Palynostratigraphy of the Bookpurnong Beds and related Late Miocene-Early Pliocene facies in the central west Murray Basin, part 1: dinoflagellates

Dinoflagellates offer a reliable method for distinguishing the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene Bookpurnong beds from lithologically similar marginal marine sediments, such as the Winnambool Formation deposited during Oligocene-Middle Miocene transgressions. Species largely or wholly restricted to the Bookpurnong beds and correlatives in the central west Murray Basin include Melitasphaeridium aequabile, M . choanophorum, Tectatodinium psilatum , and (frequent) Tuberculodinium vancampoae. Species diagnostic of the older Murray Group correlatives, such as the Geera Clay and Winnambool Formation, include Apteodinium australiense and Pentadinium laticinctum.