Lower Triassic marine fossils from the Beagle Ridge (BMR 10) Bore, Perth Basin, Western Australia

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Abstract
The first open‐sea macrofossils from Australia which can be referred with certainty to the Triassic are described — a linguloid brachiopod, five species of pelecypods belonging to four genera, three species of ammonites belonging to three genera, worms, tracks and burrows. The fauna, which occurs through not less than 1,160 feet of shale regarded as Kockatea Shale, is referred to the Otoceratan, the lowest division of the Lower Triassic (Scythian). The fossils suggest a discontinuity in the Fitzroy Basin, Western Australia, between the Triassic Blina Shale and the underlying Upper Permian rocks. Faunas of the Otoceratan are rare, widespread and closely related, and the Western Australian fauna adds evidence that the lowermost Triassic was a time of widespread equable climate with relatively little tectonic movement.