Palynological-age determination of Early Cretaceous vertebrate-bearing beds along the south Victorian coast of Australia, with implications for the spore-pollen biostratigraphy of the region

Abstract

Palynology is used to provide new age controls for the coastal exposures yielding Early Cretaceous vertebrate faunas in the Otway and Gippsland basins, southeast Australia. This work shows all vertebrate-bearing deposits in the Otway Basin are Albian in age. On the eastern margin of Cape Otway, vertebrate-bearing deposits are attributed to the early Albian Crybelosporites striatus Zone, except for one in the younger Coptospora paradoxa Zone. To the west of Cape Otway, the sampled deposits range from the oldest zone in the Albian, the C. striatus Zone, to the C. paradoxa and Phimopollenites pannosus zones, providing a complete section of the Albian stage. In the Gippsland Basin, the structura..