Holocene age.

Size classes: macrofossils, microfossils

Preservation: original phosphate

Collection methods: surface (in situ), chemical, mechanical,

• AGSO CPC: Australian Geological Survey Organisation, Commonwealth Paleontological Collections

Primary reference: R. E. Fordyce and P. G. Quilty. 1994. Pliocene whales and dolphins (Cetacea) from the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica. Records of the South Australian Museum 27(2):219 [M. Uhen/M. Uhen]more details

Purpose of describing collection: general faunal/floral analysis

PaleoDB collection 45494: authorized by Mark Uhen, entered by Nick Pyenson on 25.10.2004, edited by Mark Uhen

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
unclassified
  -
Austraochlamys tuftsensis1, Bryozoa indet.1, Cetacea indet.3
Foraminifera
 Foraminiferida -
"Foraminiferida indet." = Foraminifera1
"Foraminiferida indet." = Foraminifera1 Eichwald 1830 foram
Bacillariophyceae
  -
Bacillariophyceae indet.1
Bacillariophyceae indet.1 Haeckel 1878 diatom
Mammalia
 Cetacea -
Mysticeti indet.
Mysticeti indet. Cope 1891 whale
 Cetacea - Balaenidae
Balaenidae indet.
Balaenidae indet. Gray 1821 right whale
 Cetacea - Delphinidae
Delphinidae indet., Australodelphis mirus n. gen. n. sp.2
Delphinidae indet. Gray 1821 dolphin
Australodelphis mirus n. gen. n. sp.2 Fordyce et al. 2002 dolphin
Bivalvia
 Hiatellida - Hiatellidae
Hiatellidae indet.1
Hiatellidae indet.1 Gray 1824 clam
 Carditida - Carditidae
Cyclocardia sp.1
Cyclocardia sp.1 Conrad 1867 clam
1Clark et al. 2013; 2Fordyce et al. 2002; 3Quilty et al. 2000