Berita Sedimentologi BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA … · Kalinampu area, Bayat, Klaten,...

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Berita Sedimentologi BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA – PART 3

Number 30 – August 2014

Published by

The Indonesian Sedimentologists Forum (FOSI) The Sedimentology Commission - The Indonesian Association of Geologists (IAGI)

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Editorial Board

Herman Darman Chief Editor

Shell International Exploration and Production B.V.

P.O. Box 162, 2501 AN, The Hague – The Netherlands Fax: +31-70 377 4978

E-mail: [email protected]

Minarwan Deputy Chief Editor Bangkok, Thailand


Fuad Ahmadin Nasution Total E&P Indonesie Jl. Yos Sudarso, Balikpapan 76123


Fatrial Bahesti PT. Pertamina E&P NAD-North Sumatra Assets

Standard Chartered Building 23rd Floor

Jl Prof Dr Satrio No 164, Jakarta 12950 - Indonesia

E-mail: [email protected] Wayan Heru Young University Link coordinator

Legian Kaja, Kuta, Bali 80361, Indonesia

E-mail: [email protected] Visitasi Femant Treasurer

Pertamina Hulu Energi

Kwarnas Building 6th Floor

Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur No.6, Jakarta 10110 E-mail: [email protected]

Rahmat Utomo Bangkok, Thailand E-mail: [email protected]

Farid Ferdian ConocoPhillips

Jakarta, Indonesia


Advisory Board

Prof. Yahdi Zaim Quaternary Geology

Institute of Technology, Bandung

Prof. R. P. Koesoemadinata Emeritus Professor

Institute of Technology, Bandung

Wartono Rahardjo University of Gajah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Ukat Sukanta ENI Indonesia

Mohammad Syaiful Exploration Think Tank Indonesia

F. Hasan Sidi Woodside, Perth, Australia

Prof. Dr. Harry Doust Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit De Boelelaan 1085

1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

E-mails: [email protected];

[email protected] Dr. J.T. (Han) van Gorsel 6516 Minola St., HOUSTON, TX 77007, USA

www.vangorselslist.com


Dr. T.J.A. Reijers Geo-Training & Travel

Gevelakkers 11, 9465TV Anderen, The Netherlands

E-mail: [email protected] Peter M. Barber PhD Principal Sequence Stratigrapher

Isis Petroleum Consultants P/L

47 Colin Street, West Perth, Western Australia 6005


• Published 3 times a year by the Indonesian Sedimentologists Forum (Forum Sedimentologiwan Indonesia, FOSI), a commission of the

Indonesian Association of Geologists (Ikatan Ahli Geologi Indonesia, IAGI).

• Cover topics related to sedimentary geology, includes their depositional processes, deformation, minerals, basin fill, etc.

2

Cover Photograph:

Middle Triassic pelagic thin-shelled

mollusks Daonella indica from Oilette near

Baung, Timor (from Krumbeck 1924). Massive

shell accumulations like these are common in

Triassic Tethyan deep marine deposits.

Photo courtesy of J. T. van Gorsel.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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Dear readers,

Berita Sedimentologi No. 31

completes our special publication on Biostratigraphy of SE Asia this

year. This volume is the last of 3

special issues on biostratigraphy

that began with publication of

Berita Sedimentologi No. 29 in

April and No. 30 in August. In this volume, you will find two

comprehensive review papers on

Paleozoic and Mesozoic

paleontology that should be

useful for researchers in SE Asia

and Indonesia in particular. Other

papers include discussions and

age interpretations of the

Manusela Limestone (Seram Island) and the Kebo Formation

(Central Java), and a review of the

life and work of the famous

Indonesian paleontologist from

the 1930's, Tan Sin Hok.

On this occasion, we would like to

express our sincere Thank You to

all authors who have been

involved in publication of

Biostratigraphy of SE Asia.

Special mention should be

directed to Dr. J.T. van Gorsel as

our Special Guest Editor of the 3

issues and also as an author/co-author of several papers. We are

grateful to have his support and

commitment to disseminating his

paleontology/biostratigraphy

knowledge to you, our readers.

We hope our readers will benefit

from Berita Sedimentologi and

keep supporting us in the future.

See you again next year and

Happy New Year 2015!

Regards, Minarwan

Deputy Chief Editor

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Introduction to Volume – J.T. van Gorsel

5

Learning Biostratigraphy in University of Gadjah Mada – D. Ratri and F. Annurhutami

82

Book Review : The SE Asian Getway: History and Tectonic of the Australian-Asia Collision, editor: Robert Hall et J.A. Reijers

56

An introduction to Paleozoic faunas and floras of Indonesia - J.T. van Gorsel

6

Learning Biostratigraphy in University of Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Yogyakarta – H. Irwanto and S. E. Hapsoro

83

Book Review - Biodiversity, Biogeography and Nature Conservation in Wallacea and New Guinea (Volume 1), Edited by D. Telnov, Ph.D. – H. Darman

58

An introduction to Mesozoic faunas and floras of Indonesia - J.T. van Gorsel

27

Learning Biostratigraphy in University of Diponegoro, Semarang – L. Agustina and S. R. N. Simorangkir

84

The Manusela Limestone in Seram: Late Triassic age for a ‘Jurassic’ petroleum play – T. R. Charlton and J.T. van Gorsel

57

The life and scientific legacy of Indonesian paleontologist Dr. Tan Sin Hok (1902-1945) - Munasri and J.T. van Gorsel

86

Planktonic foraminifera biozonation of the Middle Eocene-Oligocene Kebo Formation, Kalinampu area, Bayat, Klaten, Central Java – D. Novita et al.

70

Book Review : Mesozoic Geology and Paleontology of Misool Archipelago, Eastern Indonesia By Fauzie Hasibuan – H. Darman

100

Berita Sedimentologi

A sedimentological Journal of the Indonesia Sedimentologists Forum

(FOSI), a commission of the Indonesian Association of Geologist (IAGI)

From the Editor

Call for paper BS #32 –

to be published in March 2015

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About FOSI

he forum was founded in 1995 as the Indonesian

Sedimentologists Forum

(FOSI). This organization is a

commu-nication and discussion

forum for geologists, especially for those dealing with sedimentology

and sedimentary geology in

Indonesia.

The forum was accepted as the

sedimentological commission of the Indonesian Association of

Geologists (IAGI) in 1996. About

300 members were registered in

1999, including industrial and

academic fellows, as well as students.

FOSI has close international relations with the Society of

Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) and

the International Association of

Sedimentologists (IAS).

Fellowship is open to those holding a recognized degree in

geology or a cognate subject and

non-graduates who have at least

two years relevant experience.

FOSI has organized 2 international conferences in 1999

and 2001, attended by more than

150 inter-national participants.

Most of FOSI administrative work will be handled by the editorial

team. IAGI office in Jakarta will help if necessary.

The official website of FOSI is:

http://www.iagi.or.id/fosi/

Any person who has a background in geoscience and/or is engaged in the practising or teaching of geoscience

or its related business may apply for general membership. As the organization has just been restarted, we use LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) as the main data base platform. We realize that it is not the ideal solution,

and we may look for other alternative in the near future. Having said that, for the current situation, LinkedIn

is fit for purpose. International members and students are welcome to join the organization.

T

FOSI Membership

FOSI Group Member as of NOVEMBER 2014

http://www.iagi.or.id/fosi/

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INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME J.T. (Han) van Gorsel (Guest Editor)

Adjunct Research Fellow, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia I would like to thank the Chief Editors for allowing me to be Guest Editor for the 2014 Biostratigraphy- Paleontology themed Issues 29-31 of Berita Sedimentologi. We were fortunate to receive a significant number of contributions from Indonesian and foreign scientists, showing there are still many institutions actively studying biostratigraphy of Indonesia. Unfortunately there was no response from the commercial biostratigraphy consulting groups in the country, but the invitations for publishing in this journal remain open. This project provided the opportunity to compile four introductory/review papers on Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic fossils, which will hopefully fill a gap in the education of biostratigraphy/ paleontology of this region until somebody writes the long-overdue textbook on 'The Paleontology of Indonesia'.

Hopefully these journal issues help to familiarize students with the great variety of fossil faunas and floras of Indonesia and may inspire more interest and research in this field. Apart from enjoying their natural beauty, fossils still provide the fundamental age, paleoenvironment, paleoclimate and paleobiogeography controls required for the interpretation of sedimentary and geologic histories.

Eocene larger foram Nummulites (diameter 2 cm) in coarse turbiditic sandstones, Ciletuh Bay, SW Java.

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An introduction to Paleozoic faunas and floras of Indonesia J.T. van Gorsel

Houston, Texas, USA

ABSTRACT

In the Indonesian region the most complete Paleozoic sedimentary section is in West Papua, where parts of the older Australian continental margin sequence are exposed. The oldest fossils are Ordovician-Silurian age corals and graptolites. The only Early Paleozoic fossils in West Indonesia are the enigmatic occurrence of a Devonian coral and stromatoporoid in limestone blocks in a melange section of uncertain age in NE Kalimantan. Late Paleozoic faunas and floras are more widespread across Indonesia, mainly on Sumatra, Timor and West Borneo, where the oldest fossils are of Late

Carboniferous and Permian ages. Paleozoic fossils from Indonesia are mainly marine organisms, but non-marine Permian plant fossils are known from Sumatra and West Papua. Some assemblages or species signify 'low-latitude Tethyan' settings; others have 'anti-tropical/subtropical Tethyan' or 'Gondwanan' affinities, which helps constrain plate reconstruction models.

INTRODUCTION

This paper is one of four papers published in this

journal. Two of these were published recently in this journal (Van Gorsel et al. (2014) on Cenozoic

microfossils and biostratigraphy and Van Gorsel

(2014) on Cenozoic macrofossils. The remaining

two, on Paleozoic and Mesozoic fossils, are

discussed in this issue. Together they represent a

brief 'Introduction to the paleontology and biostratigraphy of Indonesia', which could have

been the title of a useful book that has never been

written. This series of papers is not a systematic

treatise of paleontology, but rather an introduction

to the principal fossil groups and their significance, and references to key literature for

more detailed information.

Studies of Paleozoic and Mesozoic faunas and

floras are not just of historic interest, but are

essential for unraveling the early history of Indonesia. Such fossils are often the only tool for

age control, which is fundamental to all regional

geological studies, or provide a 'reality check' for

radiometric and other age dating tools. They also

provide local paleoenvironment and regional paleoclimate information, thus constraining

depositional settings and paleolatitudinal position.

This together with paleobiogeographic patterns of

faunal/floral similarities between tectonic blocks

or endemism further help constrain plate tectonic

reconstructions.

Many of the genus and species names used in

historic literature on Indonesian fossils are

outdated. In this paper we still use some of these

original names, but recognize that these may not be in agreement with the latest taxonomic

concepts and classifications. It is, however,

important to realize that correct taxonomy and

consistent identifications are very important.

Misidentifications and inconsistent taxonomy will

lead to incorrect conclusions on biostratigraphic

ages and paleobiogeographic patterns.

Unfortunately, paleontological research on macrofossils of Indonesia has come to a virtual

standstill, as it has worldwide, and the number of

experts that are qualified to properly analyze pre-

Cenozoic macrofaunas and floras of Indonesia is

limited.

History and Data on Pre-Cenozoic Paleontology

of Indonesia

A significant body of literature has been published

on Pre-Cenozoic fossils from outcrops in the

Indonesian region over the last ~150 years, in which thousands of species have been identified

and described. However, relatively little modern

work has been done and this work has never been

properly summarized in a textbook on the

paleontology of Indonesia. Many of these papers,

books and monographs are from the colonial era, published in the early 1900's, and written mainly

by German and Dutch academic paleontologists.

As a result, much of this work may be hard to find

and is poorly known today. Yet, much of this early

descriptive paleontology work is still relevant today, and the purpose of this paper is to review

some of this historic knowledge, and place in a

modern geologic context.

Notable series of paleontological monographs

include: - 'Beitrage zur Geologie von Niederlandisch Indien'

edited initially by G. Boehm and later by J.

Wanner (1913-1959);

-'Palaeontologie von Timor' series edited by J.

Wanner (1914-1929). 30 monographs in 16 volumes;

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Berita Sedimentologi BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF SE ASIA – PART 3

Number 31 – November 2014

- 'Wetenschappelijke Mededeelingen Dienst

Mijnbouw Nederlands Indie', 1-28 (1929-1940).

Mainly paleontological contributions from

Geological Survey, Bandung, paleontologists Van der Vlerk, Gerth, Umbgrove, Oostingh, Tan Sin

Hok and Von Koenigswald.

- 'Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia',

Tokyo University Press, 1-25 (1964-1984). A

remarkable series edited by T. Kobayashi et al.,

documenting numerous paleontological studies by Japanese paleontologists in mainland Southeast

Asia and Indonesia from the 1950's - 1980's.

- CCOP Technical Publications. Contain

paleontological papers on Paleozoic - Mesozoic

paleontology of mainland SE Asia and western Indonesia by French group of Henri Fontaine and

associates Beauvais, Tien and Vachard in the

1980's - 1990's.

- More current paleontological papers, or geologic

papers with significant pre-Cenozoic

paleontological content, include those by Hasibuan, Kristan-Tollman, Martini, Grant-

Mackie, Skwarko, Charlton and others (see

Bibliography).

Comprehensive listings of all faunas and species known from Indonesia were published in 1931 in

the Professor Martin Memorial volume (Escher et

al. 1931). This volume also includes reviews of

stratigraphy of the Paleozoic by Brouwer and the

Mesozoic by Wanner. A more recent and more

concise compilation of macrofossil species is by Skwarko and Yusuf (1982). Another useful and

still remarkably accurate review of pre-Cenozoic

faunas/floras distribution in Indonesia is in

Umbgrove (1938).

Literature on Paleozoic - Mesozoic fossils has been

captured in the 'Bibliography of the geology of

Indonesia and surrounding areas' (online at

www.vangorselslist.com or see the Biostratigraphy

chapter from this, published as Berita

Sedimentologi 29A). It lists >1400 titles of books and papers from Indonesia and SE Asia with data

on Paleozoic - Mesozoic fossils. The discussions

below and the annotated bibliography should

facilitate access to this wealth of published

research from the region. The tables in this series of papers focus on references on Indonesian

fossils.

KEY REFERENCES- PRE-CENOZOIC PALEONTOLOGY GENERAL Escher, B.G., I.M. van der Vlerk, J.H.F. Umbgrove and

P.H. Kuenen (eds.), 1931. De palaeontologie en stratigraphie van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie (K. Martin Memorial Volume), Leidsche Geologische Mededelingen. 5, 1, p. 1-648.

Fontaine, H. (ed.), 1990. Ten years of CCOP research on the Pre-Tertiary of East Asia. CCOP Techn. Publ. TP 20, 375p.

Fontaine, H. and S. Gafoer (eds.), 1989. The pre-Tertiary fossils of Sumatra and their environments. Comm. Co-ord. Joint Prosp. Mineral Res. Asian Offshore Areas (CCOP), Techn. Publ. TP 19, Bangkok, 356p.

Harsono Pringgoprawiro, D. Kadar and S.K. Skwarko, 1998. Foraminifera in Indonesian stratigraphy,

Vol.3: Palaeozoic and Mesozoic foraminifera. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, p. 1-150.

Hasibuan, F., 2008. Pre-Tertiary biostratigraphy of Indonesia. In: Proc. Int. Symp. Geoscience resources and environments of Asian Terranes (GREAT 2008), 4th IGCP 516 and 5th APSEG, Bangkok, p. 323-325.

Hasibuan, F. and Purnamaningsih, 1998. Pre-Tertiary biostratigraphy of Indonesia. In: J.L. Rau (ed.) Proc. 34th Sess. Sess. Co-ord. Comm. Coastal Offshore

Geosc. Programs E and SE Asia (CCOP), Taejon 1997, 2, Techn. Repts, p. 40-54.

Kobayashi, T., R. Toriyama and W. Hashimoto (eds.), 1984. Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia, University of Tokyo Press, 25, 488p.

Skwarko, S.K. and G. Yusuf, 1982. Bibliography of the invertebrate macrofossils of Indonesia (with cross references). Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, Spec. Publ. 3, p. 1-66.

Umbgrove, J.H.F., 1935. De Pretertiaire historie van den Indischen Archipel. Leidsche Geol. Meded. 7, p. 119-155.

Umbgrove, J.H.F., 1938. Geological history of the East Indies. AAPG Bull. 22, p. 1-70.

Van Gorsel, J.T., 2014. An introduction to Cenozoic macrofossils of Indonesia. Berita Sedimentologi 30, p. 63-76.

Van Gorsel, J.T., P. Lunt and R. Morley, 2014. Introduction to Cenozoic biostratigraphy of Indonesia- SE Asia. Berita Sedimentologi 29, p. 6-40.

PALEOZOIC FOSSIL GROUPS In the Indonesian region Early Paleozoic

fossiliferous rocks are known only from West

Papua, south of the Central Range and on the

Birds Head (but not in Papua New Guinea). Of

significant interest, but unfortunately poorly documented and poorly understood, are reported

occurrences of Devonian fossils in the accretionary

system of North Borneo. An early review of

Paleozoic stratigraphy is by Brouwer (1931)

Early Paleozoic fossiliferous platform sediments and faunas of SE Asia are best-known from

outside Indonesia, particularly on the Sibumasu

terrane (NW Malay Peninsula and Langkawi

islands-Peninsular and NW Thailand-E Myanmar-

Yunnan; but not from the eastern Malay Peninsula or Sumatra [see references in separate

Bibliography]). Pre-Carboniferous rocks may

therefore be expected in the southern extension of

the Sibumasu block in Sumatra, but there is no

fossil evidence for this yet (Fontaine and Gafoer

1989).

Late Paleozoic (Carboniferous-Permian) deposits in

Indonesia are more widespread than Early

Paleozoic rocks. They have been reported only from

Sumatra, West Papua (South of the Central Range and the Birds Head) and Timor and adjacent

islands (Figure 1). Blocks of Late Carboniferous -

Early Permian fusulinid limestones are also known

from both the NW Kalimantan - Sarawak border

region and from NE Kalimantan,

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however these occurrences are probably in

accretionary melange of younger age.

Most of the Paleozoic sediments of Indonesia are in marine facies, so most studies deal with marine

macro- and microfossils. In the Paleozoic dominant

groups are brachiopods, ammonoids, corals,

stromatolites, crinoids, blastoids, graptolites and

trilobites. Microfossils tend to be more significant than macrofossils for Paleozoic biostratigraphy,

with conodonts, radiolaria and foraminifera as the

most important groups: 1. Radiolaria: in deep marine Paleozoic - Mesozoic

deposits radiolaria offer high resolution

biostratigraphy. Belts of radiolarian-rich cherts and shales can be used to trace the locations of

former ocean basins and distal continental

margins; 2. Conodonts: key group for dating of Paleozoic -

Triassic shallow marine limestones; 3. Benthic foraminifera: important in dating Late

Paleozoic shallow marine limestone (incl. fusulinids). An illustrated listing of Paleozoic-

Mesozoic foraminifera species from Indonesia

was compiled by Harsono, Kadar and Skwarko

(1998, vol. 3; limited edition);

Paleozoic vertebrate faunas are very rare in the SE

Asia region, and represented only by Late Silurian

- Devonian marine fish fossils in mainland SE Asia

and in West Papua (Turner 1995).

KEY REFERENCES- PALEOZOIC GENERAL Brouwer, H.A., 1931. Paleozoic In: B.G. Escher et al.

(eds.) De palaeontologie en stratigraphie van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, Leidsche Geol. Meded. 5 (K. Martin memorial volume), p. 552-566.

ORDOVICIAN The oldest fossils described from Indonesian

territory are from the Ordovician-Silurian of West

Papua. Cambrian and Late Precambrian sediments

are probably present in this as well, but no

diagnostic fossils have yet been recovered. Studies

of Paleozoic fossils from West Papua are few, probably partly because faunas are not abundant

and partly because outcrops of Early Paleozoic are

in areas with difficult physical and political access.

Most of the fossils described are from float samples

from rivers draining the southern slopes of the Central Range.

Ordovician fossils reported from West Papua

include:

1. Conodonts from 'basement limestone' in oil

exploration wells Noordwest 1 and Cross

Catalina 1 in the Central Range, including Ordovician Serratognathus bilobatus (Nicoll

2006). These limestones are part of the extensive

Middle Cambrian - Early Ordovician Goulburn

Group of carbonate-dominated shelf sediments,

which underlie most of the Arafura Sea and West

Papua South of the Central Ranges (Zhen et al. 2012);

2. Llanvirnian graptolites from shale from the

Heluk River in the eastern foothills of the Central

Range (Fortey and Cocks, 1986; not described or

illustrated); 3. Possible occurrences of Ordovician-age

orthoconic nautiloids of the Orthoceras-group,

described as Irianoceras antiquum by Kobayashi

and Burton (1971), but this was deemed to be a junior synonym of Bactroceras latisiphonatum

Glenister 1952 by Crick and Quarles van Ufford

(1995). These nautiloids are from black shale nodules in river float within and south of the

Central Range of West Papua (Figure 2). The

problem is that (1) the nodules look very similar

to those from Kembelangan Formation black

shales, which yield common Middle-Late

Jurassic ammonites, and (2) the fossils appear to have been collected in areas with nearby

outcrops of Jurassic rocks, but no Paleozoic.

These observations suggest a likely Jurassic age

for these nautiloids, but this type of straight

Figure 1. Distribution of Paleozoic rocks/ fossils in Indonesia (Umbgrove 1938), showing the main

Paleozoic outcrop areas on Sumatra, NW Borneo, Timor and New Guinea.

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nautiloids is not known from post-Triassic rocks

anywhere in the world. It is hard to decide

whether these 'Ordovician' nautiloids represent

(1) material from as yet unidentified outcrops of

Ordovician shales in the Central Range; (2) an as

yet undescribed nautiloid species of Jurassic age, or (3) reworked Ordovician fauna into

Middle-Late Jurassic sediments.

4. Another occurrence of molds of possible Ordovician Orthoceras is in phyllitic shale

(presumably Kemum Formation), just N of the

mouth of the Wesan River in the NW part of the Birds Head (Kruizinga 1957).

KEY REFERENCES- ORDOVICIAN Crick, R.E. and A.I. Quarles van Ufford, 1995. Late

Ordovician (Caradoc-Ashgill) ellesmerocerid Bactroceras latisiphonatum of Irian Jaya and Australia. Alcheringa 19, 3, p. 235-241.

Fortey, R.A. and L.R.M. Cocks, 1986. Marginal faunal belts and their structural implications, with examples from the Lower Palaeozoic. J. Geol. Soc. London 143, p. 151-160.

Kobayashi, T. and C.K. Burton, 1971. Discovery of ellesmereoceroid cephalopods in Irian, New Guinea. Proc. Japanese Academy 47, 7, p. 625-630.

Martin, K., 1911. Palaeozoische, Mesozoische und Kaenozoische Sedimente aus dem sud-westlichen Neu-Guinea. Sammlung. Geol. Reichsmus. Leiden,

ser. 1, 9, 1, E.J. Brill, p. 84-107.

SILURIAN Similar to the Ordovician, Silurian-age fossils are

known only from West Papua: 1. Graptolites Monograptus turriculatus and M.

marri from the highly-deformed deep water

sediments of the Kemum Formation in the north-

central Birds Head (Llandoverian; Visser and Hermes 1962);

2. Small trilobites and brachiopods from float

samples in rivers draining the southern slopes of

the Central Range (Martin, 1911), associated

with Silurian conodonts (Ludlowian; Van den Boogaard 1990);

3. Conodonts from Modio Dolomite in Charles Louis Range, SW West Papua, with Panderodus

cf. simplex, indicate a Silurian age (Nicoll and

Bladon 1991);

3. Silurian cosmopolitan coral Halysites wallichi

was also found in river float in a tributary of the

Noordoost/Lorentz River (Musper, 1938; Figure

3);

4. Late Silurian (M Ludlow) thelodont and

acanthodian fish scales from Lorenz River in eastern W Papua and Kemum Fm of north part

of Birds Head (Turner et al. 1995).

KEY REFERENCES- SILURIAN Musper, K.A.F.R., 1938. Over het voorkomen van

Halysites wallichi Reed op Nieuw Guinea. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-Indie (IV Mijnbouw en Geologie), 5, 10, p. 156-158.

Nicoll, R.S. and G.M. Bladon, 1991. Silurian and Late Carboniferous conodonts from the Charles Louis Range and central Birds Head, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. BMR J. Austral. Geol. Geoph. 12, 4, p. 279-286.

Turner, S., J.M.J. Vergoossen and G.C. Young, 1995. Fish microfossils from Irian Jaya. Mem. Assoc. Australasian Palaeont. 18, p. 165-178.

Van den Boogaard, M., 1990. A Ludlow conodont fauna from Irian Jaya (Indonesia). Scripta Geol. 92, p. 1-

27. Visser, W.A. and J.J. Hermes, 1962. Geological results

of the exploration for oil in Netherlands New Guinea. Verh. Kon. Nederl. Geol. Mijnbouwk. Genootschap, Geol. Series 20, p. 1-265.

DEVONIAN Devonian-age fossils are relatively widespread on mainland SE Asia (Malay Peninsula, NE Thailand,

S China, Cambodia, Vietnam), and also along the

Australia-New Guinea margins. All these regions

were probably in low latitudes in Devonian time,

favoring widespread carbonate development. However, Devonian fossils are relatively rare in

Indonesia, and are known only from West Papua

and NE Kalimantan.

Devonian Corals Middle or Late Devonian corals, including Heliolites and Favosites, and stromatoporoids, have been

reported from the dark grey 'Modio Dolomite

Formation', which outcrops south of the Central

Range of West Papua (Gerth 1927, Keijzer 1941,

Oliver et al. 1995).

Figure 2. Ordovician(?) straight nautiloid in silicified black shale nodule, presumably collected in

Central Range, West Papua. Length of fossil= 7cm (purchased in Wamena market by author)

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These carbonates may be remnants of a

widespread Middle Devonian reef system that

continues for about 2000 km along the East

Australia and New Guinea margin (Copper and Scotese 2003, Torsvik and Cocks 2013). Pebbles of

M-U Devonian sandstones with the brachiopod genus Spirifer have been reported from the same

region (Teichert, 1928).

In NE Kalimantan Devonian corals (Heliolites) and

the stromatoporoid Clathrodictyon cf. spatiosum

are present in limestone blocks in the 'Danau

Formation' melange complex at the Telen River (Rutten 1940, 1947). Heliolites is a genus that is

geographically widespread, also known from

Indochina, NE Thailand, Laos, East Australia and

Europe. Age of the melange complex has not been

properly documented, but is likely Early

Cretaceous (Tate 1992).

KEY REFERENCES- DEVONIAN Copper, P. and C.R. Scotese, 2003. Megareefs in Middle

Devonian supergreenhouse climates. Geol. Soc. America Spec. Paper 370, p. 209-230.

Gerth, H., 1927. Eine Favosites Kolonie aus dem

Palaozoikum von Neu-Guinea. Leidsche Geol. Meded. 2, 3, p. 228-229.

Oliver, W.A., A.E.H. Peddler, R.E. Weiland and A. Quarles van Ufford, 1995. Middle Palaeozoic corals from the southern slope of the Central Ranges of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Alcheringa 19, p. 1-15.

Rutten, M.G., 1940. On Devonian limestones with Clathrodictyon cf spatiosum and Heliolites porosus from Eastern Borneo. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wet. 43, 8, p. 1061-1064.

Stehn, C.E., 1927. Devonische Fossilien von

Hollandisch-Neu-Guinea. Wetensch. Meded. Dienst Mijnbouw Nederlandsch-Indie 5, p. 25-27.

Teichert, C., 1928. Nachweis Palaeozoischer Schichten von Sudwest Neu-Guinea. Nova Guinea 6, 3, p. 71-92.

TABLE 1 ORDOVICIAN- DEVONIAN

FAUNA/FLORA AREA REFERENCES

Devonian corals

West Papua Gerth 1927, Keijzer 1941, Oliver et al. 1995

NE Kalimantan Rutten 1940, 1947, Sugiaman and Andria

1999

Devonian

brachiopods West Papua Stehn 1927, Feuilleteau de Bruyn 1921

Late Silurian-

Devonian fish

W Papua Turner et al. 1995

SE Asia Wang et al. 2010

Silurian corals W Papua- S of C Range Gerth 1927, Teichert 1928, Musper 1938

Silurian conodonts W Papua- S of C

Range

Van den Boogaard 1990, Nicoll and Bladon

1991

Ordovician-Silurian graptolites

W Papua, Birds Head Visser and Hermes 1962 (Silurian)

W Papua, Heluk River Fortey and Cocks 1986 (M Ordovician)

Ordovician? orthoconic

nautiloids

W Papua Star

Mountains Kobayashi. and Burton 1971

W Papua Central

Range Crick and Quarles van Ufford 1995

Birds Head Kruizinga 1957

E Ordovician conodonts

W Papua, S Central Range

Nicoll 2002

Figure 3. Section across Early Paleozoic tabulate 'chain coral' Halysites wallichi from Peningih/Oesak tributaries of the Noordoost/(=Lorentz) River, West Papua (Musper

1938).

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CARBONIFEROUS

Carboniferous deposits are relatively rare in Indonesia, and are limited to North Sumatra,

West-Central Sumatra, West Papua and possibly

also NW Kalimantan. In the late 1800's most of the

Permian limestones from Sumatra and Timor were

erroneously assigned to the Carboniferous (equivalent of 'Kohlenkalk' of NW Europe).

Sumatra

Early Carboniferous sediments are the oldest

sediments identified in Sumatra and may be from

two different tectonic blocks (Fontaine and Gafoer, 1989, Barber et al. 2005):

- temperate late Visean Alas Fm limestones in

North Sumatra. These are probably part of the

Sibumasu Terrane, which at this time was still

part of Australian margin. With conodonts (Metcalfe 1983)

- shallower marine and warmer-climate Kuantan Fm limestone with corals (Syringopora, Siphonodendron), calcareous algae (Koninckopora)

and cosmopolitan foraminiferal assemblages from

West Sumatra (Agam River, NE of Padang;

Fontaine and Gafoer, 1989, Kato et al. 1999). This is part of the West Sumatra Block, with affinities

more similar to the low-latitude Indochina Block.

The un-fossiliferous, glacial pebbly mudstones of

the Bohorok Formation of West and North Sumatra are probably of Late Carboniferous -

earliest Permian age, but fossils are lacking.

NW Kalimantan - West Sarawak

In NW Borneo, in the border area between West

Sarawak and NW Kalimantan, the oldest fossil-bearing rocks are tightly folded, steeply dipping

sediments with chert and grey limestones of the

Terbat Formation. These contain diverse latest

Carboniferous and earliest Permian fusulinid assemblages with Pseudoschwagerina,

Paraschwagerina, etc. (Krekeler 1932, 1933,

Cummings 1962, Sanderson 1966, Vachard 1990,

etc.). Correlative deposits are present in NW

Kalimantan (Zeijlmans van Emmichoven, 1939).

The fusulinid assemblages suggest affinity with low

latitude Cathaysian regions, not with Sibumasu

terrains. West Papua

Conodonts from the Aimau Fm in the SW Tamrau

Mountains of the Birds Head contain conodonts typical of Late Carboniferous (Hindeodus minutus, Neognathus; Nicoll and Bladon 1991).

KEY REFERENCES- CARBONIFEROUS Fontaine, H. and S. Gafoer, 1989. The Carboniferous. In:

H. Fontaine and S. Gafoer (eds.) The Pre-Tertiary fossils of Sumatra and their environments, CCOP Techn. Publ. TP 19, Bangkok, p. 19-29.

Metcalfe, I., 1983. Conodont faunas, age and correlation

of the Alas Formation (Carboniferous), Sumatra. Geol. Mag. 120, 6, p. 737-746.

Nicoll, R.S. and G.M. Bladon, 1991. Silurian and Late Carboniferous conodonts from the Charles Louis Range and central Birds Head, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. BMR J. Austral. Geol. Geoph. 12, 4, p. 279-286.

Sanderson, G.A., 1966. Presence of Carboniferous in West Sarawak. AAPG Bull. 50, 3, p. 578-580.

Vachard, D., 1990. A new biozonation of the limestones from Terbat area, Sarawak, Malaysia. In: H. Fontaine (ed.) Ten years of CCOP research on the Pre-Tertiary of East Asia, CCOP Techn. Bull. 20, p. 183-208.

PERMIAN

Rich Permian faunas and floras are known from

many localities in SE Asia-Indonesia-West Papua. For reviews of the shallow marine and non-marine

Permian faunas and floras of SE Asia see Fontaine

(1986, 2002). A comprehensive review of Permian

marine faunas of Timor is by Charlton et al.

(2002). For biostratigraphic correlations of marine sequences brachiopods and mollusks have been

the main tool in the Gondwana realm, while

fusulinid foraminifera are the principal group used

for correlation along the Tethyan margin.

TABLE 2 CARBONIFEROUS


Corals

W Sumatra Fontaine 1983, 1989

West Papua Kato et al. 1999

Thailand Fontaine et al. 1991

Foraminifera W Sumatra Metcalfe 1983, 1989, Vachard 1989

NW Borneo Cummings 1962, Sanderson 1966, Vachard 1990

Conodonts Sumatra Metcalfe 1983, 1986

West Papua Nicoll and Bladon 1991

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In Indonesia Permian faunas and floras are

common on Timor, West-Central Sumatra and

West Papua (not including Papua New Guinea)

and, to a lesser degree, from Borneo. The Permian faunas from Timor are famous for yielding the

richest marine Permian faunas in the world (Figure

4), with over 600 species described by 1926

(Wanner 1926). Most of the Permian fossiliferous

sediments on Timor are not in any stratigraphic

order, but occurs as isolated blocks in melange,

olistostrome or broken formations. It is generally

accepted that material from the famous fossil localities of Somohole and Bitauni areas are older

(E Permian, ~Sakmarian- Artinskian) than those

from the Basleo and Amarassi areas (late Middle

Permian, ~Capitanian).

Figure 4. A typical selection of Permian fossils from Timor (Beyrich, 1865). 1-3 Brachiopods

Productus semireticulatus (1-2) and P. punctatus; 4-12. Corals Zaphrentis?, Cyatophyllum, Clisiophyllum (7-9), Calamopora, Heliolites (11), Alveolites (12). 13-16. Crinoids, 16.

Hypocrinus schneideri, 17. Trilobite Phillipsia parvula.

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Interpretation of Permian fossils and stratigraphy

in SE Asia is made difficult by the lack of a globally

accepted time scale. Different authors used

different sets of stage names, the names of which originated from the traditional centers of Permian

studies in the USA, Russia, China or Western

Europe. The subdivision most used today is that

sanctioned by the International Commission on

Stratigraphy.

KEY REFERENCES- PERMIAN Charlton, T.R., A.J. Barber, R.A. Harris, S.T. Barkham et

al., 2002. The Permian of Timor: stratigraphy, palaeontology and palaeogeography. J. Asian Earth Sci. 20, p. 719-774.

Fontaine, H., 1986. The Permian of Southeast Asia. CCOP Techn. Bull. 18, p. 1-111.

Fontaine, H., 2002. Permian of Southeast Asia: an overview. J. Asian Earth Sci. 20, p. 567- 588.

Fontaine, H. and S. Gafoer (1989)- The Lower Permian. In: H. Fontaine and S. Gafoer (eds.) The Pre-

Tertiary fossils of Sumatra and their environments, CCOP Techn. Publ. TP 19, Bangkok, p. 47-51.

Fontaine, H. and S. Gafoer (1989)- The Middle Permian. In: H. Fontaine and S. Gafoer (eds.) The Pre-Tertiary fossils of Sumatra and their environments, CCOP Techn. Publ. TP 19, Bangkok, p. 99-112.

Wanner, J., 1926. Die marine Permfauna von Timor. Geol. Rundschau 17a, Sonderband (Steinmann Festschrift), p. 20-48.

Early Permian Cold-climate Bivalves and

Brachiopods

Early Permian glacial marine deposits across

northern Gondwana (Australia, India, etc.) often

contain thick-shelled bivalves of the genera Atomodesma (Figure 5) and Eurydesma and the cool-climate brachiopod Globiella foordi (now also

called Cimmeriella foordi). Comparable bivalve

assemblages may be present in the Early Permian

of the Sibumasu - Cimmerian terranes now in

Sumatra, NW Malaysia, W Thailand and SW China

(Sun 1993).

In Indonesia assemblages with these genera were

found in the Early Permian Maubisse Formation of

Timor (Beyrich 1865, Wanner 1922, 1940,

Hasibuan 1994), but they are associated with

relatively diverse marine faunas and glacio-marine deposits are not known from Timor. These faunas

may suggest a proximity to glacial Gondwana of

this part of Timor in earliest Permian time, but are

not necessarily part of the glaciated terranes.

The presence in Timor Leste of a diverse fusulinid

assemblage interpreted as of latest Carboniferous -

earliest Permian age and presumably representing

a relatively warm climate (Davydov et al. 2013) is

puzzling in the context of widespread glaciations

on Gondwana at this time. KEY REFERENCES- EARLY PERMIAN BIVALVE MOLLUSCS Hasibuan, F., 1994. Fauna Gondwana dari Formasi

Maubisse, Timor Timur. Proc. 23rd Ann. Conv. Indon. Assoc. Geol. (IAGI), Jakarta, 1, p. 104-111.

Wanner, C., 1922. Die Gastropoden und Lamellibranchiaten der Dyas von Timor. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaeontologie von Timor, Stuttgart,

11, 18, p. 1-82. Wanner, C., 1940. Neue Permische Lamellibranchiaten

von Timor. In: H.A. Brouwer (ed.) Geological Expedition of the University of Amsterdam to the Lesser Sunda Islands 1937, 2, Noord Hollandsche Publ. Co., Amsterdam, p. 369-395.

Permian Corals

Permian corals, generally in carbonate lithologies

and associated with fusulinid larger foraminifera,

are relatively widespread in SE Asia. Assemblage compositions differ with age, water depth and with

paleogeographic position. Early Permian

limestones from the Indochina terrane (East

Thailand, etc.) contain typical 'Cathaysian',

tropical, high-diversity coral and fusulinid

assemblages, dominated by compound corals, while in the Early Permian of the Sibumasu

Terrane corals are absent or dominated by small,

solitary rugose corals, reflecting cooler and/or

deeper waters (e.g. Peninsular Thailand; Fontaine

et al. 1994, Yunnan, SW China; Wang and Sugiyama 2002). The low diversity assemblages

dominated by solitary rugose coral species, have been called 'Lytvolasma faunas' or 'Cyathaxonia

faunas'. They are generally viewed as 'anti-

tropical', cooler climate coral assemblages

(Kossovaya 2009). By late Middle and Late Permian time the Sibumasu terranes had moved towards

tropical latitudes and started to have similar high-

diversity coral and fusulinid faunas as the

Indochina terranes.

In Indonesia Permian coral faunas are known mainly from:

1. Timor (Figure 6). Permian corals are locally very

abundant in the Maubisse Formation/ Basleo beds. They are mainly 'Cythaxonia-faunas' with

solitary corals like Lytvolasma, Timorphyllum, Lophophyllidium, Verbeekiella (incl. Verbeekiella australis Beyrich; Figure 7), Zaphrentis,

Amplexus and Wannerophyllum. Colonial rugose

corals like Michelinia, Favosites, Lonsdaleia timorica (Figure 7) and L. molengraaffi are

present as well, but are relatively rare (Gerth

1921, Koker 1924, Wang 1947, Von Schouppe

and Stacul 1955). The Timor Permian coral

assemblages are very similar to those reported

Figure 5. Permian bivalve Atomodesma exarata

from the Kupang area, West Timor (Beyrich 1865).

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from the Baoshan Block, SW China (Zhao and

Zhou 1987).

2. Sumatra. Corals have been reported from

several localities in West Sumatra. Some of the Middle Permian limestones from West Sumatra

contain high diversity corals that look similar to

'Cathaysian' assemblages of Central Thailand

(Guguk Bulat; Fontaine 1983, 1989).

3. West Papua. Permian corals are widely

distributed in the Aifam Fm (Visser and Hermes 1962, p. 54), including solitary Amplexus on the

Birds Head (Broili 1924). However, typical low-

latitude compound corals appear to be absent here (Fontaine et al. 1994, p. 39).

Figure 6. Permian solitary and compound corals from Timor (Gerth 1921): 1-4. Carcinophyllum wichmanni, 5-9. Carcinophyllum cristatum, 10-11. Dibunophyllum rothpletzi, 12-15. Dibunophyllum (Verbeekiella) australe, 16-19. Dibunophyllum

(Verbeekiella) spp., 20-21. Pterophyllum, 22-23. Favosites sp. and 24-25. Michelinia

indica.

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Gerth (1926) already noted that the Permian coral

fauna of Timor indicated a relatively warm

paleoclimate, while Permian deposits on adjacent Australia contained glacial deposits, suggesting

that Timor and Australia must have been farther

apart in Permian time. However, if the Permian

corals on Timor are younger than the earliest

Permian glacial deposits on Gondwana, which they probably are, the contrast may not be as

significant.

KEY REFERENCES- PERMIAN CORALS Fontaine, H., 1983. Some Permian corals from the

Highlands of Padang, Sumatra, Indonesia. Publ. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, Paleont. Ser. 4, p. 1-31.

Fontaine, H., 1986. Discovery of Lower Permian corals in Sumatra. In: G.H. Teh and S. Paramananthan (eds.) Proc. GEOSEA V Conf., Kuala Lumpur 1984, 1, Geol. Soc. Malaysia Bull. 19, p.183-191.

Fontaine, H., 1989. Middle Permian corals of Sumatra. In: H. Fontaine and S. Gafoer (eds.) The Pre-Tertiary fossils of Sumatra and their environments, CCOP Techn. Paper 19, Bangkok, p. 149-165.

Gerth, H., 1921. Die Anthozoen der Dyas von Timor. Palaontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 9, 16, p. 65-147.

Gerth, H., 1921. Der palaeontologische Character der

Anthozoenfauna des Perms von Timor. Nederl. Timor Expeditie 1910-1912, Jaarboek Mijnwezen Ned. Oost-Indie 49 (1920), Verh. III, 1, p. 1-30.

Gerth, H., 1926. Die Korallenfauna des Perm von Timor

und die Permische Vereisung. Leidsche Geol. Meded. 2, 1, p. 7-14.

Koker, E.M.J., 1924. Anthozoa uit het Perm van het eiland Timor. I. Zaphrentidae, Pterophyllidae, Cystiphyllidae, Amphiastreidae. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost Indië 51 (1922), Verhand., p. 1-50.

Von Schouppe, A. and P. Stacul , 1955.- Die Genera Verbeekiella Penecke, Timorphyllum Gerth, Wannerophyllum n. gen., Lophophyllidium Grabau aus dem Perm von Timor. Palaeontographica Suppl. IV, Beitr. Geologie Niederlandisch-Indien 5, 3, p. 95-196.

Von Schouppe, A. and P. Stacul, 1959. Saulchenlose Pterocorallia aus dem Perm von Indonesisch Timor (mit Ausnahme der Polycoelidae). Eine morphogenetische und taxonomische Untersuchung. Palaeontographica Suppl. IV, Beitr. Geologie Niederlandisch-Indien 5, 4, p. 197-359.

Permian Ammonoids

Permian ammonoids are generally rare in

Indonesia/SE Asia, but the ammonoid

assemblages of Timor are among the richest in the

world (Smith, 1927, Wanner 1932). Wanner (1926)

counted 37 species of ammonoids and 21 nautiloids. Most numerous genera are Agathiceras

and Paralegoceras (= Metalegoceras; Figure 8).

Another Permian ammonoid locality in Indonesia includes Agathiceras from the folded series of

Belitung (Kruizinga, 1950).

Blendinger et al. (1992) noted the remarkable

similarity between the Middle Permian ammonoids from the cephalopod limestone of Timor with those

from the West Mediterranean (Sosio Lst, Siclily)

and Oman, suggesting unrestricted faunal

exchange in a Middle Permian seaway along the

distal N margin of Gondwana. Ehiro (1997, 1998) classified the Middle Permian ammonoid faunas

from 'allochthous Timor' in his' Equatorial Tethyan

province', based on the presence of taxa like Timorites and Waagenoceras, which are not known

from Australia.

KEY REFERENCES- PERMIAN AMMONOIDS Furnish, W.M. and B.F. Glenister, 1971. The Lower

Permian Somohole fauna of Timor. In: W.B. Saunders, The Somoholitidae: Mississippian to Permian Ammonoidea. J. Palaeont. 45, p. 100-118.

Haniel, C.A., 1915. Ammoniten aus dem Perm der Insel Letti. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 43 (1914) Verhand. 1, p. 161-165.

Haniel, C.A., 1915. Die Cephalopoden der Dyas von Timor. Palaontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 3, 6, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, p. 1-153.

Kruizinga, A., 1950. Agathiceras sundaicum Han., a Lower Permian fossil from Timor. (locality should be Belitung) Proc. Kon. Akad. Wetensch. Amsterdam

53, 7, p. 1056-1063. Smith, J.P., 1927. Permian ammonoids of Timor. 2e

Nederlandsche Timor-Expeditie 1916, IV, Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl.-Indie 55 (1926), Verhand. 1, p. 1-58.

Figure 7. Permian compound coral Lonsdaleia

timorica from Timor (Gerth 1921).

Figure 8. One of the most common Permian

ammonoids from West Timor (Bitauni):

Metalegoceras sundaicum (formerly

Paralegoceras; Haniel 1915).

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Wanner, J., 1932. Zur Kenntnis der permischen Ammonoideen-fauna von Timor. Beitr. Palaeontologie des Ostindischen Archipels III, Neues Jahrbuch Miner., Geol. Pal., Beil. Band 67, B, p. 257-278.

Permian Trilobites

Trilobites are relatively rare in Indonesia, but have

been reported only from Permian sediments of

Sumatra (Roemer 1880), Timor (Tesch 1923, Gheyselinck, 1937) and float in the Noord River in

West Papua (Martin 1911). They are mainly of the genus Pseudophillipsia: P. timorensis Roemer from

Basleo, West Timor and P. sumatrensis from the

Padang Highlands of West Sumatra (Figure 9).

Leman and Sone (2002) described similar Pseudophillipsia from the early Capitanian (Middle

Permian) from Pahang, Central Belt of Malay

Peninsula (= west margin of East

Malaya/Indochina terrane).

KEY REFERENCES- PERMIAN TRILOBITES Gheyselinck, R.F.C.R., 1937. Permian trilobites from

Timor and Sicily. Doct. Thesis University of Amsterdam, Scheltema and Holkema, Amsterdam, 108 p.

Roemer, F., 1880. Uber eine Kohlenkalk-fauna der Westkuste von Sumatra. Palaeontographica 27, 3, p. 5-11.

Tesch, P., 1923. Trilobiten aus der Dyas von Timor und Letti. Palaeontologie von Timor 12, 21, p. 123-132.

Permian Fusulinid Foraminifera

Fusulinid larger foraminifera are tropical-

subtropical shallow marine carbonate taxa (estimated paleolatitude range between 0 and 40°

N and S), with a reputation of being excellent guide

fossils in Carboniferous - Permian time. Fusulinids

are widespread in Permian shallow marine

limestones across SE Asia and areas further west,

generally on terranes that border the Paleotethys suture. Hundreds of papers have been written on

this group in SE Asia. For more details see

references in Table 3 and the Permian chapter of

the annotated bibliography.

Interpretation of fusulinid foram faunas can be very difficult. The taxonomy is overwhelming, with

over 100 genus names and 1000's of species

names. In the Permian of Thailand and Malaysia

Toriyama (1984) recorded 265 species belonging to

70 genera; in the Permian of Afghanistan Leven (1997) counted 282 species and 58 genera; in the

Middle Carboniferous - E Permian of Japan Ota et

al. (1997) counted 56 species in 23 genera. These

large numbers partly reflect actual high diversity,

but probably also reflect overly ambitious splitting

of taxa and also the creation of separate sets of names being used by different 'schools'. Fusulinid

experts tend to be either from Japanese, Russian

or American 'schools', each working with their own

sets of species names, many of which are

undoubtedly synonyms of named species from other regions. Difficulties in fusulinid

identifications are also illustrated by comments of

fusulinid experts themselves, who frequently

disagree with each other on species identifications

and genus attributions. So, while fusulinids are a

powerful tool in Permian limestone biostratigraphy, the apparent taxonomic disarray makes it hard to

determine exact ages and establish

paleobiogeographic relationships between regions.

Figure 9. Permian trilobites. 1. Phillipsia sumatrensis from Permian of Padang Highlands, W Sumatra (Roemer 1880) (also assigned to Pseudophillipsia or Griffithides); 2 and 3.

Neoproetus indicus from Bitauni, West Timor (Tesch 1923).

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Fusulinids reached a maximum in diversity and

sizes in the Middle Permian, as did other reefal

fauna (corals, large molluscs, etc.). A significant

extinction event of large fusulinids took place at the end of the Middle Permian (end or late

Capitanian; e.g. Hada et al. 2014). The Late

Permian is characterized by fusulinid assemblages

that are reduced in size and diversity. Fusulinids

went completely extinct at the mass extinction

event at the end of the Permian.

In Indonesia Permian fusulinid foraminifera have

been reported from 6-7 main areas, mainly on

Sumatra, NW Borneo, Timor and the Birds Head of

West Papua: 1. NW Kalimantan-Sarawak border area. The oldest

fusulinids in Indonesia are from the Late

Carboniferous - earliest Permian 'Terbat

Limestone' of the NW Kalimantan- Sarawak

border area. They were first reported by Krekeler

(1932, 1933), and by several generations of subsequent authors (Table 3). Fusulinid

assemblages are quite diverse and similar to

'Tethyan' faunas from E Thailand and S China

(Cummings 1962, Vachard 1990, Fontaine 1990,

Sakamoto and Ishibashi, 2002), from a time

when glacial deposits were widespread on Gondwanaland and Gondwanaland-derived

terranes like Sibumasu. Pebbles of this fusulinid

limestone were also found in conglomerates of

Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous age in W

Sarawak and also in the basal Eocene of the NW Kutai Basin. Tan Sin Hok (in Krekeler 1933)

examined the fusulinid beds from Sadong valley

and believed them to be same species (and same

volcanoclastic facies) as the Early Permian

assemblages of Jambi. Fontaine (1990) believed

these to be of Late Carboniferous - earliest Permian age. The age and nature of the Terbat

Limestone assemblages clearly demonstrates

affinities to the Indochina Block, not Gondwana

or Sibumasu (as do associated Triassic-Jurassic

faunas and floras). The Terbat localities used to regarded as part of SW Borneo terrane, but

recently they were placed in a separate small

block of Indochina affinity named Semitau Block

by Metcalfe (2013); 2. Padang Highlands, West Sumatra (Figure 10).

Middle Permian fusulinids have long been known from the Padang Highlands of West Sumatra,

mainly from the famous Guguk Bulat locality.

Several of the large Middle Permian fusulinid

index species of the Tethyan province were first described from Sumatra, like Verbeekina verbeeki (Geinitz, 1876), Sumatrina annae (Volz,

1904) and Schwagerina padangensis (Lange, 1925). Tien (1988) also recorded Colania douvillei. Many of the fusulinid species described

from this part of West Sumatra are also common

on the 'Cathaysian' Indochina Block of NE

Thailand, but some have also been reported from

the Sibumasu terrane, which by the end of the Middle Permian had moved into lower latitudes

(e.g. Ueno et al. 2003).

3. Jambi, SW Sumatra. Early Permian fusulinids

from the 'Productus Limestone' horizon in the

Mengkareng Formation at Telok Gedang along

the Merangin River, Jambi, on the 'West

Sumatra Block' are of great interest because they underlie the beds with the famous 'Cathaysian'

Jambi Flora, which is a significant element in

tectonic reconstructions of Sumatra. Fusulinids

were analyzed by various specialists (Ozawa

1929, Thompson 1936, Vachard 1990, Ueno et

al. 2007). Most abundant is a species named Pseudofusulina rutschi (Thompson), originally

assigned to Schwagerina, but subsequently

classified in Triticites and Rugofusulina. Rugofusulina rutschi is very similar to a more

widely known species R. alpina Schellwien and

may be synonymous (Tien 1989). Also present is Pseudoschwagerina meranginensis (assigned to

Sphaeroschwagerina by Davydov et al. 2013). It

is a low-diversity assemblage that is generally

believed to be of Early Permian age, with age

interpretations varying from Upper Asselian (Tien

1989, Vachard 1990) to 'most likely Sakmarian'

(Ueno 2007). However, since none of the species

described from this locality can be tied directly to assemblages elsewhere, any conclusions on

precise age and paleobiogeographic affinity would

therefore appear to lack a real firm basis. From

the nearby Batu Impi locality West of Bangko,

fusulinids from thin limestones in the volcanoclastic Palepat Fm, which overlies the

beds with Jambi flora, were studied by Tien

(1989) and Ueno et al. (2007; moderately rich

Artinskian-Kungurian). Two additional small

occurrences on Sumatra worth flagging are in

West Sumatra (Batang Siputar; Hahn and Weber 1981) and South Sumatra (Bukit Pendopo;

Palembang; De Neve 1949). 4. Timor and adjacent islands Leti and Roti.

Fusulinids are also known from various localities

on Timor, and are also present on adjacent Roti and Leti islands (Schubert 1915a, Thompson

1949, Davydov et al. 2013). Many of the Timor

assemblages are of low-diversity, but high

abundance, and are dominated by a species initially described as Fusulina wanneri by

Schubert (1915), the type species of the 'anti-tropical' genus Monodiexodina (Figure 11). The

small fauna of verbeekinids described from Leti Island by Schubert (1915b) with Doliolina lepida

var. lettensis differs from assemblages known

from Timor (Thompson 1949). Another

apparently different latest Carboniferous -

earliest Permian assemblage from Timor Leste was described recently by Davydov et al. (2013).

5. Birds Head of West Papua. Rare fusulinids have

been reported from West Papua, the only

undisputed occurrences on Permian

Gondwanaland, but are poorly documented. One

occurrence in the Birds Head was figured by Visser and Hermes (1962, p. 54). Another

possible fusulinid occurrence was reported, but

not figured, from Permian limestone in a

consultant biostratigraphy report of oil

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exploration well TBF 1X (3947m; NE of Misool in

Bintuni Bay, south of Birds Head). 6. Bangka - Belitung. Lesser-known fusulinid

localities are in the intensely folded Permian

beds of North Bangka (De Roever 1951) and

Belitung (Strimple and Yancey 1974).

Figure 10. Middle Permian fusulinid foraminifera from West Sumatra. 1. Fusulina granum-avenae Roemer from West Sumatra (exterior view and longitudinal and axial sections) (Verbeek 1896). 2. Sumatrina annae from Bukit Bessi, NE of Lake Singkarak (axial and longitudinal sections) (Volz, 1904). 3. Verbeekina verbeeki (Geinitz), from Guguk Bulat, Padang Highlands, (originally described

as Fusulina princeps by Brady, 1875).

Figure 11. Permian fusulinid Monodiexodina wanneri (Schubert) from SW Timor. 1. From limestone blocks in melange in Bunu River, East of Niki-Niki,(Thompson 1949); 2. From road

between Bele and Toi (Schubert, 1915).

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Three paleogeographic domains may be

distinguished in SE Asia, partly based on

fusulinids, which are useful for constraining plate

reconstructions: 1. 'Tethyan'/Cathaysian', with high diversity

fusulinid assemblages (NW Borneo and some of

the Timor and West Sumatra fusulinid

assemblages?);

2. Subtropical/Warm temperate domains, with low

diversity fusulinid assemblages with 'anti-tropical' genera like Monodiexodina and Polydiexodina, in Early Permian, and higher

diversity 'Tethyan-affinity' fusulinid assemblages

by late Middle Permian (typical of' Cimmerian

Transit plates' like Sibumasu (Ueno 2006; in Indonesia Monodiexodina has been reported from

Timor and West Sumatra)

3. Gondwanan terranes (India, Australia): contain

no fusulinids.

Interesting assemblages of Late Middle Permian

smaller benthic foraminifera with the pillared miliolid Shanita amosi, commonly associated with

Hemigordius renzi and Hemigordiopsis, have been

found in many limestones localities on mainland

SE Asia. These are commonly viewed as 'anti-

tropical' species and appear to be restricted to the

'Cimmerian'/Sibumasu terranes' (Fontaine et al. 1994, Jin and Yang 2004). Shanita has not been

reported from Indonesia, but this may be due to absence of limestones of the right age and facies

and/or lack of studies in places like Sumatra. Hemigordius is present in the Murgabian (early M

Permian) limestones of Bukit Pendopo, South

Sumatra (Tien, 1989). The nearest occurrence of Shanita in the Indonesian region is from 'basement

carbonates' (Tampur Formation) in the Singa Besar 1 well, in the Malaysian sector of the Malacca

Straits (Fontaine et al. 1992), which is on the

Sibumasu Block.

KEY REFERENCES- PERMIAN FUSULINID FORAMINIFERA Brady, H.B., 1875. On some fossil foraminifera from the

West-coast district, Sumatra. Geol. Mag. 2, p. 532-

539. Davydov, V.I., D.W. Haig and E. McCartain, 2013. A

latest Carboniferous warming spike recorded by a fusulinid-rich bioherm in Timor Leste: implications for East Gondwana deglaciation. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclim., Palaeoecol. 376, p. 22-38.

Fontaine, H., C. Chonglakmani, I. Amnan and S. Piyasin, 1994. A well-defined Permian biogeographic unit: peninsular Thailand and northwest Peninsula Malaysia. J. Southeast Asian Earth Sci. 9, p. 129-151.

Jin, X.C. and X.N. Yang, 2004. Paleogeographic implications of the Shanita-Hemigordius fauna (Permian foraminifer) in the reconstruction of Permian Tethys. Episodes 27, 4, p. 273-278.

Lange, E., 1925. Eine mittelpermische Fauna von Guguk Bulat (Padanger Oberland, Sumatra). Verh. Geol. Mijnbouwk. Gen. Nederl. Kol., Geol. Ser. 7, 3, p. 213-295.

Schubert, R., 1915. Die Foraminiferen des jungeren Palaozoikums von Timor. Palaontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 2, 3, p. 47-60.

Schubert, R., 1915. Uber Foraminiferengesteine der Insel Letti. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 43 (1914), Verhand. 1, p. 169-187.

Thompson, M.L., 1936. The fusulinid genus Verbeekina. J. Paleontology 10, 3, p. 193-201.

Thompson, M.L., 1936. Lower Permian fusulinids from Sumatra. J. Paleontology 10, 7, p. 587-592.

Tien, Nguyen D., 1986. Foraminifera and algae from the Permian of Guguk Bulat and Silungkang, Sumatra. United Nations CCOP Techn. Bull. 18, p. 138-147.

Ueno, K., 2003. The Permian fusulinoidean faunas of the Sibumasu and Baoshan blocks: their implications for the paleogeographic and paleoclimatologic reconstruction of the Cimmerian Continent. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclim., Palaeoecol. 193, p. 1-24.

Ueno, K., 2006. The Permian antitropical fusulinoidean

genus Monodiexodina: distribution, taxonomy, paleobiogeography and paleoecology. J. Asian Earth Sci. 26, p. 380-404.

Ueno, K., S. Nishikawa, I.M.van Waveren, F. Hasibuan et al., 2006. Early Permian fusuline faunas of the Mengkarang and Palepat Formations in the West Sumatra Block, Indonesia: their faunal characteristics, age and geotectonic implications. In: Proc. 2nd Int. Symp. Geological anatomy of E and S Asia, paleogeography and paleoenvironment in Eastern Tethys (IGCP 516), Quezon City, p. 98-102.

Volz, W., 1904. Zur Geologie von Sumatra. Beobachtungen und Studien, Anhang II, Einige neue Foraminiferen und Korallen sowie Hydrokorallen aus dem Obercarbon Sumatras.

Geol. Palaeont. Abh., Jena, N.F. 6, 2, 112, p. 177-194.

Permian Brachiopods

In Indonesia Permian brachiopods are known from

Sumatra, Timor and West Papua (Table 3). The

principal monographs on Indonesian brachiopods

are by Broili (1915, 1916), Hamlet (1928) and

Wanner and Sieverts (1935), all from Timor. Permian brachiopods were described from Sumatra

by Meyer (1922) and West Papua by Archbold

(1981).

Productus and Spirifer groups dominate the Timor

and West Papua assemblages (Figure 12). The brachiopod faunas from Timor are relatively rich

(49 species). However, unlike many other fossil

groups from Timor like crinoids and blastoids, no

new species were identified in the first monograph

on this group by Broili (1916), attesting to the relatively cosmopolitan nature of these brachiopod

taxa. Studies on paleobiogeographic patterns

within Permian brachiopod assemblages therefore

appear to have been somewhat non-diagnostic,

due to the widespread geographic distribution of

many of the taxa. Crippa et al. (2014) also noted that Indonesian Permian brachiopod faunas show

very low endemicity, consisting mainly of Boreal

and Palaeoequatorial genera.

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The genus Stereochia (Figure 12-2,-3 is of interest

because it is commonly regarded as an anti-

tropical genus (Shi et al. 1995, Crippa et al. 2014). In mainland SE Asia Stereochia-Meekella

brachiopod fauna characterizes the Sibumasu terrane in Peninsular Thailand and the NW Malay Peninsula (Fang 1994). In Indonesia Stereochia

was reported as 'Productus semireticulatus' from

Timor (Beyrich 1865, Broili 1916) and from the

Padang Highlands, West Sumatra (Woodward

1879). It is also the dominant brachiopod genus associated with the Early Permian Jambi flora of SW Sumatra (S. semireticulatus or S. irianensis;

Hasibuan et al. 2000, Crippa et al. 2014).

KEY REFERENCES- PERMIAN BRACHIOPODS Archbold, N.W., 1981. Permian brachiopods from

western Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, Paleont. Ser. 2, p. 1-25.

Broili, F., 1915. Permische Brachiopoden der Insel Letti. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 43 (1914) Verhand. 1, p. 187-207.

Broili, F., 1916. Die Permischen Brachiopoden von Timor. Palaeontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, VII, 12, p. 1-104.

Broili, F., 1922. Permische Brachiopoden von Rotti. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 49 (1920), Verhand. 3, p. 223-227.

Crippa, G., L. Angiolini, I. Van Waveren, M.J. Crow, F. Hasibuan, M.H. Stephenson and K. Ueno, 2014. Brachiopods, fusulines and palynomorphs of the Mengkarang Formation (Early Permian, Sumatra) and their palaeobiogeographical significance. J. Asian Earth Sci. 79, p. 206-223.

Hamlet, B., 1928. Permische Brachiopoden, Lamellibranchiaten und Gastropoden von Timor. In: 2e Nederlandsche Timor-Expeditie, Jaarboek

Mijnwezen Nederl.-Indie 56 (1927), Verh. 2, p. 1-115.

Hasibuan, F., S. Andi Mangga and Suyoko, 2000. Stereochia semireticulatus (Martin) dari Formasi Mengkarang, Jambi, Sumatra. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Paleont. Ser. 10, Bandung, p. 59-69.

Leman, M.S., 1994. The significance of Upper Permian brachiopods from Merapoh area, northwest Pahang. Geol. Soc. Malaysia Bull. 35, p. 113-121.

Shi, G.R. and N.W. Archbold, 1995. Permian brachiopod

faunal sequences of the Shan-Thai terrane: biostratigraphy, palaeobiogeographical affinities and plate tectonic/palaeoclimatic implications. J. Southeast Asian Earth Sci. 11, p. 177-187.

Tan Sin Hok, 1933. Uber Leptodus (Lyttonia auctorum) cf. tenuis (Waagen) vom Padanger Oberland (Mittel Sumatra). Wetensch. Meded. Dienst Mijnbouw

Nederl. Indie 25, p. 66-70. Wanner, J. and H. Sieverts, 1935. Zur Kenntnis der

permischen Brachiopoden von Timor. 1. Lyttoniidae und ihre biologische und stammesgeschichtliche Bedeutung. Beitr. Palaeontologie des ostindischen Archipels 12, Neues Jahrbuch Miner. Geol. Palaont., Beil. Band 74, B, p. 201-281.

Waterhouse, J.B., 1973. Permian brachiopod correlations for South-East Asia. Proc. Regional Conf. Geology of Southeast Asia, Bull. Geol. Soc. Malaysia. 6, p. 187-210.

Permian Crinoids and Blastoids

Timor Island has long been famous for its unique

Permian deposits with abundant, diverse and well-

preserved crinoid and blastoid faunas. Wanner (1923) identified 239 crinoid species in 75 genera.

Two-thirds of these species are not known outside

Timor (Wanner 1924, Webster 1998). Half of all

crinoid species are poteriocrinids, with dominant genera Timorocrinus, Ceriocrinus, Parabursacrinus,

etc.

Figure 12. Permian brachiopods. 1. Spirifer from Timor (Broili, 1916)'; 2. Stereochia (Productus) semireticulatus from Timor (Broili, 1916) and 3. from Sibelabu, SE of

Padang, West Sumatra (Woodward 1879).

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Most of the Timor crinoids and blastoids are from

red-brown marls and tuffs with interbedded

limestones, a formation named Maubisse

Formation in Timor Leste or Sonnebait Series in older literature on West Timor (Figure 13). They

were believed to be relatively warm, shallow marine

deposits, but they may actually be mostly hemi-

pelagic organisms that ended up in clastic-free

deep water carbonates that are often associated

with basic volcanics (seamounts?). The richest occurrences are in the Basleo area near Niki-Niki,

and are probably from exotic blocks in Neogene

melange deposits. Associated cephalopods suggest

these are probably mainly of Middle Permian age

(Haniel 1915). Crinoid assemblages from the Amarassi region of SW Timor are less diverse and

probably of Late Permian age (Wanner 1923).

Blastoid assemblages of Timor have the highest

abundances and diversity in the world. Of the 13

Permian blastoid genera known from Timor only three or four also occur outside Timor. The main

monographs on blastoids are Wanner (1924, 1940,

Figures 14, 15).

The only other place in SE Asia where some of the Timor species of crinoids and blastoids were found

is in the late Early-Middle Permian Ratburi

Limestone of Peninsular Thailand (Racey et al.

1994; Sibumasu Terrane; Figure 16). Species of 'Basleo fauna' include the crinoids Timorocrinus pumulus Wanner 1924, Parabursacrinus and Timorocidaris sphaeracantha Wanner 1920, and the blastoid Deltoblastus permicus (Wanner 1910).

Outside SE Asia rare Deltoblastus have been

reported from Oman and Sicily, both also on

Cimmerian terranes. Although they are present in

much smaller numbers in Peninsular Thailand

than at the Timor localities, their presence does

suggest they were in the same faunal province

around Artinskian time.

KEY REFERENCES- PERMIAN CRINOIDS-BLASTOIDS Breimer, A. and D.B. Macurda, 1972. The phylogeny of

the fissiculate blastoids. Verhand. Kon. Ned. Akad.

Wetensch., Amsterdam, ser. 1, 26, 3, p. 1-390. De Marez Oyens, F.A.H.W., 1940. Neue Permische

Krinoiden von Timor, mit Bemerkungen über deren Vorkommen im Basleogebiet. In: H.A. Brouwer (ed.) Geological Expedition of the University of Amsterdam to the Lesser Sunda Islands, etc., 1937, Noord Hollandsche Publ., Amsterdam, 1, p. 285-348.

Wanner, J., 1916. Die permischen Echinodermen von Timor I. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaontologie von Timor 6, 11, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, p. 1-329.

Wanner, J., 1923. Die permischen Krinoiden von Timor. In: H.A. Brouwer (ed.) 2e Nederlandsche Timor-Expeditie 1916, II, Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 50 (1921), Verh. 3, p. 1-348.

Wanner, J., 1924. Die permischen Blastoiden von Timor. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 51 (1922), Verhand. 1, p. 163-233.

Wanner, J., 1929. Neue Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Permischen Echinodermen von Timor. I. Allagecrinus, II. Hypocrinites. Dienst Mijnbouw Nederl. Indie, Wetensch. Meded. 11, p. 1-116.

Wanner, J., 1940. Neue Blastoideen aus dem Perm von Timor, mit einem Beitrag zur Systematik der Blastoiden. In: H.A. Brouwer (ed.) Geological Expedition of the University of Amsterdam to the

Lesser Sunda Islands, etc., 1937, 1, Noord Hollandsche Publ. Co., Amsterdam, p. 215-277.

Webster, G.D., 1998. Palaeobiogeography of Tethys Permian crinoids. In: G.R. Shi, N.W. Archbold and M. Grover (eds.) Strzelecki Int. Symposium on Permian of Eastern Tethys: biostratigraphy, palaeogeography and resources, Proc. Royal Soc. Victoria 110, 1-2, p. 289-308.

Figure 13. Early Permian pink crinoid-blastoid limestone from SW Timor, with well-preserved

Deltoblastus permicus from 'Sonnebait Formation' melange, Basleo area (photo Debbie Gilbert).

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Figure 14. New genera and species of crinoids from Basleo area, Timor (Wanner 1923, Plate 12). 1-3. Jonkerocrinus

spinosus, 4. Cadocrinus

variabilis, 5-14. Parabursacrinus spp.,

15-20 Notiocrinus spp.

Figure 15. Blastoid Schizoblastus (= Deltoblastus) delta from Koeafeoe, West Timor

(Wanner 1924).

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Permian Floras

Permian plant fossils, associated with thin coal

beds, are known from West Sumatra and West

Papua. Early Permian warm-Cathaysian floras are known from Sumatra and NW Kalimantan, while cooler-Gondwanan Glossopteris floras are present

in West Papua (but mixed with some Cathaysian

elements).

Permian floras have long been used in reconstructions of tectonic plates, with the presence of the tree-like seed fern Glossopteris

typical of Gondwana (Australia- India) and Gigantopteris floras characteristic of low-latitude,

'Cathaysian' terranes (South China, Indochina).

The Cathaysian nature of the Jambi flora played an important role in the plate reconstruction

history of Sumatra (Barber et al. 2005).

Jambi Flora, W Sumatra

The famous Early Permian 'Jambi flora' from the Merangin River area in SW Sumatra was originally

discovered by Tobler, and first described by

Jongmans and Gothan (1925) (Figure 17). The

flora was initially viewed as of Euramerican

affinity, without Gondwanan or Cathaysian Gigantopteris flora elements. However, after the

Jambi paleobotanical expedition of 1925-1927,

Jongmans and Gothan (1935) also recognized

some North Cathaysian species.

The Jambi flora was recently re-sampled and

studied by a group from the Naturalis Museum, Leiden, and the Geological Survey of Indonesia

(Van Waveren et al., 2007, Booi et al., 2009). They

also recognize affinities to Cathaysian flora, but

argue that is not a fully Cathaysian flora, but its

greatest similarity is with floras from North China, either the Artinskian Shansi Series (Asama et al.

1975) or the Kungurian Lower Shihhotse beds

(Van Waveren et al. 2007). The Jambi Flora is

probably best characterized as a late Early

Permian temperate subgroup of the true low-

latitude Cathaysian floral province.

The age of the Jambi flora is Early Permian, but exactly what stage of the Early Permian has not

been definitively established. Low diversity

fusulinid foraminifera from underlying limestone

beds appear to be of a rather endemic nature,

which different fusulinid experts have interpreted as Late Asselian or Sakmarian (see above).

Permian plant assemblages are also known from

West Papua, both the Birds Head and areas south

of the Central Range. They were first described by

Jongmans (1940, 1941), who documented only Cathaysian and Euramerican species (Taeniopteris, Pecopteris, Sphenophyllum). Hopping and Wagner

(in Visser and Hermes 1962) also recognized Gondwanan Glossopteris and Vertebraria. The

West Papua floras are generally viewed as mixed

floras, dominated by Gondwanan elements, but with common Cathaysian elements (Asama et al.

1975, Li and Wu 1994, Rigby 1998, 2001).

A poorly known Permian plant assemblage was

also reported from SE Belitung island by Van

Overeem (1960). It was provisionally identified by Jongmans as a Permian Cathaysian (Gigantopteris)

flora, but has never been described. No plant

fossils are known from Timor, mainly because all

Permian sediments are in marine facies.

The existence of mixed Gondwanan-Cathaysian floras in West Papua (and in parts of mainland SE

Asia like Thailand and Laos is significant for

Permian plate reconstructions. Because Glossopteris and many Cathaysian plants like

Gigantopteris have relatively large seeds, which are

unlikely be dispersed across wide oceans, these mixed Permian floras suggest some configuration

of land connections (or only very narrow seaways)

between the 'Cathaysian' and Gondwana provinces

in Permian time, not a wide Paleotethys Ocean.

Figure 16. 'Timor fossils' from Ratburi Lst, Peninsular Thailand (from Racey et al.1994). 1. Late

Early-Middle-Permian blastoid Deltoblastus permicus; 2. Crinoid Trimerocrinus pumulus; 3.

Timorocidaris sphaeracantha.

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KEY REFERENCES- PERMIAN FLORAS Asama, K., 1976. Gigantopteris flora in Southeast Asia

and its phytopalaeogeographic significance. In: T. Kobayashi & R. Toriyama (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of SE Asia, University of Tokyo Press, 17, p. 191-207.

Booi, M., I.M. van Waveren and J.H.A. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2009. Comia and Rhachiphyllum from the early Permian of Sumatra, Indonesia. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynology 156, p. 418-435.

Booi, M., I.M. van Waveren and J.H.A. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2009. The Jambi gigantopterids and their place in gigantopterid

classification. Botanical J. Linnean Soc. 161, 3, p. 302-328.

Hopping, C.H. and R.H. Wagner, 1962. Enclosure 17, Photographs of fossils. In: W.A. Visser & J.J. Hermes, Geological results of the exploration for oil in Netherlands New Guinea, Kon. Nederl. Geol. Mijnbouwkundig Genootschap, Geol. Ser. 20, p. 1-11.

Jongmans, W.J., 1940. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Karbonflora von Niederlandisch Neu Guinea. Mededelingen Geol. Stichting 1938-1939, p. 263-274.

Jongmans, W.J. & W. Gothan, 1925. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Flora des Oberkarbons von Sumatra. Verhand. Geol. Mijnbouwk. Gen. Nederl. Kol., Geol. Ser., 8, p. 279-303.

Jongmans, W.J. & W. Gothan, 1935. Die Ergebnisse der palaobotanischen Djambi-Expedition 1925. 2. Die palaeobotanischen Ergebnisse. Jaarboek

Mijnwezen Nederl. Indie (1930), 59, Verhand. 2, p. 71-201.

Li, X.X. and X.Y. Wu, 1994. The Cathaysian and Gondwana floras; their contribution to determining the boundary between eastern Gondwana and Laurasia. J. Southeast Asian Earth Sci. 9, 4, p. 309-317.

Playford, G. & J.F. Rigby, 2008. Permian palynoflora of the Ainim and Aiduna formations, West Papua. Revista Espanola Micropal. 40, 1-2, p. 1-57.

Rigby, J.F., 1998. Upper Palaeozoic floras of SE Asia. In: R. Hall & J.D. Holloway (eds.) Biogeography and geological evolution of SE Asia, Backhuys Publ., Leiden, p. 73-82.

Rigby, J.F., 1998. Glossopteris occurrences in the

Permian of Irian Jaya (West New Guinea). In: G.R. Shi, N.W. Archbold & M. Grover (eds.) Strzelecki Int. Symposium on Permian of Eastern Tethys: biostratigraphy, palaeogeography and resources, Proc. Royal Soc. Victoria 110, 1-2, p. 309-315.

Rigby, J.F., 2001. A review of the Early Permian flora from Papua (West New Guinea). In: I. Metcalfe, J.M.B. Smith et al. (eds.) Faunal and floral migrations and evolution in SE Asia- Australasia, A.A. Balkema, Lisse, p. 85-95.

Srivastava, A.K. & D. Agnihotri, 2010. Dilemma of Late Palaeozoic mixed floras in Gondwana. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclim., Palaeoecol. 298, p. 54-69.

Van Waveren, I.M., E.A.P. Iskandar, M. Booi and J.H.A. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2007. Composition and palaeogeographic position of the Early Permian Jambi flora from Sumatra. Scripta Geol. 135, p. 1-28.

Figure 17. Permian flora from Merangin River area, Jambi Province, West Sumatra. 1. Lepidodendron mesostigma from Mengkarang River (Jongmans and Gothan 1935), 2. Pecopteris

arborescens from Sungei Garing (Jongmans and Gothan 1925).

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TABLE 3 PERMIAN


Permian General Timor Wanner 1926, Charlton et al. 2002

Sumatra Fliegel 1901, Fontaine and Gafoer 1989

Mixed

Glossopteris-

Cathaysian flora

West Papua,

Jongmans 1940, 1941, Hopping and Wagner in Visser and

Hermes 1962, Rigby 1997, 1998, 2001, Playford and

Rigby(2008, Srivastava and Agnihotri 2010

'Cathaysian'

flora

West Sumatra

Posthumus 1927, Jongmans and Gothan 1935, Asama

1976, Li and Wu 1994, Van Waveren et al. 2005, 2007,

Booi et al. 2008, 2009

Belitung Jongmans in Van Overeem 1960

NW

Kalimantan Jongmans in Zeijlmans 1939

Palynoflora West Papua Playford and Rigby 2008

Australia Kemp et al. 1977

Permian- E

Triassic

Radiolaria

Malay

Peninsula

Sashida et al. 1993, 1995, Spiller and Metcalfe 1994,

1995, Jasin 1997

Thailand Kamato et al. 2008, 2013

Crinoids Timor Wanner 1916,1923, 1929- 1951, De Maresz Oyens 1940

Belitung Strimple and Yancey 1976

Blastoids Timor Wanner 1924, 1940, Breimer and Macurda 1965, 1972, Webster 1998, Sprinkle and Waters 2013

Ammonoids

Timor, Leti Wanner 1915, 1932, Haniel 1915a,b, Smith 1927, De Roever 1940, Gerth 1950, Furnish and Glenister 1971,

Glenister et al. 1973

Bangka/Belit

ung Kruizinga 1950,

West Papua Glenister et al. 1983

Mollusks

Timor C. Wanner 1922, 1940, 1942, J. Wanner 1940, Hasibuan

1994

Sumatra Fliegel 1901

West Papua Dickins and Skwarko 1981

Brachiopods

Sumatra Fliegel 1901, Meyer 1922, Tan Sin Hok 1933, Hasibuan et

al. 2000, Crippa et al. 2014

Timor, Leti, Roti

Rothpletz 1892, Broili 1915, 1916, 1922, Krumbeck 1924,

Hamlet 1928, Wanner and Sieverts 1935, Shimizu 1966, Archbold and Barkham 1989, Archbold and Bird 1989,

Kato et al. 1999, Winkler Prins 2008

West Papua Visser and Hermes 1962, Archbold 1981, 1991, Archbold

et al. 1982

Permian

Fusulinid West Sumatra Geinitz 1876, Volz 1904, Von Staff 1909, Lange 1925,

Ozawa 1929, Tan Sin Hok 1933, Thompson 1936a,b,

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foraminifera Hahn and Weber 1981, Fontaine 1983, Vachard 1989,

Ueno 2003, 2006

South

Sumatra De Neve 1949, 1961

Bangka,

Belitung De Roever 1951, Van Overeem 1960

NW

Kalimantan/

W Sarawak

Krekeler 1932, 1933, Tan Sin Hok (in Krekeler 1933),

Cummings 1962, Sanderson 1966, Fontaine 1990,

Vachard 1990, Sakamoto and Ishibashi 2002

NE

Kalimantan

(Upper Kutai)

Tan Sin Hok 1930, Sugiaman and Andria 1999

Timor, Roti,

Leti

Schubert 1915a,b, Thompson 1949, Nogami 1963,

Charlton et al. 2002, Davydov et al. 2013

West Papua Visser and Hermes 1962

Tubiphytes Sumatra Tien 1986

Timor Riding and Barkham 1999 ( = Shamovella)

Corals

Timor

Gerth 1921, Koker 1924, Wang 1947, Von Schouppe and

Stacul 1955, 1959, Minato and Kato 1965, Niermann

1975, Sorauf 1984, 2004

West Sumatra Volz 1904, Minato and Kato 1965, Nguyen Duc Tien

1989a,b

Thailand Fontaine et al. 1994

Smaller foraminifera

Sumatra Nguyen Duc Tien 1989a,b

Sibumasu Zhao and Zhou 1987, Wang et al. 2013

Conodonts Timor Van den Boogaard 1987

SE Asia Mei and Henderson 2001, 2002

Ostracodes Timor Grundel and Kozur 1975, Bless 1987

CONCLUSIONS

The Indonesian region is host to some important

localities of Paleozoic fossil faunas and floras. This

paper reviews some of the current knowledge and

provides references to the many paleontological studies conducted here in the last 150 years.

REFERENCES

Key references are given at the end of each

chapter. Additional titles not fully referenced here

can be found in the Bibliography below (with

English translations of non-English titles and many with brief annotations of content).

Van Gorsel, J.T., 2013. Bibliography of the geology of

Indonesia and surrounding areas, 5th Edition, 1655p. (online at www.vangorselslist.com)

Van Gorsel, J.T., 2014. Annotated bibliography of biostratigraphy and paleontology of Indonesia- SE Asia. Berita Sedimentologi 29, Supplement (29A), p. 3-337. (online at :www.iagi.or.id/fosi)

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An introduction to Mesozoic faunas and floras of Indonesia J.T. van Gorsel

Houston, Texas, USA

ABSTRACT

This paper is a continuation of the paper on Paleozoic and reviews the main Mesozoic fossil groups of Indonesia and key literature, with focus on groups that are of biostratigraphic or paleobiogeographic significance.

INTRODUCTION

Mesozoic-age rocks are relatively widespread in

Indonesia, from Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan in

the West to Sulawesi, the Outer Banda Arc (Sumba, Timor, Tanimbar, Seram), the Sula

Islands and New Guinea in the East. Typical fossil

Mesozoic macrofossil groups that are useful for age

dating and paleobiogeographic information include

ammonites, belemnites and mollusks. Brachiopods

and foraminifera are locally important as well.

For age dating of Mesozoic rocks microfossils tend

to be more significant than macrofossils. The

preferred microfossil groups are:

1. Radiolaria in deep marine deposits; 2. Conodonts in Triassic and older shallow marine

carbonates;

3. Dinoflagellate cysts in Late Triassic- Early

Cretaceous shallow marine clastic sediments;

4. Planktonic foraminifera and Calcareous

nannofossils in Cretaceous and younger open marine deposits;

5. Spores-pollen in non-marine - marginal marine

deposits.

Early reviews of Mesozoic geology and stratigraphy of Indonesia include Wanner (1925, 1931) and

Umbgrove (1935, 1938). Mesozoic fossil localities

on Sumatra were discussed by Tobler (1923) and

Fontaine and Gafoer (1989). Another useful

collection of Pretertiary paleontologic sudies in SE

Asia is Fontaine (1990).

KEY REFERENCES- MESOZOIC GENERAL Fontaine, H. (ed.), 1990. Ten years of CCOP research on

the Pre-Tertiary of East Asia, CCOP Techn. Bull. 20, 375p.

Hasibuan, F., 2008. Pre-Tertiary biostratigraphy of Indonesia. In: Proc. Int. Symp. Geoscience resources and environments of Asian Terranes (GREAT 2008), 4th IGCP 516 and 5th APSEG, Bangkok, p. 323-325.

Hasibuan, F. and Purnamaningsih, 1998. Pre-Tertiary biostratigraphy of Indonesia. In: J.L. Rau (ed.) Proc. 34th Sess. Sess. Co-ord. Comm. Coastal Offshore Geosc. Programs E and SE Asia (CCOP), Taejon, Korea 1997, 2, Techn. Repts, p. 40-54.

Tobler, A., 1923. Unsere palaeontologische Kenntniss

von Sumatra. Eclogae Geol. Helv. 18, 2, p. 313-342.

Umbgrove, J.H.F., 1935. De Pretertiaire historie van den

Indischen Archipel. Leidsche Geol. Meded. 7, p. 119-155.

Umbgrove, J.H.F., 1938. Geological history of the East Indies. AAPG Bull. 22, p. 1-70.

Wanner, J., 1925. Die Malaiische Geosynklinale im Mesozoikum. Verhand. Geol. Mijnb. Gen. Nederl. Kol., Geol. Ser. 8 (Verbeek volume), p. 569-599.

Wanner, J., 1931. Mesozoikum In: B.G. Escher et al. (eds.) De palaeontologie en stratigraphie van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, Leidsche Geol. Meded. 5 (K. Martin memorial volume), p. 567-609.

TRIASSIC Triassic sediments are widespread across

Indonesia, and represent a wide variety of facies,

including volcanics, non-marine to deep marine

clastics and shallow marine to pelagic carbonates and oceanic radiolarian cherts. They represent

depositional settings around two branches of the

Tethys Ocean, Paleo-Tethys and Mesotethys,

separated by Cimmerian Blocks that stretch all the

way from Turkey in the West to Sibumasu in the

East. These Tethys ocean branches closed in Late Triassic and Early Cretaceous times respectively.

Debates continue on the exact position of these

Tethys sutures and possible Sibumasu -equivalent

blocks in the Indonesian region east of the Malay

Peninsula and Sumatra.

Early Triassic marine sediments are known only

from Timor. Middle and Late Triassic rocks are

more widespread in both West and East Indonesia

(but not in West Papua- PNG). At many localities

the Triassic is developed in a 'flysch-type' clastic facies, locally overlain by Norian-Rhaetian

limestones (Savu/ Roti, Timor, Leti/Babar, East

Sulawesi, Seram, Ambon, Misool, Buru, Buton).

Late Triassic marine faunas of Indonesia are generally of low-latitude Alpine - Tethyan affinity,

although some provinciality of Eastern Indonesia

and the Australia-New Guinea margin is suggested by endemic bivalves and brachiopods (Misolia).

The end of the Triassic is a major extinction event, one of the 'Top 5' in the Phanerozoic, causing

extinction of the vast majority of shallow marine

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species of, including all conodonts, and 90% of

reef-building coral and sponge species. As a result,

no reefal limestones are known from the Jurassic

of Indonesia (see also Charlton and Van Gorsel 2014, this volume).

A vast amount of literature exists on Triassic

faunas of Indonesia, most of which are listed in

Table 1. Early reviews of Triassic faunas and facies

in the Indonesian region include Zwierzycki (1925), Wanner (1931) and Umbgrove (1935). A recent,

brief review of Triassic biostratigraphy and

correlations of East Indonesia is by Hasibuan

(2010).

KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC PALEONTOLOGY GENERAL

Hasibuan, F., 2010. The Triassic marine biota of Eastern Indonesia and its interregional and global correlation: a review. Jurnal Geol. Indonesia 5, 1, p. 31-47.

Wanner, J., 1907. Triaspetrefakten der Molukken und des Timorarchipels. Neues Jahrbuch Min. Geol. Pal., Beilageband 24, p. 159-220.

Zwierzycki, J., 1925. Overzicht der Triasformatie in Nederlandsch Indie. Verhand. Geol. Mijnbouwk. Gen. Nederl. Kol., Geol. Serie, 8 (Verbeek volume), p. 633-648.

Triassic Shallow Marine Bivalves The composition of Triassic bivalve assemblages in

the Indonesian region varies depending on facies

and paleogeographic setting: (1) shallow marine 'Myophoria faunas' and (2) deep marine, pelagic

bivalve faunas characterized by Daonella, Halobia

or Monotis (see next chapter).

Shallow marine Middle - Late Triassic bivalve-

dominated limestones and sandstones with common Myophoria, Cardita, Gervillia, Costatoria, Paleocardita, Indopecten verbeeki, Pinna blanfordi, Krumbeckiella = Timoria timorensis Krumbeck),

etc., have been reported from both West (Sumatra)

and East Indonesia (Misool, Buru) (Figure 1).

Among the richest assemblages are the Nucula

marls from Misool (Jaworski 1915). These are generally viewed as 'Tethyan' in nature, but may

be assumed to be part of the southern, Gondwana

margin of the (Meso-?)Tethys in Triassic time. The

bivalve-rich 'Padang Fauna' of West Sumatra,

collected by Verbeek NE of Lake Singkarak, was

initially described by Boettger (1881) as an Early Eocene age assemblage. It contains Myophoria, Paleocardita globiformis, Pinna blanfordi and Pecten (Indopecten) verbeeki and was re-described and re-

interpreted as Late Triassic in age, with strongest

affinities to Circum-Mediterranean Carnian

faunas, by Krumbeck (1914).

'Myophoria sandstone' is also known from various

localities in the central belt of the Malay Peninsula

and Singapore (authors in Table 1), in what is now

called the Semantan Formation and which are

viewed as marine deposits in a foreland basin tied

to the closure of the Paleo-Tethys during final eastward subduction of Western Malaya

lithosphere beneath Eastern Malaya (Ismail et al.

2007).

Figure 1. Typical Late Triassic shallow marine bivalves from Sumatra and Misool. 1. Paleocardita

globiformis, 2-3. Pecten (Indopecten) verbeeki and 4. Myophoria myophoria from West Sumatra (from Boettger 1881, Krumbeck 1914). 5-6. Myophoria vestita from 'Nucula Marls' of Misool

(Jaworski 1915).

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KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC BIVALVE MOLLUSCS Boettger, O., 1881. A. Die Conchylien der

Untereocanschichten von Westsumatra (Etage I). Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 10 (1881), 2, p. 49-91. (also in Palaeontographica Suppl. 3)

Jaworski, E., 1915. Die Fauna der obertriadischen Nuculamergel von Misol. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaontologie von Timor II, 5, p. 73-174.

Krumbeck, L., 1914. Obere Trias von Sumatra (Die Padang-Schichten von West-Sumatra nebst

Anhang). Palaeontographica Suppl. IV, Beitr. Geologie Niederlandisch-Indien II, 3, p. 195-266.

Triassic (hemi)-pelagic Bivalves

Middle and Late Triassic deep marine shales and

pelagic deposits in the Tethyan and Circum-Pacific

regions often contain beds with common flat, thin-walled bivalves (also called 'flat clams' or 'paper

shells'; Figure 2). The dominant genus of these pelagic bivalves, varies with age: Claraia in Early

Triassic, Daonella in Middle Triassic (E. Carnian), Halobia in Late Triassic (Carnian- Norian) and

Monotis in latest Triassic (M. Norian- Rhaetian;

McRoberts 2010). Where found, they are often

abundant and rock-forming. They are important biostratigraphic index fossils.

In Indonesia Triassic pelagic bivalves are mainly

found in East Indonesia, in the deep marine

deposits of Timor, Roti, Buton (Sikumbang et al. 1995), Seram (Wanner 1907), Buru, Misool, Babar,

etc. In West Indonesia they are known from

Sumatra. They are not known from Australia, but

this could be due to a scarcity of open marine

facies of that age.

Depending on age, the following genera are

dominant (McRoberts 2010): 1. Daonella is the dominant genus of Tethyan

pelagic bivalves in Middle Triassic to Early

Carnian time. In Early Carnian it evolves into Halobia. Kobayashi (1963) recognized five

Anisian - Early Carnian Daonella zones in SE

Asia. Middle Triassic Daonella indica is locally

abundant in the Norian of Timor (Krumbeck

1924, Kutassy 1930, 1931). It was also

reported from Roti (Rothpletz 1892), Buru (Boehm 1910, 1919) and Misool (Wanner 1907,

Hasibuan 1990, 2010). A species closely related to D. indica was reported from the Mount Hagen

area in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea by

Skwarko (1973). Volz (1899) described locally common Daonella and Halobia from the Lake

Toba area, West Sumatra. Similar Daonella is also known from Thailand (D. sumatrensis Volz;

Kobayashi and Tokuyama 1959, Pitakpaivan 1969) and Peninsular Malaysia (Daonella indica

and D. pahangensis; Kummel 1960, Kobayashi

1964, Sato 1964). 2. Halobia in Late Triassic (Carnian - M Norian;

Halobia died out in mid-Norian). Late Triassic

Halobia is mainly represented by Halobia comata. It is the most common species in the

Carnian of Timor (Wanner 1907, Krumbeck

1924) and is a Carnian index species in the

eastern Tethys province (Kobayashi and

Tokuyama 1959, Kobayashi and Masatani 1968). Halobia is also known from Roti

(Rothpletz 1892), the Lake Toba area of Sumatra (Volz 1899) and the Semanggol Fm of Pensular

Malaysia (Newton 1925).

Figure 2. Middle-Late Triassic hemi-pelagic bivalves 1. Small double-valve Halobia comata, 2. Daonella indica from Timor (Krumbeck 1924); 3. Monotis salinaria from Seram (Wanner 1907).

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3. Monotis (Late Norian). After a diversity and

abundance peak in the Late Norian, a major extinction event of most species of Monotis was

observed at the end of the Norian across the

Tethys and other areas (Hallam 1981, McRoberts et al. 2008). This extinction event

also affected other pelagic groups like

ammonites, but not shallow marine carbonate fossils. In Indonesia Monotis salinaria is known

from Seram (Wanner 1907), Buton (Sikumbang

et al. 1995), Roti and Timor (Rothpletz, 1892, Wanner 1931, Kristan-Tollmann et al. 1987)

and from NW Kalimantan (Vogel, 1904,

Zeijlmans van Emmichoven, 1939) where it is in

Upper Triassic flysch associated with the Serian

Volcanic complex.

These pseudo-pelagic, thin-shelled bivalves

probably have an 'anti-tropical' geographic

distribution, like morphologically similar bivalve groups in the Late Jurassic (Buchia, Aucella, Malayomaorica) and Cretaceous (Inoceramus).

Some provinciality between species has been suggested for Late Triassic Monotis (Westermann

1973, Thenius 1980, Silberling 1985), with

Tethyan Norian assemblages characterized by Monotis salinaria.

KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC DEEP MARINE BIVALVE MOLLUSCS Ichikawa, K. (1958). Zur Taxonomie und Phylogenie der

triadischen ”Pteriidae” (Lamellibranchiata) mit besonder Berucksichtigung der Gattungen Claraia, Eumorphotis, Oxytoma und Monotis. Palaeontographica, A111, 5-6, p. 131-212.

Kobayashi, T., 1964. On the Triassic Daonella Beds in Central Pahang, Malaya. In: T. Kobayashi (ed.) Geology and palaeontology of Southeast Asia, Tokyo University Press, 1, p. 53-68.

Kristan-Tollman, E., S. Barkham and B. Gruber, 1987. Potschenschichten, Zlambachmergel (Hallstatter, Obertrias) und Liasfleckenmergel in Zentraltimor, nebst ihren Faunenelementen. Mitt. Osterreich. Geol. Ges. 80, p. 229-285.

Krumbeck, L.,1924. Die Brachiopoden, Lamellibranchiaten und Gastropoden der Trias von

Timor II. Palaeontologischer Teil. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaeontologie von Timor 13, 22, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, p. 1-275.

McRoberts, C.A, 2010. Biochronology of Triassic bivalves. In: S.G. Lucas (ed.) The Triassic

Timescale, Geol. Soc., London, Spec. Publ. 334, p. 201-219.

Vogel, F., 1904. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der mesozoischen Formationen in Borneo, 2: Trias in Borneo. Sammlung. Geol. Reichs-Museums Leiden, ser. 1, 7, p. 217-220.

Westermann, G.E.G., 1973. Species distribution of the world-wide Triassic pelecypod Monotis Bronn. Proc. 22nd Int. Geol. Congr., India 1964, Sect. 8, p. 374-389.

Triassic Ammonoids

Early, Middle and Late Triassic ammonoid

assemblages are the most diverse of all ammonoid

assemblages in Indonesia, and most of the species are from condensed pelagic cephalopod limestones

of Timor. They were described in voluminous

monographs by Welter (1922, 1915 and 1914

respectively) and Diener (1923). The Triassic

'Cephalopod Limestone' of Timor is a condensed,

pelagic facies commonly called 'Hallstatt-type', and is the only place in Indonesia with a complete

marine Triassic succession. Unfortunately the

formation is mainly known from blocks in melange

formation, but at Kapan, West Timor, Wanner

(1913) observed the transition between Permian crinoid limestone into Early Triassic cephalopod

limestone. Restored thickness suggests the entire

Triassic in cephalopod limestone facies is very thin

(<10m). Many of the fossils in this limestone are

coated with a thin manganese layer, reflecting long

periods of non-deposition, on a deep sea floor. Timor is the only place in Indonesia with known

Early and Middle Triassic ammonoids.

In the Early Triassic ammonoid faunas had to

recover from the mass extinction at the end of the Permian, after which new, diverse ammonoid

assemblages developed rather rapidly. In Indonesia

Early Triassic ammonoid faunas are known only

from the cephalopod facies of Timor, from where

Welter (1922) described 71 species of genera Meekoceras, Flemingites, etc. Middle Triassic

ammonoids from Timor were first documented by

Welter (1915). As noted by Welter (1922) Early

Triassic ammonoid assemblages from West Timor

share many similarities with Himalayan-

Mediterranean Triassic faunas.

Late Triassic ammonoid faunas of Timor are

extremely rich and diverse and are characterized a.o. by haloritids Halorites and Juvavites,

Anatomites, Amarassites and many others (Figure

3). Von Arthaber (1926) distinguished 110 species

in the Carnian-Norian. Tatzreiter (1981) counted 90 species of trachyostracous ammonoids (not

counting the more numerous leiostracous

ammonoids) in a 1m thick block of condensed

Middle Norian limestone at Baun. Wanner (1931)

reported 462 species from a 2m thick block of

Carnian Cephalopod Limestone at Bihati.

Numerous authors, including Wanner (1913),

Welter (1914, 1915) and Diener (1923), noted the

remarkable similarities between the ammonite

assemblages of Timor and the Alpine-Mediterranean and Tethyan Himalayan regions,

particularly the Hallstatt Limestone facies of the

Austrian Alps. A major extinction event affected

Triassic ammonoids at the end of the Norian, after

a diversity peak in Carnian - Early Norian time

(Hallam 1981).

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KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC AMMONOIDS Diener, C., 1923. Ammonoidea trachyostraca aus der

mittleren und oberen Trias von Timor. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 49 (1920), Verhand. 4, p. 75-276.

Nakazawa, K. and Y. Bando, 1968. Lower and Middle Triassic ammonites from Portuguese Timor. Mem. Fac. Science, Kyoto University, Geol. Min., 34, 2, p.

83-114. Tatzreiter, F., 1980 Neue trachyostrake Ammonoideen

aus dem Nor (Alaun 2) der Tethys. Verhand. Geol. Bundesanst. 1980, 2, p. 123-159.

Tatzreiter, F., 1981. Ammonitenfauna und Stratigraphie im hoheren Nor (Alaun, Trias) der Tethys aufgrund neuer Untersuchungen in Timor. Denkschr. Osterr. Akad. Wiss., Math.-Naturw. Kl. 121, p. 1-142.

Wanner, J., 1911. Triascephalopoden von Timor und Rotti. Neues Jahrbuch Min., Geol., Palaont., Beil. Band 32, p. 177-196.

Welter, O.A., 1914. Die Obertriadischen Ammoniten und Nautiliden von Timor. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaeontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1, 1, p. 1-258.

Welter, O.A., 1915. Die Ammoniten und Nautiliden der Ladinischen und Anisischen Trias von Timor. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaontologie von Timor 5, 10, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, p. 71-136.

Welter, O.A., 1922. Die Ammoniten der unteren Trias von Timor. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaeontologie von

Timor 11, 19, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, p. 83-154.

Triassic Belemnoids

Characteristic strongly ribbed belemnoids of the genus Aulacoceras are locally abundant in the

Upper Triassic of Timor (Figure 4). From the

Carnian-Norian of the Baung and Niki-Niki areas 2500 specimens were collected by Wanner and

Molengraaff and studied by Von Bulow (1915). The

Jonker 1916 expedition collected another >3000

specimens. They are also known from Savu and

Roti (Wanner 1907, 1911). They were originally described as Asteroconites savuticus Boehm, 1907

and Aulacoceras timorense Wanner, 1911, but are

all varieties of the Alpine-Mediterranean species Aulacoceras sulcatum Von Hauer 1860, first

described from the Hallstatt Limestone in Austria

(Gheyselinck 1934).

The Timor belemnites are commonly covered in

black manganese coating, attesting to the deep

marine, condensed facies of the Tethyan oceanic

'Halstatt-facies' in which they are found.

Figure 3. Late Triassic ammonoids from Timor. 1. Juvavites sarasinii from Bihati (Diener 1923), 2. Neotibetites (Krumbeck 1913), 3. Cladiscites crassestriatus from Bihati 2 (diameter 8 cm; Von Arthaber 1927), 4. Agathiceras.

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KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC BELEMNITES Gheyselinck, R., 1934. Zur Systematik der

Aulacoceraten. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., Amsterdam, 37, 3, p. 173-180.

Von Bulow, E., 1915. Orthoceren und Belemnitiden der Trias von Timor. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaontologie von Timor 4, 7, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, p. 1-72.

Triassic Brachiopods

Late Triassic brachiopod assemblages in East

Indonesia often contain the rhynchonellid brachiopod species Misolia misolia (Figure 5). The

species is typical of Carnian-Norian (and younger?)

shelfal marine deposits of the Gondwana margin of

the southern/eastern Mesotethys (Dagys, 1993),

and has been reported from Oman through the

Spiti area of the Himalayas to East Indonesia and the NW Australian margin. In eastern Indonesia it

is present in Misool, Timor, East Sulawesi, Buru,

Seram, Ambon and Buton (references in Table 1).

Less widely distributed in the Late Triassic of

eastern Indonesia is the brachiopod genus Halorella, which is commonly viewed as a genus

more typical of the Mediterranean/northern

margin of the (Meso-)Tethys (Ager and Sun 1989). However, species of Halorella described from Timor

and Seram (Wanner 1907, Krumbeck 1921, 1924,

Kruizinga 1931) have been re-assigned to Timorhynchia and Halorelloidea by Ager (1988).

KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC BRACHIOPODS Dagys, A.S., 1993. Geographic differentiation of Triassic

brachiopods. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclim., Palaeoecol. 100, p. 79-87.

MacFarlan, D.A.B., F. Hasibuan and J.A. Grant-Mackie, 2011. Mesozoic brachiopods of Misool Archipelago, eastern Indonesia. Mem. Assoc. Australasian Pal. 41, p. 149-177.

Von Seidlitz, W., 1913. Misolia, eine neue Brachiopoden-

Gattung aus den Athyridenkalken von Buru und Misol. Beitr. Geologie Niederlandisch-Indien II, 2, Palaeontographica Suppl. IV, p.163-194.

Triassic Corals

Following the major end-Permian extinction event,

corals are relatively rare globally through much of

the Triassic. The Late Triassic is a time in which

coral reef limestones become common again along the Tethys margins, although calcareous sponges

and algae remain important components of these

reefal limestones.

Figure 4. Late Triassic (Carnian-Norian) belemnoid Aulacoceras sulcatum var. timorensis from Bihati, Timor (Von Bulow, 1915).

Figure 5. Triassic rhynchonellid brachiopod Misolia misolia Von Seidlitz. 1. from Tifu, Buru (size ~3 cm); 2. from 'Athyrid Limestone' (= Bogal Fm) of Misool (size~3.5 cm) (Von Seidlitz, 1913).

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In Indonesia Late Triassic corals are known from

'Fau Limestone' of Timor (Vinassa de Regny 1915),

the Manusela Limestone of Seram (Wanner 1907,

Wilckens 1937) and from Bangka (De Neve and De Roever 1947). Characteristic genera include Thecosmilia spp., Isastraea, Retiophyllia and

Montlivaltia (Figure 6). Many of the species from

Timor are the same as those from the Austrian

Alps (Vinassa de Regny 1915).

KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC CORALS De Neve, G.A. and W.P. de Roever, 1947. Upper Triassic

fossiliferous limestones in the island of Bangka. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., Amsterdam, 50, 10, p. 1312-1314.

Vinassa de Regny, P., 1915. Triadische Algen, Spongien, Anthozoen und Bryozoen aus Timor. Palaontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 4, 8, p. 75-

118. Wanner, J., 1907. Triaspetrefakten der Molukken und

des Timorarchipels. Neues Jahrbuch Min. Geol. Pal., Beilageband 24, p. 159-220.

Wilckens, O., 1937. Korallen und Kalkschwamme aus dem obertriadischen Pharetronenkalk von Seran (Molukken). Neues Jahrbuch Min., Geol., Palaeont., Beil. Band B77, p. 171-211.

Late Triassic Hydrozoan or Stromatoporoid

Lovcenipora

Upper Triassic reefal limestones in SE Asia often

contain a hydrozoan or stromotoporoid named Lovcenipora vinassai (Seram, Timor; Wanner 1952;

Figure 6). This is a Tethyan taxon, common in the

Late Triassic of the Mediterranean. It was

erroneously equated with a somewhat similar-

looking Late Jurassic Tethyan hydrozoan Cladacoropsis mirabilis (Renz 1926), but these are

separate taxa (Yabe 1946). It had led workers like Van der Sluis (1949) to erroneously assign a

Jurassic age to the Manusela Limestone of Seram,

an opinion followed by Van Bemmelen (1949), but

fiercely protested by Wanner et al. (1952), and still

somewhat entrenched in Seram geological literature (Kemp 1992, etc.; see also Charlton and

Van Gorsel, 2014; this volume).

In Indonesia Triassic Lovcenipora is known from

Seram, Buru (Gerth 1910) and the Fatu

Limestones of Timor (Vinassa de Regny 1915, Pia 1924). Lovcenipora has also been described from

Jurassic - Cretaceous of Sumatra, but in most

cases these are misidentifications and should be assigned to Cladocoropsis miriabilis (e.g. Yabe

1946).

Figure 6. Late Triassic corals and Lovcenipora from Timor and Seram. 1. Isastraea verbeeki and 2. Isastraea guembeli from Timor (Vinassa 1915); 3. Montlivaltia molukkana from Seram (Wanner, 1907), 4. Lovcenipora vinassai from East Seram (described as coral Pachypora intabulata by Wanner, 1907); 5. Lovcenipora vinassai from Timor (Vinassa 1915).

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KEY REFERENCES- LOVCENIPORA Gerth, H., 1910. Fossile Korallen von der Molukkeninsel

Buru nebst Bemerkungen uber die polygenetischen Beziehungen der Gattung Alveopora. Neues Jahrbuch Mineral., Geol. Palaeont. 1910, 2, p. 16-28.

Van der Sluis, J.P., 1950. Geology of East Seran. Doct. Thesis Univ. Utrecht. In: Geological, petrographical and palaeontological results of explorations carried out from September 1917 till June 1919 in the

Island of Ceram by L. Rutten and W. Hotz, De Bussy, Amsterdam, 3rd ser., Geology, 3, p. 1-71.

Vinassa de Regny, P., 1915. Triadische Algen, Spongien, Anthozoen und Bryozoen aus Timor. Palaontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 4, 8, p. 75-118.

Wanner, J., 1907. Triaspetrefakten der Molukken und des Timorarchipels. Neues Jahrbuch Min. Geol. Pal., Beilageband 24, p. 159-220.

Wanner, J., H.C.G. Knipscheer and E. Schenk,1952. Zur Kenntnis der Trias der Insel Seran (Indonesien). Eclogae Geol. Helv. 45, 1, p. 53-84.

Yabe, H., 1946. On some fossils from the Saling Limestone of the Goemai Mts., Palembang, Sumatra- I. Proc. Japan Acad. 22, 6, p. 200-203.

Middle - Late Triassic Calcisponges and Tubiphytes

In most of the Tethyan Upper Triassic reefal

limestones, from the Circum-Mediteranean to Iran

to Seram and Timor, calcareous sponges are the

dominant reef builders (Vinassa de Regny 1915, Wilckens 1937). Tubiphytes are also locally

common in Triassic reefal limestones of Indonesia.

Its taxomic position is still debated: cyanobacterial,

hydrozoan, sponge, red algae, etc. (Riding and Li

Guo 1992). Both groups remain little studied in

the Indonesian region.

KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC CALCISPONGES Vinassa de Regny, P., 1915. Triadische Algen, Spongien, Anthozoen und Bryozoen aus Timor. Palaontologie von

Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 4, 8, p. 75-118.

Wilckens, O., 1937. Korallen und Kalkschwamme aus dem obertriadischen Pharetronenkalk von Seran (Molukken). Neues Jahrbuch Min., Geol., Palaeont., Beil. Band B77, p. 171-211. Heterastridium Hetrastridium is an interesting Late Triassic

hydrozoan fossil that is widespread in the Norian of the Tethyan realm. It is a globular fossil, with a

diameter typically 1-5cm and is the only hydrozoan

colony with a probably pelagic lifestyle. It is locally

abundant in the Upper Norian of the Hallstatt

limestone in the Carnian Alps, then ranges

through the Tethyan belt towards East Indonesia, The Philippines and New Caledonia (Campbell

1974) to Panthalassan terranes in Japan, New

Zealand and North America.

In Indonesia Heterastridium conglobatum is locally

common on Timor (Gerth 1915, 1942; Figure 7). It is found mainly in the thin, condensed pelagic

'Cephalopod Limestone', which is mainly composed

of ammonites, and which is commonly compared

to the 'Hallstatt-facies' of the Northern Calcareous

Alps. Other occurrences include East Seram (Gerth 1909, 1942) and Misool (Krumbeck 1913).

KEY REFERENCES- LATE TRIASSIC HETERASTRIDIUM Gerth, H., 1915. Die Heterastridien von Timor.

Palaontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 2, p. 63-69.

Gerth, H., 1942. Formenfulle und Lebensweise der Heterastridien von Timor. Palaeont. Zeitschr. 23, p. 181-202.

Krumbeck, L., 1913. Obere Trias von Buru und Misol. C. Der Athyridenkalk des Misol-Archipels. Palaeontographica Suppl. IV, 2, Beitr. Geologie Niederlandisch-Indien II, 1, p. 128-161.

Figure 7.- Late Triassic pelagic hydrozoan Heterastridium conglobatum from Timor. 1. From Bihati (size ~3.2cm); 2-3 From Oe Batok, Amarassi (size ~2 cm) (Gerth, 1915, 1942.).

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Late Triassic Dasyclad Algae

Calcareous algae are relatively common in the

Tethyan Upper Triassic sponge-dominated reefs. A

dasyclad algal species from the Norian S of Bula village in NE Seram was described by Pia (1924) as Macroporella sondaica n.sp. (Figure 8). This species

has not subsequently been reported elsewhere.

KEY REFERENCES- TRIASSIC CALCAREOUS ALGAE Pia, J., 1924. Einige Dasycladaceen aus der Ober-Trias

der Molukken. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost Indie 52 (1923), Verhand., p. 137-149.

Late Triassic Floras

Triassic plant fossils are rare in Indonesia, mainly

because Triassic rocks in non-marine facies are

very rare here. No Early - Middle Triassic floras are known from the Indonesian region. Late Triassic

floras were described from two areas, both of East

Asian affinity:

(1) Krusin flora' in the SW Sarawak - NW Kalimantan border area, with a.o. Clathropteris meniscoides (Kon'no, 1968, 1972). This is a

tropical flora, very similar to the Norian-Rhaetian

'Tonkin Flora' floras of North Vietnam and Khorat, Thailand, all part of the Dictyophyllum-Clathropteris floral province (Kimura 1984,

Dobruskina 1994). Clathropteris meniscoides was

found also found in dredge samples from the

Reed Bank in the South China Sea (Kudrass et al. 1986).

(2) 'Bintan Flora' of SW Bintan, Riau islands. A

fairly rich floral assemblage for which a Late

Triassic age was suggested by Jongmans (1951),

but it differs from the more typical Thailand and

Malaysian floras of that age by the absence of characteristic sphenophytes and ferns. This

could reflect a (local?) drier climate, but still of

Late Triassic age (Wade-Murphy and Van

Konijnenburg 2008) or a younger Jurassic- Early

Cretaceous age (Kon'no 1972). Some of the floral

elements described by Wade-Murphy (2008), like Brachyphyllum sp., are known only from

Jurassic beds in Thailand and China. Although the exact age of this flora is still disputed, its

Asian-European affinities are not.

As on mainland SE Asia, these plant fossils are in

'post-orogenic' clastic sediments that are unconformable over Permian and older

'Indosinian-deformed' sediments and Triassic

granitoids. It shows that these two areas must be

part of the Sundaland area of SE Asia that

amalgamated in the Late Triassic. KEY REFERENCES- LATE TRIASSIC FLORAS Jongmans, W.J., 1951. Fossil plants of the Island of

Bintan. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., B54, 2, p. 183-190.

Kimura, T., 1984. Mesozoic floras of East and Southeast Asia, with a short note on the Cenozoic floras of Southeast Asia and China. In: T. Kobayashi et al. (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia 25, University of Tokyo Press, p. 325-350.

Kon’no, E., 1972. Some Late Triassic plants from the Southwestern border of Sarawak, East Malaysia. In: T. Kobayashi and R. Toriyama (eds.) Geology and

palaeontology of Southeast Asia 10, p. 125-178. Kudrass, H.R., M. Wiedicke, P. Cepek, H. Kreuzer and P.

Muller, 1986. Mesozoic and Cainozoic rocks dredged from the South China Sea (Reed Bank area) and Sulu Sea and their significance for plate-tectonic reconstructions. Marine Petrol. Geol. 3, p. 19-30.

Wade-Murphy, J. and J.H.A. van Konijnenburg-van Cittert, 2008. A revision of the Late Triassic Bintan flora from the Riau Archipelago (Indonesia). Scripta Geologica 136, p. 73-105.

Late Triassic Palynofloras

Triassic microflora assemblages of the Gondwanan

region (Australia) tend to be dominated by Falcisporites. Two different palynoflora provinces

were recognized in the Late Triassic of Australia,

which appear to be essentially latitudinal floral belts (Dolby and Balme 1976):

1. warm-temperate 'Onslow microflora' along parts

of the NW Shelf, probably representing

paleolatitudes of ~30-35°S (Martini et al. 2004);

2. higher latitude, cool-temperate 'Ipswich microflora', typically low diversity Falcisporites-

dominated assemblages, on the Eastern margin

from Queensland to the South (Dolby and Balme

1976, Buratti and Cirilli 2007, Cesari et al.

2013).

These assemblages have also been recognized in Indonesia, although details are poorly

documented. Floras from Triassic pelagic deposits

of West Timor contain an 'Onslow' palynoflora, very

close to that of the Circum-Mediterranean area,

while the Late Triassic of Seram shows a mixture of Onslow and Ipswich elements. By contrast, the

latest Triassic of East Sulawesi show

characteristics of the cooler Ipswich Microflora,

indicating a higher latitude paleoposition (Martini

et al. 2004).

Figure 8- Late Triassic dasyclad Macroporella

sondaica from Manusela Limestone in Bula area,

NE Seram (Pia 1924). 1. Reconstruction of exterior

(actual size ~0.6cm); 2-3. Tangential sections.

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KEY REFERENCES- LATE TRIASSIC PALYNOFLORAS Buratti, N. and S. Cirilli, 2007. Microfloristic

provincialism in the Upper Triassic Circum-Mediterranean area and palaeogeographic implication. Geobios 40, 2, p. 133-142.

Cesari, S.N. and C.E. Colombi, 2015. A new Late Triassic phytogeographical scenario in westernmost Gondwana. Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2917, 7p.

Dolby, J.H. and B.E. Balme, 1976. Triassic palynology of the Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynology 22, p. 105-168.

Martini, R. L. Zaninetti, B. Lathuilliere, S. Cirilli, J.J. Cornee and M. Villeneuve, 2004. Upper Triassic carbonate deposits of Seram (Indonesia): palaeogeographic and geodynamic implications. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclim., Palaeoecol. 206, 1-2, p. 75-102.

TABLE 1 FAUNA/FLORA

TRIASSIC AREA

REFERENCES

Trias faunas,

biostratigraphy

General Wanner 1907, 1931, Hasibuan 2008

Timor Charlton et al. 2009

Late Tr(?) Bintan Flora

Riau Archipelago, Jongmans 1951, Wade-Murphy et al. 2008

Late Trias Tonkin/

Krusin Flora

N Vietnam, Thailand Kon'no and Asama 1973

Reed Bank, S China

Sea Kudrass et al. 1986

SW Sarawak Kon'no 1968, 1972

Late Trias

Palynofloras Seram Martini et al. 2004

Dinoflagellates Seram Helby et al. 1987, Martini et al. 2004

Late Trias corals

Buru Gerth 1910

Timor Vinassa de Regny 1915, Roniewicz et al. 2005

Seram Wilckens 1937

Heterastridium

(hydrozoan)

Timor, Seram Gerth 1909, 1915, 1927

Misool Krumbeck 1913

U Trias brachiopods (incl. Rhaetian

Misolia)

Misool Von Seidlitz 1913, Hasibuan 1990, 2012,

MacFarlan et al. 2011

Seram Deninger 1918, Krumbeck 1922, Wanner 1923,

1952

Buru Von Seidlitz 1913, Krumbeck 1913

Ambon Jaworski 1927

East Sulawesi Von Loczy 1934, Von Kutassy 1934

Buton Hasibuan 2010

Timor Krumbeck 1922, 1924, Grunau 1957

NW Australia

margin Campbell 1994

M-L Trias pelagic

bivalves (Daonella,

Halobia, Monotis)

Thailand Kobayashi and Tokuyama 1959

W Kalimantan,

Sarawak

Vogel 1904, Tamura and Hon 1977, Silberling

1985

Misool Wanner 1907, Hasibuan 1991, 2010

Seram Krumbeck 1922

Timor, Roti

Rothpletz 1892, Wanner 1907, Krumbeck 1924,

Kutassy 1931, Ichikawa 1958, Gruber in

Kristan-Tollmann 1987

Sumatra Volz 1899, Krumbeck 1914

PNG Skwarko 1967, 1973, Skwarko and Kummel

1974

M-L Trias shallow

marine bivalves (Myophoria

assemblages)

W Sumatra Boettger 1981, Krumbeck 1914, Musper 1930

Buru Krumbeck 1913

Misool Jaworski 1915

Papua New Guinea Skwarko 1963, 1973

Malay Peninsula,

Singapore

Newton 1903, 1925, Cox 1936, Tokuyama

1961, Kobayashi and Tamura 1968, Tamura

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1970, 1973

Gastropods Timor Tichy 1979

Lovcenipora

Seram, Buru Wanner 1907, 1952, Gerth 1910, Pia 1924

Timor Vinassa de Regny 1915, Krumbeck 1921, 1924?

Sumatra Vinassa de Regny 1915

U Trias foraminifera

Timor Kristan-Tollmann 1988

Sumatra Vachard 1989

PNG Kristan-Tollmann 1986, 1990

U Trias belemnites Timor Wanner 1911, Von Bulow 1915, Gheyselinck

1934

U Trias ammonites Timor

Wanner 1911, Welter 1914, 1915, Diener 1923,

Kieslinger 1924, Von Arthaber 1926, Tatzreiter 1980,1981, 1983

Buru, Seram Krumbeck 1913, Wanner 1928

E-M Trias

ammonites Timor

Welter 1915, 1922, Kummel 1968, Nakazawa

and Bando 1968, Brayard et al. 2009

Trias conodonts

Sumatra Metcalfe et al. 1979, 1989

Timor Nogami 1968, Koike 1984, Berry et al. 1984,

Nicoll and Foster 1998

M-U Trias

radiolarians Timor

Hinde 1908, Rose 1994, Sashida et al. 1996,

1999

U Trias dasyclad

algae Seram, Buru Pia 1924

JURASSIC

In Indonesia Jurassic deposits have been described from W and N Sumatra, from NW

Kalimantan and from many of the islands of East

Indonesia and New Guinea. Sediments and faunas

are quite different between West and East

Indonesia.

Summaries of Jurassic stratigraphy and faunas of

Indonesia were presented a.o. by Wanner (1931),

Umbgrove (1935), Sato (1975) and Sukamto and

Westermann (1992). Those of West Indonesia and

parts of mainland SE Asia and The Philippines were reviewed by Fontaine et al. (1983).

The richest Jurassic marine faunas are Middle-

Late Jurassic assemblages of ammonites,

belemnites, bivalves and radiolaria from terranes

in East Indonesia (Sula Islands, Timor-Roti, Buton, East Sulawesi, Misool) and in the New Guinea

Central Range and Birds Head (Figures 9-14).

These faunas are not tropical Tethyan

assemblages, but are probably subtropical to warm

temperate faunas (latitudes >30°S), that lived along the SE margin of the (Ceno-)Tethys Ocean.

They contain endemic faunal elements that

characterize a faunal realm, variously called

'Austral', 'South Tethyan', 'Indo-SW Pacific' or

'Himalayan' (Enay and Cariou 1997). In these

areas the Jurassic tends to be overlain by relatively thin Cretaceous pelagic limestones.

Unlike the Permian, Triassic and Cretaceous-

Cenozoic periods, no Early-Middle Jurassic reefal

limestones are known from the Indonesian region. The often quoted 'Early- Middle Jurassic' reefal

Manusela Limestone of Seram is of Late Triassic

age; see Charlton and Van Gorsel 2014; this

volume). Late Jurassic shallow marine near-reefal

carbonates are present in areas of West Indonesia: - West Sumatra: at several localities, but generally

viewed as mud mounds (Beauvais 1985), and

associated with arc volcanics of the 'Woyla

Terranes' (Barber et al. 2005);

- West Sarawak- NW Kalimantan border area:

locally thick latest Jurassic Bau Limestone.

Jurassic rocks are either absent or in non-marine -

very shallow marine clastic facies on the

Sundaland part of West Indonesia and continuing

into the Malay Peninsula and Thailand. This is mainly due to uplift after the Late Triassic

'Indosinian' collision between the Sibumasu and

Indochina terranes.

Much of the NW Australia-New Guinea Mesozoic

Jurassic passive margin experienced rifting and an overall deepening-upward facies trend through the

Jurassic, with continental breakup and creation of

new oceanic crust in the Late Jurassic. Relatively

widespread Middle Jurassic - earliest Cretaceous

sandstones (Plover, Toro, Woniwogi Formations) form significant hydrocarbon reservoirs here.

KEY REFERENCES- JURASSIC Beauvais, L., 1985. Donnees nouvelles sur les calcaires

‘recifaux’ du Jurassique superieur de Sumatra. Mem. Soc. Geol. France, n.s., 147, p. 21-27.

Fontaine, H., P. David, R. Pardede, N. Suwarna J.P. Bassoullet, L. Beauvais, E. Buffetaut and, R. Ingavat, 1983. The Jurassic in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, West Philippines). CCOP Techn. Bull. 16, p. 1-75.

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Grant-Mackie, J.A., Y. Aita, B.E. Balme, H.J. Campbell, A.B. Challinor, D.A.B. MacFarlan, R.E. Molnar, G.R. Stevens and R.A.Thulborn, 2000. Jurassic palaeobiogeography of Australasia. In: A.J. Wright (ed.) Palaeobiogeogeography of Australasia, Mem. Australasian Assoc. Palaeont. 23, p. 311-353.

Sato, T., 1975. Marine Jurassic formations and faunas in Southeast Asia and New Guinea. In: T. Kobayashi and R. Toriyama (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia, University of

Tokyo Press, 15, p. 151-189. Sato, T. and G.E.G. Westermann, 1991. 4. Japan and

Southeast Asia. In: G.E.G. Westermann and A.C. Ricardi (eds.) Jurassic taxa ranges and correlation charts for the Circum-Pacific. Newsl. Stratigraphy 24, 1-2, p. 81-108.

Sato, T., G.E.G. Westermann, S.K. Skwarko and F. Hasibuan, 1978. Jurassic biostratigraphy of the Sula Islands, Indonesia. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre

Bull. 4, 1, p. 1-28.

Sukamto, R. and G.E.G. Westermann, 1992. Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. In: G.E.G. Westermann (ed.) The Jurassic of the Circum-Pacific, Cambridge University Press, p. 181-193.

Early Jurassic Ammonites

Early Jurassic ('Liassic') ammonites are relatively

rare in the Indonesian region, but rich

assemblages known from Outer Banda Arc

island Roti, Timor and Yamdena (mud volcanoes), and from Buton and East Sulawesi

(Jaworski 1933). The richest assemblages with

41 species are from Liassic deep water marls of

Roti Island, described by Krumbeck (1922;

Figure 10-1-3). They are dominated by Dactylioceras spp. and Arietites spp., also Arnioceras, Lytoceras, Phylloceras, etc. Most

species here are similar to European-

Mediterranean/Tethyan species.

Figure 9. Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) fauna from Wai Galo, Sula islands (Boehm 1905). 1-2. Pelagic bivalves Inoceramus

sularum and I.

taliabuticum; 3-12. Belemnites of the

Belemnopsis galoi group (5-11) and

Belemnopsis moluccana (12).

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These Early Jurassic 'Tethyan' ammonite

assemblages from grey nodular marls are very

similar from Roti to Timor, Babar and Yamdena

(Tanimbar), suggesting a continuous deep water facies belt, with an uninterrupted oceanic

connection with the western Tethys in Early

Jurassic time. And they are probably all part of a

continuous Triassic-Paleogene deep marine

stratigraphic succession. An interesting

implication of this could be that if this belt was located along the distal NW Australian continental

margin, as is generally assumed, it likely already

faced the Tethys Ocean, and it would seem

unlikely that any major land area (part of

'Argoland') would have rifted off this part of the margin in Late Jurassic time.

Ammonites from West Kalimantan of supposedly

Early Jurassic age appear to have no species in

common with the Roti material (Krause 1911,

Krumbeck 1922, Hirano et al. 1981). KEY REFERENCES- EARLY JURASSIC AMMONITES Hirano, H., S. Ichihara, Y. Sunarya, N. Nakajima et al.,

1981. Lower Jurassic ammonites from Bengkayang, West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. Bull. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre 4, p. 21-26.

Jaworski, J.A., 1933. Revision der Arieten, Echioceraten und Dactylioceraten des Lias von Niederlandisch-Indien. Neues Jahrbuch Miner. Palaont. Beil. Bd. 70, p. 251-333.

Krause, P.G., 1911. Uber unteren Lias von Borneo. Sammlung. Geol. Reichs-Mus. Leiden, ser. 1, 9, p. 77-83.

Krumbeck, L., 1922. Zur Kenntnis des Juras der Insel Rotti. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost Indie 49 (1920), Verhand. 3, p. 107-220.

Rothpletz, A., 1892. Die Perm, Trias- und Jura-Formation auf Timor und Rotti im Indischen Archipel. Palaeontographica 39, 2, p. 57-106.

Wanner, J. and E. Jaworski, 1931. Liasammoniten von Jamdena und Celebes. Neues Jahrbuch Min., Geol., Pal., Beilage Band 66, B, p. 199-210.

Middle-Late Jurassic Ammonites

Ammonite assemblages characteristic of the 'Indo-

Pacific Realm' are known from West Papua

(Lengguru, Central Range), Papua New Guinea,

Sula islands and outer Banda Arc islands like Timor, Roti and Babar (references in Table 2 and

Bibliography) (Figure 11). They are characterized by Macrocephalites spp. and Satoceras in the Late

Bathonian-Callovian, the Mayaites group and

Sulaites in the Oxfordian- E Kimmeridgean,

Uhligites and Blanfordiceras in the Tithonian.

Figure 10. Early Jurassic ammonites. 1. Lytoceras rotticum, 2. Arietites (Euechioceras)

wichmanni and 3. Aegoceras subtaylori 3 from Roti (Krumbeck 1922); 4. Arietites geometricus from Batu Baraketak mud volcano, Roti (Rothpletz 1892); 5. Aegoceras borneense from West Kalimantan (Krause 1911).

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As mentioned above, they show strong affinities

with faunas from the Tethyan Himalayas to New

Zealand, all areas that all restore to the southern

margin of the Neotethys Ocean (Thierry 1976, Von Hillebrandt et al. 1992, Enay and Cariou 1997,

Page 2008). The East Indonesia- New Guinea

assemblages are different from Jurassic ammonite

assemblages from West Kalimantan and Thailand

(Kozai et al. 2011), which have northern Tethyan

affinities (but it should be noted that open marine Jurassic sediments with ammonites are rare on

Sundaland).

KEY REFERENCES- MIDDLE- LATE JURASSIC AMMONITES Boehm, G., 1907. Die Sudkusten der Sula-Inseln

Taliabu und Mangoli. 3. Oxford des Wai Galo. Palaeontographica Suppl. Vol. IV, Beitr. Geologie Niederlandisch-Indien 1, p. 59-120.

Boehm, G., 1912. Die Sudkusten der Sula-Inseln Taliabu und Mangoli. 4. Unteres Callovien. Palaeontographica, Suppl. IV, Beitr. Geologie Niederlandisch-Indien 1, p. 121-179.

Boehm, G., 1913. Unteres Callovien und Coronaten-Schichten zwischen MacCluer Golf und Geelvink-Bai. Nova Guinea 6, Geologie, Brill, Leiden, 1, p. 1-20.

Enay, R. and E. Cariou, 1997. Ammonite faunas and palaeobiogeography of the Himalayan belt during the Jurassic: initiation of a Late Jurassic austral ammonite fauna. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclim., Palaeoecol. 134, 1, p. 1-38.

Van Gorsel, J.T., 2012. Middle Jurassic ammonites from the Cendrawasih Bay coast and North Lengguru fold-belt, West Papua: implications of a ‘forgotten’ 1913 paper. Berita Sedimentologi 23, p. 35-41.

Westermann, G.E.G. and J.H. Callomon, 1988. The Macrocephalitinae and associated Bathonian and early Callovian (Jurassic) ammonoids of the Sula islands and New Guinea. Palaeontographica A, 203, p. 1-90.

Westermann, G.E.G. and T.A. Getty, 1970. New Middle Jurassic Ammonitina from New Guinea. Bull. Amer. Paleontology 57, 256, p. 231-308.

Middle-Late Jurassic Belemnites

Late Middle Jurassic to earliest Cretaceous

belemnites are common only in parts of Eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, in particular

Misool and the Sula islands but also in Buton,

Central-East Sulawesi, Buru, Seram, Timor, Roti,

Babar, Yamdena and West Papua (Table 2, Figure

9)

The very first Mesozoic fossils ever reported from

Indonesia were belemnites found on Taliabu, Sula

islands, by naturalist Rumphius (1705), who

described them as 'bullets' and 'fingers'. Boehm

(1907) described five new Late Jurassic species of Belemnopsis from the same area. Early

monographs on Jurassic-Cretaceous belemnites of

East Indonesia were by Kruizinga (1921) and

Stolley (1929), followed by studies of Stevens

(1964), Challinor and Skwarko (1982) and

Challinor (1989-1991).

Like the ammonites, belemnites are good

biostratigraphic marker fossils. The belemnite

zones of East Indonesia were calibrated to the NW

Australian dinoflagellate zonations by Challinor (1989, 1991). Three main assemblages may be

recognized (Challinor 1991, 1992): 1. Dicoelites- Conodicoelites in (Late Bajocian?)

Callovian - Early Oxfordian; 2. Hibolithes in late Callovian- Oxfordian;

3. Belemnopsis gerardi, B. moluccana and B. stolleyi groups in basal Oxfordian- latest

Tithonian.

Figure 11. Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) ammonites from Wai Galo, Taliabu, Sula islands (Boehm 1907).

1. Perisphinctes ternatus and P. indonesianus; 2. Perisphinctes aff. wartae; 3. Macrocephalites

rotangi.

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The dominance of the above genera, with the absence of the Tethyan genus Duvalia, suggest the

East Indonesia-New Guinea Late Jurassic

belemnites are not low-latitude Tethyan faunas,

but a higher latitude ‘Austral’/’peri-Gondwanan’ assemblage. This fits with what was concluded for

the associated ammonites and the common association with the bivalve genus Inoceramus,

which, like most pelagic bivalves, probably

displays an anti-tropical geographic distribution.

KEY REFERENCES- MIDDLE-LATE JURASSIC BELEMNITES Boehm, G., 1907. Die Sudkusten der Sula-Inseln

Taliabu und Mangoli, 2. Der Fundpunkt am oberen Lagoi auf Taliabu. Palaeontographica, Suppl. IV, Beitr. Geologie Niederlandisch-Indien I, p. 47-58.

Challinor, A.B., 1989. Jurassic and Cretaceous belemnitida of Misool Archipelago, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, Spec. Publ. 9, p. 1-153.

Challinor, A.B., 1989. The succession of Belemnopsis in

the Late Jurassic of Eastern Indonesia. Palaeontology 32, 3, p. 571-596.

Challinor, A.B., 1990.- A belemnite biozonation of the Jurassic-Cretaceous of Papua New Guinea and a faunal comparison with Eastern Indonesia. BMR J. Austral. Geol. Geophys. 11, p. 429-447.

Challinor, A.B., 1991. Belemnite successions and faunal provinces in the Southwest Pacific, and the belemnites of Gondwana. BMR J. Austral. Geol. Geophys. 12, 4, p. 301-325.

Challinor, A.B., 1991. Revision of the belemnites of Misool and a review of the belemnites of Indonesia. Palaeontographica Abt. A, 218, p. 87-164.

Challinor, A.B. and S.K. Skwarko, 1982. Jurassic belemnites from Sula Islands, Moluccas, Indonesia. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Paleont. Ser. 3, p. 1-89.

Kruizinga, P., 1921. De belemnieten uit de Jurassische afzettingen van de Soela eilanden. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl. Oost-Indie 49 (1920), Verhand. 2, p. 161-189.

Stevens, G.R., 1964. The belemnite genera Dicoelites Boehm and Prodicoelites Stolley. Paleontology 7, 4,

9, 606-620. Stevens, G.R., 1965. The Jurassic and Cretaceous

belemnites of New Zealand and review of the Jurassic and Cretaceous belemnites of the Indo-

Pacific region. Paleont. Bull., Geol. Surv. New Zealand 36, p. 1-283.

Stolley, E., 1929. Uber Ostindische Jura-Belemniten. Palaeontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 16, Abh. 29, p. 91-213.

Stolley, E., 1935. Zur Kenntnis des Jura und der Unterkreide von Misol. 2. Palaeontogischer Teil. Neues Jahrbuch Min. Geol. Palaont., Abh. B, 73, p. 42-69.

Stolley, E., 1943. Uber Mesozoische Belemniten-fuhrenden Schichten von Celebes. Verhand. Geol. Mijnbouwk. Gen. Nederl. Kol., Geol. Ser. 10, p. 172-175.

Early Jurassic Bivalves

Early Jurassic shallow marine bivalves are relatively rare in the Indonesian region. One

assemblage was described from West Kalimantan, which includes Gervillia borneensis and Corbula

(Martin 1889, 1898).

An Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian?) heavy bivalve assemblage with Lithiotis, Pachymegalodus and

Gervilleioperna was described from one of the Fatu

Limestones at Lelefoei Pass, Timor, by Krumbeck

(1923; Figure12). This assemblage is unique for SE Asia. However, it is known from other regions of

the Tethys, and, in the absence of corals and other

reef builders after the end-Triassic extinction

event, they are known as the only reefoid mound

builders in the Early Jurassic.

In mainland SE Asia (Thailand, Vietnam) the late

Early-M Jurassic deposits, which are the first marine sediments unconformably over post-

Indosinian orogeny unconformity (Sibumasu-

Eurasia collision), often contain bivalve

assemblages with endemic North Tethyan margin

species, including the characteristic pectinid Parvamussium donaiense. This has not been found

in Indonesia yet, but could one day be found in

Sumatra and West Kalimantan.

KEY REFERENCES- EARLY JURASSIC BIVALVES Krumbeck, L., 1923. Zur Kenntnis des Juras der Insel

Timor, sowie des Aucellen-Horizontes von Seran und Buru. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Palaeontologie von Timor 12, 20, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, p. 1-120.

Martin, K., 1889. Versteinerungen der sogenanten alten Schieferformation von West Borneo. Sammlung. Geol. Reichsmus. Leiden, Ser. 1, 4, p. 198-208.

Martin, K., 1899. Notiz uber den Lias von Borneo. Sammlung. Geol. Reichs-Museums Leiden, ser. 1, 5, p. 253-256.

Skwarko, S.K., 1973. First report of Domerian (Lower Jurassic) marine mollusca from New Guinea. Palaeontological Papers 1970-1971, Bull. Bur. Min. Res. Geol. Geoph. 140, p. 105-112.

Figure 12. Thick-shelled Early Jurassic bivalve

Lithiotis timorensis from Lelefoei Pass, Timor

(Krumbeck 1923).

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Middle-Late Jurassic Bivalves

Several papers describe Middle Jurassic shallow

marine bivalve faunas from NW Borneo, including

Newton (1897) and Vogel (1896-1904). Common genera include Astarte, Protocardia and Corbula

and also oyster-like bivalve Alectryonia amor

(Figure 13). Their exact ages remain somewhat

uncertain, but their European-East Asian affinities

are not disputed.

Late Jurassic bivalves have been described from the Kedadom-Pedawan formations of SW Sarawak

(Wilford and Kho 1965, Tamura and Hon 1977)

and from West Kalimantan (Vogel (1896, 1900,

Newton 1903), all probably from the Bentayang Fm. The latter fauna contains Trigonia molengraaffi, which under the genus name

Myophorella (Haidaia) is very common in the Upper

Jurassic of Japan (Hayami 1984; Figure 13, 3-4).

According to Hayami (1984) Upper Jurassic bivalve

assemblages from Indonesia are from different

zoogeographic realms: - East Asia/Eurasian Province: Borneo island are

part of the, with close affinities to faunas from

Mindoro, Philippines and NE Japan;

- SW Pacific/Maorian Province: East Indonesia

(Timor-Roti, Seram, Misool, Sula, New Guinea).

Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgean-Tithonian) open

marine facies of East Indonesia contain the characteristic Buchia-type hemipelagic bivalves

Malayomaorica malayomaorica Krumbeck and

Inoceramus of the Retroceramus haasti group (Krumbeck 1923, Wandel 1936; Figure 14). M. malayomaorica is known from Misool (Lelinta

Shale), Buru, Seram (Kola Shale), Buton (Rumu

Fm; Sikumbang et al. 1995), East Sulawesi

(Hasibuan and Kosworo 2008), Timor, Roti and the

distal parts of the NW Australia-New Guinea

margin in Papua New Guinea (Maril Shale; Glaessner 1945, Skwarko 1967) and the Dampier

Peninsula of N Australia (Langey Beds;

Brunnschweiler 1960). It is also known from New

Zealand and Antarctica.

These bivalve assemblages and associated ammonite and Belemnopsis belemnite assemblages

are commonly viewed as higher latitude, 'bipolar'

or 'anti-tropical' faunas of the Austral' or Maorian'

biogeographic provinces (e.g. Crame, 1986,

Damborenea 2002). They differ from age-equivalent assemblages of West Indonesia and mainland SE

Asia and paleogeographically can be tied to the

northern Gondwana margin of Australian-New

Guinea in Late Jurassic time.

Figure 13. Middle and Late Jurassic shallow marine bivalves from West Kalimantan and SW Sarawak. 1. Astarte eastonii. 2. Corbula eastonii from Sungei Pasi, West Kalimantan (Vogel 1900). 3-4. Trigonia

molengraaffi from Buduk area, West Kalimantan (Newton 1903). 5. Alectryonia amor from SW Sarawak (Newton, 1897).

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KEY REFERENCES- MIDDLE-LATE JURASSIC BIVALVES Hasibuan, F., 2004. Buchiidae (Bivalvia) Jura Akhir

sampai Kapur Awal dari kepulauan Misool dan korelasi regionalnya. J. Sumber Daya Geol. 14, 2, p. 51-60.

Hayami, I., 1984. Jurassic marine bivalve faunas and biogeography in Southeast Asia. In: T. Kobayashi et

al. (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia 25, University of Tokyo Press, p. 229-237.

Hasibuan, F. and A. Kusworo, 2008. Umur Formasi Nambo di Sulawesi Tengah dengan acuan khusus fosil Moluska. J. Sumber Daya Geol. (GRDC) 18, 1, p. 43-54.

Newton, R. Bullen, 1903. Notes on some Jurassic shells from Borneo, including a new species of Trigonia. Proc. Malacological Soc. London, 5, 6, p. 403-409.

Vogel, F., 1896. Mollusken aus dem Jura von Borneo. Samml. Geol. Reichsmuseums. Leiden, E.J. Brill, ser. 1, 5, p. 127-153.

Vogel, F., 1900. Neue Mollusken aus dem Jura von Borneo. Samml. Geol. Reichsmus. Leiden, ser. 1, 6, p. 40-76.

Wandel, G., 1936. Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Jurassischen Molluskenfauna von Misol, Ost

Celebes, Buton, Seran und Jamdena. In: J. Wanner (ed.) Beitrage zur Palaeontologie des Ostindischen Archipels 13, Neues Jahrbuch Miner. Geol. Palaeont., Beil. Bd. 75B, p. 447-526.

Jurassic- Early Cretaceous Dinoflagellate

Biostratigraphy

Oil industry age dating of Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary successions in East Indonesia and

New Guinea basins relies primarily on

dinoflagellate palynology. Its zonations were first

established are well-documented from the NW

Australian margin (Helby, Morgan and Partridge

1987, 2004, Partridge 2006, Riding et al. 2012). Dinoflagellate zonations have also been used along

the adjacent Papuan continental margin (Davey

1988). This type of biostratigraphy is routinely

applied in West Papua, PNG and East Indonesia oil

and gas exploration wells, but no recent updates

have been published.

KEY REFERENCES Davey, R.J., 1988. Palynological zonation of the Lower

Cretaceous, Upper and uppermost Middle Jurassic in the northwestern Papuan Basin of Papua New Guinea. Mem. Geol. Survey Papua New Guinea 13, p. 1-77.

Davey, R.H., 1999. Revised palynological zonation for the Late Cretaceous and Late Jurassic of Papua New Guinea. Mem. Geol. Survey Papua New Guinea 17, 51p.

Helby, R., R. Morgan and A.D. Partridge, 1987. A palynological zonation of the Australian Mesozoic. In: P.A. Jell (ed.) Studies in Australian Mesozoic palynology. Assoc. Australasian Palaeont., Sydney, Mem. 4, p. 1-94.

Partridge, A.D., 2006. Australian Mesozoic and Cenozoic palynology zonations (Charts 1-4). In: E. Monteil (coord.) Australian Mesozoic palynology zonations- updated to the 2004 Geologic Time Scale, Geoscience Australia Record 2006/23.

Riding, J.B., D.J. Mantle and J. Backhouse, 2010. A

review of the chronostratigraphical ages of Middle Triassic to Late Jurassic dinoflagellate cyst biozones

of the North West Shelf of Australia. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynology 162, 4, p. 543-575.

Late Jurassic Foraminifera

In the Indonesian region Late Jurassic shallow

marine limestones with the arenaceous foraminiferal genus Pseudocyclammina are known

from two areas. They are generally associated with the branched calcisponge or stromatoporoid Cladocoropsis mirabilis (which in some of the older

literature has been mistaken for Triassic Lovcenipora):

(1) Bau Limestone at the NW Kalimantan-West

Sarawak border area. Mainly characterized by Nautiloculina oolithica, Pseudocyclammina lituus

(Figure 15) and Torinosuella peneropliformis

(Bayliss 1966);

Figure 14. Late Jurassic (~Kimmeridgean) bivalves from Misool (Wandel 1936). 1a-b Malayomaorica malayomaorica; 2. Inoceramus (Retroceramus) subhaasti. These are generally viewed as temperate Gondwana-margin species.

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(2) South, West and North Sumatra. These shallow

marine limestones are interpreted as reefs on

and around volcanic islands in an active arc

and are tied to the 'Woyla Terranes' (Barber et al., 2005). Pseudocyclammina from the Saling

Limestone of the Gumai Mountains of South Sumatra was initially identified as Choffatella

(Silvestri 1925), but this was corrected by

Silvestri (1932). Subsequent faunal descriptions

are in Yabe (1946), Hanzawa (1947), Beauvais

(1983, 1985, 1989) and Bassoulet (1989). Late Jurassic Pseudocyclammina-Cladocoropsis

limestones are common in the Late Jurassic, from

the Mediterranean, the Alps, Turkey and the

Middle East to Japan (e.g. Leupold and Maync, 1935). The Pseudocyclammina limestones are

biogeographically closely tied to the Alpine-

Mediterranean-Middle East Tethyan region, and

are not known from Eastern Indonesia, New

Guinea or Australia. They appear to signify low

latitude deposits, marking the margins of the Eurasian continent in Oxfordian-Kimmeridgean

time.

KEY REFERENCES- JURASSIC FORAMINIFERA Bassoulet, J.P., 1989. New micropaleontological data on

some Upper Jurassic- Lower Cretaceous limestones

of Sumatra. In: H. Fontaine and S. Gafoer (eds.) The Pre-Tertiary fossils of Sumatra and their environments, CCOP Techn. Publ. TP 19, Bangkok,

p. 227-241. Bayliss, D.D., 1966. Foraminifera from the Bau

Limestone Formation, Sarawak, Malaysia. Geol. Survey Borneo region Malaysia, Ann. Rept. 1965, p. 173-195.

Beauvais, L., 1985. Donnees nouvelles sur les calcaires ‘recifaux’ du Jurassique superieur de Sumatra. Mem. Soc. Geol. France, n.s., 147, p. 21-27

Beauvais, L., M.C. Bernet-Rollande and A. Maurin, 1985. Reinterpretation of Pretertiary classical reefs from Indo-Pacific Jurassic examples. In: In: C. Gabrie and M. Harmelin (eds.) Proc. Fifth Int. Coral Reef Congress, Tahiti 1985, 6, Misc. Paper (B), p. 581-586.

Hanzawa, S., 1947. Note on some species of Pseudocyclammina from Sumatra. Japan J. Geol. Geogr. 20, 2-4, p. 5-8.

Leupold, W. and W. Maync, 1935. Das Auftreten von Choffatella, Pseudocyclammina, Lovcenipora

(Cladocoropsis) und Clypeina im alpinen Faziesgebiet. Eclog. Geol. Helvetiae 28, p. 129-139.

Silvestri, A., 1925. Sur quelques foraminiferes et pseudoforaminiferes de Sumatra. Verhand. Geol.-Mijnbouwk. Gen. Nederl. Kolon., Geol. Ser. 8 (Verbeek volume), p. 449-458.

Silvestri, A., 1932. Revisione di foraminiferi preterziarii del Sud-Ouest di Sumatra. Riv. Italiana Paleont. 38,

p. 75-107. Yabe, H., 1946. On some fossils from the Saling

Limestone of the Goemai Mts., Palembang, Sumatra- II. Proc. Japan Acad. 22, 8, p. 259-264.

Yabe, H. and S. Hanzawa, 1926. Choffatella Schlumberger and Pseudocyclammina- a new genus of arenaceous foraminifera. Science Reports Tohoku Imperial University. 2nd series, Geology, 9, p. 9-13.

Latest Jurassic - Early Cretaceous Calcispheres

On many of the islands of East Indonesia the latest

Jurassic-Cretaceous interval is developed as deep

marine pelagic limestones. Late Jurassic-Early

Cretaceous pelagic limestones may contain abundant small circular calcareous planktonic

organisms known as calcispheres and/or

calpionellids (e.g. Flugel, 2010). These are probably

calcareous dinoflagellate algal cysts and are known

from Timor, Roti, Buton, East Sulawesi, Seram

and Misool. They are commonly associated with belemnites and are generally overlain by Upper Cretaceous pelagic limestones with Globotruncana.

Calcispheres were first recorded from Roti by

Brouwer (1922) and Tan Sin Hok (1927), who named them Orbulinaria. Bothe (1927) described them from Buton, naming them Lagena orbulinaria, implying they are foraminifera. The

first systematic paleontologic study of this group in

Indonesia was by Wanner (1940), proposing the new species Stomiosphaera moluccana and Cadosina fusca (Figure 16) and documenting

additional occurrences from Ofu in SW Timor, the

Facet Limestone of Misool, the Manusela Limestone of Seram and from East Sulawesi.

Subsequent key studies in Indonesia-SE Asia are

by Vogler (1941) and Bolli (1974). The latter

assigned all species described by Wanner and Vogler to the genus Pithonella.

Two species of Tithonian Calpionella from the

northern Australia Dampier Peninsula were

described by Brunnschweiler (1960). Limestones with Stomiosphaera moluccana and Cadosina fusca

are also common in the Alpine-Mediterranean

region (incl. Carpathians, Apennines), where these species are generally viewed as of latest Jurassic

(Tithonian) age.

Wanner (1940) estimated the paleobathymetric

range of this facies as possibly between 2000-

4000m. The calcisphere facies does definitely reflect a pelagic deep marine environment, but it is

above the Carbonate Compensation Depth and

therefore probably shallower than deepest basinal

facies from the region, which are reddish shales

with radiolarian cherts and manganese nodules.

Figure 15. Tethyan Late Jurassic arenaceous foram Pseudocyclammina lituus (Yabe and Hanzawa, 1926).

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KEY REFERENCES- LATE JURASSIC- CRETACEOUS

CALCISPHERES Bolli, H.M., 1974. Jurassic and Cretaceous

calcisphaerulidae from DSDP Leg 27, Eastern Indian Ocean. In: J.J. Veevers et al. (eds.) Init. Repts. Deep Sea Drilling Project 27, p. 843-907.

Vogler, J., 1941. Ober-Jura und Kreide von Misol (Niederlandisch-Ostindien). In: Beitrage zur Geologie von Niederlandisch-Indien, Palaeontographica Suppl. IV, IV, 4, p. 243-293

Wanner, J., 1940. Gesteinsbildende Foraminiferen aus dem Malm und Unterkreide des ostlichen Ostindischen Archipels, nebst Bemerkungen uber Orbulinaria Rhumbler und andere verwandte Foraminiferen. Palaeont. Zeitschr. 22, 2, p. 75-99.

Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Dinoflagellate Cysts

Zonation Dinoflagellate cysts have been the most useful

fossil group for high-resolution biostratigraphic

zonation of Jurassic- Early Cretaceous sediments

along the NW Australia- New Guinea continental

margin. Most of the hydrocarbon exploration wells drilled in this region were analyzed by the pioneers

of this dinoflagellate zonation Helby, Morgan and

Partridge (1987, 2004) and most of the reports

from Australian waters are available from

Geoscience Australia, Canberra.

This dinoflagellate zonation has been used for

exploration wells that penetrated Mesozoic in East

Indonesia-West Papua (e.g. Fraser et al. 1996), but

unfortunately most of this data remains

confidential.

KEY REFERENCES- DINOFLAGELLATE CYSTS Davey, R.J., 1988. Palynological zonation of the Lower

Cretaceous, Upper and uppermost Middle Jurassic in the northwestern Papuan Basin of Papua New Guinea. Mem. Geol. Survey Papua New Guinea 13, p. 1-77.

Davey, R.H., 1999. Revised palynological zonation for the Late Cretaceous and Late Jurassic of Papua New Guinea. Mem. Geol. Survey Papua New Guinea 17, 51p.

Fraser, T.H., J. Bon and L. Samuel, 1993. A new dynamic Mesozoic stratigraphy for the West Irian micro-continent, Indonesia, and its implications. Proc. 22nd Ann. Conv. Indon. Petrol. Assoc., p. 707-761

Helby, R. and F. Hasibuan, 1988. A Jurassic

dinoflagellate sequence from Misool, Indonesia. In: Proc. 7th Int. Palynological Conf., Brisbane, p. 69.

(Abstract only) Helby, R., R. Morgan and A.D. Partridge, 1987. A

palynological zonation of the Australian Mesozoic. In: P.A. Jell (ed.) Studies in Australian Mesozoic palynology. Assoc. Australasian Palaeont., Sydney, Mem. 4, p. 1-94.

Helby, R., R. Morgan and A.D. Partridge, 2004. Updated

Jurassic-Early Cretaceous dinocyst zonation, NWS Australia. Geoscience Australia Publ. ISBN 1 920871 01 2.

Mantle, D.J., 2009. Palynology, sequence stratigraphy, and palaeoenvironments of Middle to Upper Jurassic strata, Bayu-Undan Field, Timor Sea region, Part Two. Palaeontographica B280, 4-6, p. 1-126.

Late Jurassic- Early Cretaceous Fossil Wood

Mesozoic silicified wood is relatively common in the Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous of mainland SE

Asia. The Khorat Group of NE Thailand contains large silicified trunks of Araucaryoxylon sp. (=

Agathoxylon) (Asama 1982, Philippe et al. 2004).

Similar wood fossils are known from Cambodia,

Laos and the Malay Peninsula (Philippe et al., 2014).

These are mainly from conifer trees and most or all

are in 'post-orogenic', non-marine and shallow

marine deposits that overlap and unconformably

overlie the deformed zone of Late Triassic Sibumasu-Indochina collision. Woods from these

areas are similar, but species show some

endemism, probably due to biogeographical

isolation. These woods have no clear annual

growth rings, suggesting low latitude warm-wet climate, without significant seasonal variations.

A few occurrences in West Indonesia show

similarities to the mainland SE Asia coniferous

woods:

1. Sugi Island, Riau Archipelago: 'Protocupressinoxylon', described by Roggeveen

(1932);

2. West Kalimantan: silicified wood in a collection

of fossils in the British Museum from the Buduk

area was studied recently by Philippe et al. (2014).

Middle Jurassic mollusks from the same collection were described by Newton (1903; see above). The

wood specimens were identified as representatives of the new genus Shimakuroxylon (formerly known

a.o. as Araucarioxylon japonicum Shimakura), a

genus is believed to be endemic to terranes that

lined southernmost East Asia in the Jurassic, primarily the Indochina plate. The West Borneo

wood therefore likely resided on a landmass that

was connected to Indochina in Late Jurassic time.

Figure 16. Thin section of Late Jurassic pelagic

calcisphere limestone from Ofu, SW Timor, with

Cadosina fusca (dark rings) and Stomiosphaera

moluccana (Wanner, 1940).

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KEY REFERENCES- LATE JURASSIC- EARLY CRETACEOUS FOSSIL WOOD/ PLANTS Asama, K., 1982. Araucarioxylon from Khorat, Thailand.

In: T. Kobayashi (ed.) Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia, University of Tokyo Press 23, p. 57-64.

Idris, M.B., 1990. Araucarioxylon telentangensis, a new

species of fossil coniferous wood from the U1u Endau area, Johore, Malaysia. J. Southeast Asian Earth Sci. 4, p. 55-59.

Philippe, M., A. Boura, C. Oh and D. Pons, 2014. Shimakuroxylon a new homoxylous Mesozoic wood genus from Asia, with palaeogeographical and

palaeoecological implications. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol. 204, p. 18-26.

Philippe, M., V. Sutheethorn, P. Lutat, E. Buffetaut, L. Cavin, G. Cuny and G. Barale, 2004. Stratigraphical and palaeobiogeographical significance of fossil wood from the Mesozoic Khorat Group of Thailand. Geol. Mag. 141, p. 319-328.

Roggeveen, P.M., 1932. Mesozoisches Koniferenholz (Protocupressinoxylon malayense n.s.) von der Insel

Soegi im Riouw Archipel, Niederlandisch Ost-Indien. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch. 35, p. 580-584.

TABLE 2 JURASSIC


Jurassic

Stratigraphy

Sumatra Fontaine et al. 1983

Indonesia Wanner 1931, Sato 1975, Sukamto and Westermann 1992

U Jurassic

calcispheres

(Pithonella)

Seram, Buton, Misool, Timor

Brouwer 1919, Tan Sin Hok 1927, Wanner 1940, Vogler 1940, Bolli 1974

Buton Bothe 1927

Roti Tan Sin Hok 1927

Late Jurassic

limestones with

Cladocoropsis,

Pseudocyclammina

NW Kalimantan/

Sarawak (Bau Lst)

Wilford and Kho 1965, Wolfenden 1965, Beauvais

and Fontaine 1990

Sumatra

Silvestri 1925, 1932, Yabe 1946, Hanzawa 1947,

Bennett et al. 1981, Beauvais 1983, 1989,

Bassoulet 1989

NE Palawan Fontaine et al. 1983, Bassoulet 1983

U Jurassic corals Sarawak Beauvais and Fontaine 1990

Sumatra Beauvais 1983, 1989

Late Jurassic shallow marine

foraminifera

W Sarawak (Bau

Lst) Bayliss 1966

Sumatra Silvestri 1925, 1932, Yabe 1946, Bassoulet 1989,

Middle- Late

Jurassic Belemnites

Misool Stolley 1929, 1935, Challinor 1989, 1991

Sula Islands

Boehm 1907, 1912, Kruizinga 1921, Stolley 1929,

Challinor and Skwarko 1982, Challinor 1989,

1991

Timor, Roti, Babar Rothpletz 1892, Stolley 1929, Stevens 1964

Yamdena Stolley 1929

W Papua/ PNG Challinor 1990

Central Sulawesi Stolley 1943

Indo-Pacific Stevens 1965

E-M Jurassic bivalves

NW Kalimantan, Sarawak

Martin 1899, Vogel 1896, 1900, Newton 1897, 1903, Tamura and Hon 1977, Hayami 1984

Timor Krumbeck 1923

Misool Soergel 1913, Wandel 1934, Hasibuan 2004

PNG Skwarko 1973, Grant-Mackie et al. 2006

U Jurassic bivalves

(Malayomaorica,

Inoceramus haasti) ('anti-tropical')

Sula, Buru, Seram,

Krumbeck 1923, Wandel 1936

Timor, Roti Krumbeck 1922, 1923

Misool Krumbeck 1934

E Sulawesi Hasibuan and Kosworo 2008

Papua New Guinea

Glaessner 1945, Edwards and Glaessner 1953

Australia NW Shelf Brunnschweiler 1960

M-U Jurassic

ammonites

Sula Islands Kruizinga 1926, Westermann and Callomon 1988

W Papua- PNG Boehm 1913, Gerth 1927, 1965, Schluter 1928,

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Westermann and Getty 1970, Westermann and

Callomon 1988, Westermann 1995

Timor, Roti Boehm 1908

Babar Callomon and Rose 2000

W Kalimantan Schairer and Zeiss 1992

E Jurassic

ammonites

Yamdena, E

Sulawesi Wanner and Jaworski 1931, Jaworski 1933

Roti, Timor Krumbeck 1922

W Kalimantan Krause 1911, Hirano et al. 1981

M-U Jurassic

Radiolaria

Sumatra McCarthy et al. 2001

SE Kalimantan Wakita et al. 1998

W Sarawak Jasin et al. 1996, Jasin and Said 1999

East Sulawesi Hojnos 1934

Sula Islands Pessagno and Meyerhoff Hull 2002

Timor, Roti Sashida et al. 1999, Haig and Bandini 2013

U Jurassic

nannofossils

Sula islands Panuju 2011

Timor Kristan-Tollmann 1988a,b

PNG Haig 1979

Jurassic- E

Cretaceous

Dinoflagellate

zonations

NW Australia margin

Cookson and Eisenack 1958, 1960, 1974, Helby

Morgan and Partridge 1987, 2004, Partridge 2006, Mantle 2009, Mantle and Riding 2010,

Riding, Helby et al. 2012

Papua New

Guinea Davey 1988, 1999, Welsh 1990

Misool Helby and Hasibuan 1988, Sarjeant et al. 1992

Sula Islands Lelono and Nugrahaningsih 2012

Spores-Pollen NW Australia

margin Burger 1996

Jurassic Coccoliths Timor Kristan-Tollmann 1988

E Jurassic

brachiopods Seram Wanner and Knipscheer 1951

Lithiotis Limestone Timor Fatu

Limestone Krumbeck 1923, Geyer 1977, Hayami 1984

CRETACEOUS Rocks of Cretaceous age are widespread across

Indonesia, in facies varying from non-marine to

oceanic. Lower Cretaceous faunas from the

Sundaland margin (SW Sumatra, Kalimantan) are low-latitude Tethyan faunas, and are very different

from those of the NW Australia-New Guinea

margin and East Indonesia's Sula Spur, which

represent higher latitude, Indo-Pacific faunas. The

Sundaland and Australian- New Guinea margins

were widely separated in Cretaceous time by the MesoTethys (mostly closed by mid-Cretaceous

time) and Neotethys Oceans. Oceanic and

microcontinental terranes of this oceanic realm are

now scattered across Eastern Indonesia, with deep

marine, pelagic Cretaceous deposits generally rich in radiolaria.

An extensive review of Cretaceous stratigraphy and

paleontology of SE Asia is Hashimoto et al. (1975).

KEY REFERENCES- CRETACEOUS Hashimoto, W., E. Aliate, N. Aoki, G. Balce, T. Ishibashi

et al., 1975. Cretaceous system of Southeast Asia. In: T. Kobayashi and R. Toriyama (eds.) Geology

and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia, University of Tokyo Press, 15, p. 219-287.

Skwarko, S.K. and F. Hasibuan, 1989. A brief review of literature on the larger marine invertebrates in the Cretaceous of Indonesia with list of fossils hitherto

identified. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, Paleont. Ser. 6, p. 44-52.

Skwarko, S.K. and G. Yusuf, 1982. Bibliography of the invertebrate macrofossils of Indonesia (with cross references). Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, Spec. Publ. 3, p. 1-66.

(Latest Jurassic-) Early Cretaceous Radiolaria

As noted above, radiolarian-rich sediments signify

deep marine environments, especially when they are non-calcareous, contain bedded chert and are

generally associated with red shales and

manganese nodules. These usually represent

ocean floor environments. Where they are

interbedded with clastic sediments they may represent deep marine distal continental slope

deposits.

Radiolarian-rich sediments appear to be

particularly common in Latest Jurassic - Early

Cretaceous time in both West and East Indonesia.

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They represent three or four different

paleogeographic settings (see also Table 3):

1a. Distal NW Australian passive margin: well-

dated Early Cretaceous assemblages from Roti (Tan Sin Hok 1927), Timor (Grunau 1965,

Munasri 1998) and Ungar (Tanimbar; Jasin and

Haile 1996);

1b. Indian Ocean: A continuation of the above but

today still on non-subducted ocean floor, are

occurrences of Early Cretaceous radiolaria from the Argo Abyssal Plain (Baumgartner 1993) and

the northern Indian Ocean- Timor Sea (Renz

1974, Riedel and Sanfilippo 1974);

2. Cretaceous distal margin and accretionary

complexes of Sundaland. a. North-Central Kalimantan and West Sarawak:

'Danau Formation', dated as latest Jurassic-

Early Cretaceous by Hinde (1900), Valanginian-

Barremian by Pessagno (in Tan 1978) and Late

Tithonian-Albian by Jasin (1996).

b. Sabah, North Borneo: Chert-Spilite Formation: pelagic cover of ophiolite sheet with E

Cretaceous (Valanginian-Barremian) radiolaria

(Jasin 1991, Aitchison 1994) (with numerous

'Tan Sin Hok species');

c. SE Kalimantan Meratus melange: M Jurassic - E Cretaceous radiolaria (Wakita et al., 1998);

d. SW Sulawesi: Bantimala, Barru areas, Early

Cretaceous radiolaria reported by Wakita et al.

(1994, 2000) and Munasri (2013);

e. Central Java (Lok Ulo; Okamoto et al. 1994,

Wakita et al. 1994);

3. 'Gondwanan Terranes in East Indonesia:

Cretaceous radiolarians reported from East Sulawesi (Hojnos 1934) and Buton (Soeka

1991).

Key monographs on Cretaceous radiolaria from

Indonesia include:

1. Hinde (1900) from North-Central Kalimantan. Hinde described 100 species from Central

Kalimantan, 67 from radiolarian cherts in the

Danau Formation and 39 from associated

diabase tuffs and marls, with only 6 species in

common. Hinde interpreted these faunas as most likely Late Jurassic, but modern authors

interpret the Danau Formation radiolaria as

mainly Early Cretaceous species within a

younger accretionary complex (e.g. Sanfilippo

and Riedel, 1985, Jasin 1996). Species like Stichocapsa rotunda Hinde (= Syringocapsa or Obesacapsula) range from Berriasian-lower

Hauterivian (Pessagno et al., 1984). Stichocapsa cribata Hinde is limited to the Valanginian in W

Pacific ODP sites (Matsuoka, 1992).

Figure 17. Selection of Early- mid-Cretaceous radiolaria species from Roti island, described by Tan Sin Hok (1927). Cosmopolitan/ Tethyan species: 1. Cyrtocapsa grutterinki, 2. Stylospharea (= Pantanellium)

squinaboli, 3. Eucyrtidium (=Archaeodictyomitra) brouweri, 4. Lithomitra (=Archaeodictyomitra) excellens, 5. Stichomitra (= Archaeodictyomitra or Dictyomitra) pseudoscalaris. High latitude species: 6.Stichocapsa

wichmanni, 7. Theocapsa curata, 8. Eusyringium niobeae, 9. Tricolocapsa spinosa, 10. Tricolocapsa

parvipora.

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2. Tan Sin Hok (1927) described 141 radiolarian

species from Roti island (Figure 17). He

interpreted these as of Late Tertiary age, but

these are now recognized as Early Cretaceous species. Riedel (1953) and Riedel and Sanfilippo

(1974) suggested a likely Aptian-Turonian age,

but on more recent range charts the species

described by Tan Sin Hok are shown as

Hauterivian-Barremian ages (e.g. Sanfilippo and

Riedel, 1985 and others; see also Munasri and Van Gorsel, this volume). Comparable

assemblages with high numbers of 'Tan Sin Hok

Roti species' are from the Valanginian-Barremian

of Sabah ('Chert-Spilite Complex'; Jasin 1991,

1992) and the Barru melange in SE Sulawesi (Munasri 2013).

3. Clowes (1997) and Munasri (1998), both in

unpublished theses, described radiolarians from

the Valanginian-Barremian/Aptian Nakfunu

Formation of the Kolbano foldbelt of SW Timor.

Both noted that the Timor and Roti Early Cretaceous assemblages are dominated by cold-

water species, but mixed with some Tethyan

taxa. Those from the Argo Abyssal Plain off NW

Australia are almost exclusively non-Tethyan,

cold-water species (Baumgartner, 1993). KEY REFERENCES- CRETACEOUS RADIOLARIA Baumgartner, P.O., 1993. Early Cretaceous radiolarians

of the Northern Indian Ocean (Leg 123: sites 765, 766 and DSDP Site 261): the Antarctic Tethys connection. In: Proc. Interrad VI, Marine Micropal. 21, p. 329-352.

Clowes, E., 1997. Micropalaeontological analysis of the

Kolbano sequence (Jurassic to Pliocene), West Timor and its radiolarian fauna. Ph. D. Thesis, University College London, London, p. 1-443.

Hinde, G.J., 1900. Description of fossil radiolaria from the rocks of Central Borneo. In: G.A.F. Molengraaff, Borneo-expedition. Geological explorations in Central Borneo (1893-94), Brill, Leiden, Appendix I, p. 1-57.

Jasin, Basir, 1992. Significance of radiolarian cherts from the Chert-Spilite formation, Telupid, Sabah. Geol. Soc. Malaysia Bull. 31, p. 67-83.

Jasin, Basir, 1996. Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

radiolarian from chert blocks in the Lubok Antu

melange, Sarawak, Malaysia. J. Southeast Asian Earth Sci. 13, 1, p. 1-11.

Jasin, Basir and F. Tongkul, 2013. Cretaceous radiolarians from Baliojong ophiolite sequence, Sabah, Malaysia. J. Asian Earth Sci. 76, p. 258-265.

Munasri,1998. Early Cretaceous radiolarian biostratigraphy of the Nakfunu Formation, the Kolbano area, West Timor, Indonesia. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Tsukuba, Japan, No. 1869.

Munasri, 2013. Early Cretaceous radiolarians in manganese carbonate nodule from the Barru area, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. J. Riset Geologi Pertambangan 23, 2, p. 79-88.

Soeka, S., 1991. Radiolarian faunas from the Tobelo Formation of the Island of Buton, Eastern Indonesia, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wollongong, Australia, p. 1-399.

Tan, D.N.K., 1978. Lower Cretaceous age for the chert in

the Lupar Valley, West Sarawak. Warta Geol. 4, 6, p. 173-176.

Tan Sin Hok, 1927. Over de samenstelling en het ontstaan van krijt- en mergel-gesteenten van de Molukken. Jaarb. Mijnwezen Nederl.-Indie 55 (1926), Verhand. 3, p. 5-165.

Wakita, K., Munasri and B. Widoyoko, 1994. Cretaceous radiolarians from the Luk-Ulo Melange complex in the Karangsambung area, Central Java, Indonesia. J. Southeast Asian Earth Sci. 9, p. 29-43.

Cretaceous Ammonites

Cretaceous ammonite faunas are relatively rare in the Indonesian region, and assemblages appear to

be of much lower diversity than those from

preceding periods. In West Indonesia earliest

Cretaceous ammonites are known from two areas,

with very similar species, and of Tethyan-

Mediterranean affinity: 1. West Sumatra: Ammonites at Dusun Pobungo

W of Sarolangun in Jambi province are in steeply

dipping shales of Tobler's 'Schiefer-Barisan' series and are dominated by Neocomites neocomiensis and Thurmannites (= Kilianella)

(Baumberger, 1922, 1925; Figure 18-1). This ammonite assemblage represents a deep water

facies, which was deformed by intense post-

Valanginian deformation, possibly in an

accretionary wedge setting.

Figure 18. Early Cretaceous ammonites. 1. Neocomites neocomiensis from Valanginian of Pobungo, Jambi, SW Sumatra (Baumberger 1925), 2. Neocomites neocomiensis and 3. Thurmannia (Kilianella) from Sebaraung area, NW Kalimantan (Von Koenigswald 1939).

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2. NW Borneo: 'Neocomian' ammonite assemblages with Neocomites neocomiensis and Thurmannites

in both the Seberuang Formation of NW

Kalimantan (Von Koenigswald 1939; Figure 18-2,

3) and in the Pedawan Formation of SW Sarawak (Ishibashi 1982).

Cretaceous ammonite assemblages are relatively

rare in Eastern Indonesia and New Guinea, where

bivalve and belemnite-dominated assemblages appear to be more common. Some Late Cretaceous

ammonites were described from Papua New

Guinea by Matsumoto and Skwarko (1991, 1993).

KEY REFERENCES- EARLY CRETACEOUS

AMMONITES Baumberger, E., 1922. Uber die Valanginienfauna von

Pobungo auf Sumatra. Eclogae Geol. Helv. 16, 5, p. 581-582

Baumberger, E., 1925. Die Kreidefossilien von Dusun Pobungo, Batu Kapur-Menkadai und Sungi Pobungo (Djambi, Sumatra). Verhand. Geol.-Mijnb. Gen., Geol. Ser. 8, p. 17-47.

Ishibashi, T., 1982. Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous ammonites from Sarawak, Borneo, East Malaysia. In: T. Kobayashi et al. (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of SE Asia, University of Tokyo Press, 23, p. 65-75.

Matsumoto, T. and S.K. Skwarko, 1991. Ammonites of the Cretaceous Ieru Formation, western Papua New Guinea. BMR J. Australian Geol. Geoph. 12, 3, p. 245-262.

Matsumoto, T. and S.K. Skwarko, 1993. Cretaceous ammonites from South Central Papua New Guinea. AGSO J. Austral. Geol. Geoph. 14, 4, p. 411-433.

Cretaceous Marine Mollusks

Cretaceous mollusks are mainly known from Kalimantan, Sumatra and New Guinea. Like the

Late Jurassic bivalves, Cretaceous assemblages

from West Indonesia appear to have low-latitiude

Tethyan affinities, while East Indonesia - New

Guinea faunas reflect higher latitude, Gondwana

margin affinities.

Occurrences of Cretaceous mollusks from Western

Indonesia include: 1. Early Cretaceous gastropods (Nerinea) and

bivalves (Cardita, Amussium) from the

Valanginian of Jambi, Sumatra, described by Baumberger (1925), who noted its Tethyan

affinities.

2. Diverse Upper Cretaceous shallow marine

mollusk assemblages from the Manunggul

Formation of the Meratus Mountains near

Martapura, SE Kalimantan. It contains characteristic Nerinea gastropods, oysters and

Trigonia, an assemblage with affinities to faunas

from the Tethyan region and Japan (Martin,

1889; Figure 19).

In East Indonesia Cretaceous mollusks are mainly represented by open marine, hemipelagic Inoceramus assemblages, including those from

Misool (Boehm 1924, Heinz 1928, Hasibuan 2012),

Sumba (Roggeveen 1929), Sula Islands, South

Sulawesi and West Papua (Skwarko et al. 1983).

Late Cretaceous shallow marine mollusks were

described from Papua New Guinea by Skwarko

(1967, 1983, etc.).

KEY REFERENCES- CRETACEOUS MOLLUSCS Baumberger, E., 1925. Die Kreidefossilien von Dusun

Pobungo, Batu Kapur-Menkadai und Sungi Pobungo

(Djambi, Sumatra). Verhand. Geol.-Mijnb. Gen., Geol. Ser. 8, p. 17-47.

Martin, K., 1889. Die Fauna der Kreideformation von Martapoera. Sammlung. Geol. Reichsmus. Leiden, ser. 1, 4, p. 126-194

Skwarko, S.K., J. Sornay and T. Matsumoto, 1983. Upper Cretaceous molluscs from western Irian Jaya. Publ.Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, Paleont. Ser. 4, p. 61-73.

Cretaceous Fresh-water Mollusks

Fresh-water mollusks of mid and Late Cretaceous age (Trigonioides, Plicatounio, etc.) are relatively

widespread in Cretaceous non-marine basins of

mainland Asia, like in the Khorat Group in

Thailand. Few records of such faunas are known from Indonesia, probably mainly because most

deposits of this age are in marine facies or are

absent. The only Cretaceous fresh-water faunas

are from the Upper Cretaceous of Kalimantan:

1. Brackish and fresh-water mollusks from the

Silat group in the Kapuas region of N Central Kalimantan, with the gastropods Faunus, Paludinopsis and Melania and the bivalve genus

Corbula (Icke and Martin 1906);

2. A Late Cretaceous (post-Turonian?) assemblage of small crustaceans (Conchostraca) and

molluscs (Estheria) from the Meratus Mountain

front near Martapura in SE Kalimantan

(Kobayashi 1973, 1979).

The presence of these non-marine Asian-affinity

faunas is significant, as suggests that this part of

SE Kalimantan was probably attached to mainland

SE Asia in Late Cretaceous time.

KEY REFERENCES- CRETACEOUS NON-MARINE MOLLUSCS Icke, H. & K. Martin, 1906. Die Silatgruppe, Brack- und

Susswasser-Bildungen der Oberen Kreide von Borneo. Samml. Geol. Reichs-Mus. Leiden, Ser. 1, 8, p. 106-144.

Kobayashi, T., 1973. On the history and classification of the fossil Conchostraca and the discovery of Estheriids in the Cretaceous of Borneo. In: T. Kobayashi & R. Toriyama (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia 13, Tokyo Univ. Press, p. 47-72.

Kobayashi, T.,1979. The Trigonioides basins and the

Cretaceous palaeogeography of East and Southeast Asia. Proc. Japan Acad. 55, B 1, p. 1-5.

Latest Jurassic - Cretaceous Rudists

Thick-walled, asymmetrical bivalves known as

rudists are common in Late Jurassic - Cretaceous

platform carbonates of the West Tethyan region

and also in seamount limestones in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean and on some of the Circum-Pacific

terranes (e.g. Winterer, 1991). They are not known

from the Australia/Gondwana region.

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In the Greater Indonesian region rudists of

different ages have been reported from three

areas:

1. Bau Limestone of SW Sarawak: with latest Jurassic primitive diceratid rudistid Epidiceras speciosum (Lau 1973). This is a Tithonian-

Berriasian tropical Tethyan form, known from

southern Europe and from limestones in

accreted terranes of SW Japan (Sano and

Skelton 2010, Skelton et al. 2013).

2. Meratus Mountains front near Martapura, SE

Kalimantan: Mid-Cretaceous rudists Sphaerulites and Radiolites in carbonates with

Orbitolina larger foraminifera Figure 20-1). Ages

assigned to the rudists vary from Senonian

(Martin 1888), Cenomanian (Umbgrove, 1938) to

Early Turonian (Hashimoto and Koike, 1973,

1974). They are in the Manunggul Formation, a

'post-collision' overlap assemblage, and are associated with the gastropod Nerinea (Figure

20-2) and bivalves Ostrea spp, Trigonia, etc. All

these are mid-Cretaceous low-latitude 'Tethyan'

taxa, reminiscent of the Gosau facies of the

Austrian Alps (Martin 1889, Wanner 1925).

3. Islands SE of Misool: Several species of Late Cretaceous Durania, incl. D. wanneri and D. deningeri (Boehm 1924). These are relatively

rare, and ages and affinities remain somewhat uncertain.

Figure 19. Tethys-affinity Upper Cretaceous mollusks from the Martapura area,

SE Kalimantan (Martin 1889). 1-4. Ostrea

(Exogyra) ostracina, 5-7. Ostrea (Exogyra) borneensis, 8. Ostrea

(Alectryonia) martapurensis, 9. Pecten, 12. Modiola hoozei, 13-14. Trigonia limbata.

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In SE Asia outside Indonesia rudists were found

Aptian reefal limestones in a volcanoclastic

succession on Cebu island, Philippines (Wolcke

and Scholtz 1988, Masse et al. 1996).

KEY REFERENCES- CRETACEOUS RUDISTS Boehm, G.,1924. Uber eine senone Fauna von Misol.

Palaeontologie von Timor, Schweizerbart, 14, 26, p. 83-103.

Martin, K., 1888. Ueber das Vorkommen einer Rudisten fuehrenden Kreideformation im suedoestlichen Borneo. Sammlung. Geol. Reichsmus. Leiden, ser. 1, 4, 4, p. 117-125.

Martin, K., 1889. Die Fauna der Kreideformation von Martapoera. Sammlung. Geol. Reichsmus. Leiden, ser. 1, 4, p. 126-194

Masse, J.P., M. Villeneuve, F. Tumanda, C. Quiel and W. Diegor, 1996. Plate-formes carbonatees a Orbitolines et rudistes du Cretace inferieur dans l'ile de Cebu (Philippines). Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci., Ser. IIa, 322, p. 973-980.

Wolcke, F. and J. Scholz, 1988. Uber die

palaeobiogeographische Bedeutung eines Vorkommens caprinider Rudisten aus der Unterkreide von Cebu (Philippinen). Mitteil. Geol. Pal. Inst. Universitat Hamburg 67, p. 121-133.

Mid-Cretaceous Larger Foram Orbitolina

Early-Middle Cretaceous larger foraminifera of the Orbitolina group (Figure 21) are common in mid-

Cretaceous shallow marine limestones all across

the Tethys, where they are often associated with rudist bivalves. In SE Asia they are relatively

frequent around the Early Cretaceous margin of

Sundaland of West Indonesia and also from

multiple locations in The Philippines (Cebu) and

Japan.

Orbitolinids are most common and most

widespread across Borneo, and their occurrences

are described in some detail by Hashimoto et al.

(1975):

1. West Sarawak and NW Kalimantan Aptian Orbitolina-rich horizons in the Pedawan and

Seberoeang Formations (Hofker 1963, Hashimoto

and Matsumaru 1977);

2. North-Central Kalimantan: five or more limestone horizons in the Selangkai Fm of the

Upper Kapuas river region with Upper Aptian- Lower Albian Orbitolina lenticularis (Von Fritsch

1878, Martin 1889, Yabe and Hanzawa 1931,

Hofker 1963, Hashimoto et al 1975).

3. Poorly documented occurrences in Boyan Melange, Upper Mahakam District, NE

Mangkalihat Peninsula (Djamal et al. 1995);

4. Segama Highlands of Sabah Probable seamount

limestones in accretionary complex (Leong 1972,

Hutchison 2005); 5. SE Kalimantan: Occurrences of Orbitolina

Limestones along the Meratus Mountains front

East of Martapura. Hashimoto and Koike (1973) identified these as Orbitolina aff scutum, with

Late Aptian ammonites. Schroeder (in Sikumbang, 1986) identified Palorbitolina lenticularis and Orbitolina (Mesorbitolina) parva,

indicating an early Late Aptian age.

Other areas in Indonesia with Orbitolina include:

1. South Sumatra: two areas, (a) Ratai Bay,

Lampung (Zwierzyki 1932; Menanga Fm) and (b)

Lingsing Fm in the Gumai Mountains (Musper 1934, 1937). In both areas the limestones are

associated with arc volcanics and are probably

part of the accretionary 'Woyla Terranes'.

2. Central Java Lok Ulo accretionary 'basement'

complex (Verbeek 1891, Niethammer 1909,

Harloff 1933) 3. West Sulawesi: Orbitolina and coral reported

(but not described or figured) by Brouwer (1934)

from the west side of the Latimojong Mountains,

East of Pasui. This is probably shallow marine

fauna displaced into Balangbaru/Latimojong Fm

turbidites, probably at the mid-Cretaceous margin of Sundaland.

Orbitolina limestones appear to be restricted to a

belt near the Early Cretaceous margin of

Sundaland and continue north along the Eurasian

continental margin to The Philippines and Japan. Many are associated with Cretaceous arc volcanics or accretionary melange complexes. Orbitolina is

not known from the East Indonesia and Australia-

New Guinea regions.

KEY REFERENCES- CRETACEOUS FORAM

ORBITOLINA Brouwer, H.A., 1934. Geologisch onderzoekingen op het

eiland Celebes. Verhand. Koninkl. Nederl. Geol. Mijnbouwk. Gen., Geol. Ser. 10, p. 39-218.

Hofker, J., Jr., 1963. Studies on the genus Orbitolina (Foraminiferida). Leidse Geol. Meded. 29, p. 181-253.

Hashimoto, W., E. Aliate, N. Aoki, G. Balce et al., 1975. Cretaceous system of Southeast Asia. In: T. Kobayashi and R. Toriyama (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia, University of Tokyo Press, 145, p. 219-287.

Figure 20. Typical Upper Cretaceous mollusks from Martapura area, SE Kalimantan. 1. Mold of rudist Radiolites from Pangaringan River (Martin, 1888). 2. Section through internally complex gastropod Nerinea

schwaneri (Martin, 1889).

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Hashimoto, W. and K. Matsumaru, 1974. Orbitolina from

the Seberuang Cretaceous, Kalimantan Barat (West Borneo), Indonesia. In: T. Kobayashi and R.

Toriyama (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia, Tokyo University Press, 14, p. 89-99.

Hashimoto, W. and K. Matsumaru, 1977. Orbitolina from West Sarawak, East Malaysia. In: T. Kobayashi et al. (eds.) Geology and Palaeontology of Southeast Asia, University of Tokyo Press, 18, p. 49-57.

Leong, K.M., 1972. The occurrences of Orbitolina-bearing limestone in Sabah, Malaysia. Geol. Soc. Malaysia, Newsletter 34, p. 38.

Martin, K., 1889. Untersuchungen uber den Bau von

Orbitolina (Patellina auct.) von Borneo. Sammlungen Geol. Reichsmus. Leiden, Ser. 1, 4, p. 209-231.

Verbeek, R.D.M., 1891. Voorloopig bericht over nummulieten, orbitoiden en alveolinen in Java en over den ouderdom der gesteenten waarin zij optreden. Natuurkundig Tijdschrift Nederl. Indie 51, p. 101-138.

Von Fritsch, K., 1878. Patellinen von der Westseite von Borneo. Palaeontographica, Suppl. 3, 1, p. 144-

146.

Late Cretaceous Orbitoidal Larger

Foraminifera

Rare occurrences of Campanian-Maastrichtian orbitoidal larger foraminifera (Pseudorbitoides, Lepidorbitoides) have been reported from New

Guinea and from Borneo. Reports from New

Guinea include: - Lepidorbitoides from the Birds Head (Visser and

Hermes, 1962) and the Idenburg terrane at both

sides of the West Papua- Papua New Guinea

border area (Wilson et al. 1993, Hutchison

1975); - Pseudorbitoides and Orbitoides from the Port

Moresby area, PNG (Glaessner, 1960).

Rare occurrences on Borneo include poorly-documented occurrences of Lepidorbitoides in

Sarawak (Milroy, 1953) and Omphalocyclus from

Kalimantan (Van Gorsel, 1978).

Late Cretaceous orbitoids are also known from

various localities in the eastern Philippines (Fernandez et al. 1994, Hashimoto et al. 1978).

These foraminifera signify tropical shallow marine

settings and are not known from the NW

Australian margin. The New Guinea occurrences

are only North of the Central Ranges, and

paleobiogeographically they should be linked to assemblages known from Central Pacific

seamounts (Van Gorsel 1978).

KEY REFERENCES- LATE CRETACEOUS LARGER FORAMINIFERA Glaessner, M.F., 1960. Upper Cretaceous larger

foraminifera from New Guinea. Science Repts. Tohoku Univ., 2nd. Ser. (Geol.), Spec. Vol. 4 (Hanzawa Memorial Vol.), p. 37-44.

Van Gorsel, J.T., 1981. Late Cretaceous orbitoidal foraminifera. In: R.H. Hedley and C.G. Adams (eds.) Foraminifera 3, Academic Press, London, p. 1-120.

Wilson, C., R. Barrett, R. Howe and L.K. Leu, 1993. Occurrences and character of outcropping limestones in the Sepik Basin: implications for hydrocarbon exploration. In: G.J. and Z. Carman (eds.) Petroleum exploration and development in

Figure 21. Vertical sections and external views of Mid-

Cretaceous larger foram Orbitolina (actual size ~5 mm). 1,2: from SE Kalimantan (originally named Patellina scutum and P. trochus and assumed to be of Eocene age by Von Fritsch 1879, but renamed Orbitolina lenticularis by Hashimota and Matsumaru 1974); 3. Orbitolina lenticularis from Central Java (Verbeek and Fennema 1898).

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Papua New Guinea, Proc. Second PNG Petrol. Conv., Port Moresby, p. 111-124.

Cretaceous Palynology

Cretaceous palynology is relatively well documented from the Cretaceous of the Khorat Basin in Thailand (Corallina-dominated; Racey and

Goodall 2009) and from the Australia NW Shelf. In

Indonesia relatively little palynology work was done

or remains unpublished. One exception is work on

the Plateau Sandstone of the NW Kalimantan/West Sarawak border region by Muller (1968), although

much of what was called Cretaceous by this

author may actually be of Paleogene age (Tate

1991).

KEY REFERENCES- CRETACEOUS PALYNOLOGY Muller, J., 1968. Palynology of the Pedawan and Plateau

sandstone formation (Cretaceous-Eocene) in Sarawak, Malaysia. Micropaleontology 14, 1, p. 1-

37. Racey, A. and J.G.S. Goodall, 2009. Palynology and

stratigraphy of the Mesozoic Khorat Group of NE Thailand. In: E. Buffetaut et al. (eds.) Late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic ecosystems in SE Asia, Geol. Soc., London, Spec. Publ. 315, p. 67-81.

TABLE 3 CRETACEOUS


Faunas- General SE Asia Hashimoto et al. 1975

Sumatra Beauvais et al. 1989

Upper Cretaceous Pseudorbitoides,

Omphalocyclus

Birds Head Visser and Hermes 1962

Papua New Guinea Crespin and Belford 1957, Glaessner 1962

Borneo Van Gorsel 1978

Upper Cretaceous

planktonic

foraminifera (Globotruncana)

Timor, Leti Schubert 1915, De Roever 1940, Sartono 1975

Sula islands Kholiq et al. 2011

Misool Vogler 1941

Sabah Adams and Kirk 1962

Central Java Asikin et al. 1992

W Kalimantan Tan Sin Hok 1936

SE Sulawesi, Buton Van der Vlerk 1925, Koolhoven 1932, Keijzer 1945

PNG Owen 1973, Haig 1981

Halmahera Brouwer 1923

Calcareous

Nannoplankton West Papua Panuju et al. 2010

Molluscs

Sumatra Baumberger 1923, 1925, Musper 1934

Kalimantan Martin 1889, Vogel 1904

South Sulawesi Hasibuan and Limbong 2009

West Papua , PNG Heinz 1928, Skwarko 1967, Skwarko et al. 1983

Early Cretaceous

Orbitolina

Kalimantan

Von Fritsch 1879, Geinitz 1883, Martin 1888,

1889, Hofker 1966, Hashimoto and Matsumaru

1974, Djamal et al. 1995, Bassi et al. 2009

West Sulawesi Brouwer 1934

W Sarawak Hashimoto and Matsumaru 1977

Sabah Leong 1972

Central Java Verbeek 1891, Verbeek and Fennema 1896, Harloff

1929

S Sumatra Zwierzycki 1931, Musper 1934, Yabe 1946,

Beauvais et al. 1989

Radiolaria

Sarawak, Sabah Tan 1978, Jasin 1985-2000, Aitchison 1994, Asis

and Jasin 2012, 2013, Jasin and Tongkul 2013

C Kalimantan Hinde 1900, Grunau 1965

SE Kalimantan Wakita et al. 1998

SW Sulawesi Wakita et al 1994, 2000, Munasri 1995, 2013

South Central Java Okamoto et al. 1994, Wakita et al. 1994

Buton Soeka 1991, Ling and Smith 1995

Roti Tan Sin Hok 1927, Riedel 1953

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Timor Tan Sin Hok 1927, Clowes 1997, Munasri 1998

Ungar (Tanimbar) Jasin and Haile 1996

N Indian Ocean Renz 1974, Riedel and Sanfilippo 1974,

Baumgartner 1993

Lower Cretaceous

calpionellids

Buton, Timor Wanner 1940

NW Australia Brunnschweiler 1960

Ammonites

Sumatra Baumberger 1925

SW Sarawak Ishibasi 1982

W Kalimantan Krause 1904, Von Koenigswald 1939

PNG Matsumoto and Skwarko 1991, 1993

Lower Cretaceous

belemnites

West Papua Challinor 1989

NW Australia-SE

Asia

Mutterlose 1992

Fish (shark teeth) Timor Weiler 1932, De Beaufort 1932

Rudists NW Borneo Lau 1973, Fontaine and Ho 1989, Skelton et al.

2011

SE Kalimantan Martin 1888

Misool Boehm 1924

Mesozoic Vertebrate Fossils

Mesozoic vertebrate faunas are very rare in

Indonesia, and mainly limited to marine fish and reptile fossils. No dinosaurs are known from

Indonesia, although a dinosaur egg fossil was

recently obtained from an undisclosed locality on

Timor and donated to the Geological Museum in

Bandung by Mr. Tom Kapitany from Melbourne,

Australia.

Fish fossils include Jurassic fish scales from

Misool (Hasibuan and Janvier, 1985) and as yet

undescribed recent discoveries of well-preserved

Triassic or Jurassic fish (including primitive coelacanths) from both West Timor and Timor

Leste.

Mesozoic marine reptiles include Jurassic-age(?)

ichthyosaurs from Seram and Upper Cretaceous

mosasaurids from Timor (Von Huene 1931, Koevoet et al. 2014). The dolphin-like Ichthyosaurus may be found from Early Triassic

through the Early Cretaceous, and they have a

global geographic distribution. In Indonesia rare

remnants of ichthyosaurids have been described

from the Seram (Martin 1888; Figure 22, Von Huene 1931) and Timor (Mixosaurus; Von Huene

1931, Zammit 2010), with some of these reportedly

showing affinities to Early Jurassic ichthyosaurids. A fragment of an Ichthyosaurus jawbone fragment

was also reported, but not illustrated, from the

mud volcano deposits of Tanimbar, where it is

associated with Early Jurassic ammonites

(Charlton 1991).

Mesozoic non-marine vertebrate fossils are

relatively common only in mainland SE Asia,

mainly in the Khorat Group of Thailand, from

where Late Triassic, Late Jurassic and Early

Cretaceous (mainly latest Jurassic- Early Cretaceous) amphibians, turtles, crocodiles, fish,

dinosaurs and birds have been described. These

are in the latest Triassic-Cretaceous terrestrial

overlap deposits formed on the Indochina and

Sibumasu terranes after their Late Triassic

'Indosinian' suturing. The vertebrate species suggest Laurasian faunal affinities, particularly

with China (e.g. Buffetaut and Suteethorn 1993,

1998).

Figure 22. Jaw of Ichthyosauras ceramensis from Seram (Jurassic?; Martin 1888).

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Mesozoic non-marine vertebrate fossils are not

known from Indonesia, but they may one day be

found in areas where Mesozoic coniferous wood

has been found, like the Tin Islands and West Kalimantan (see below). The areal distribution of

non-marine deposits with their Eurasian fossil

faunas and floras, generally reflect areas that had

become parts of the Eurasian continent

(Sundaland), and thus provide constraints on plate

tectonic reconstruction scenarios.

KEY REFERENCES- MESOZOIC VERTEBRATES Buffetaut, E. and V. Suteethorn, 1993. The dinosaurs of

Thailand. J. Southeast Asian Earth Sci. 8, p.77-82. Buffetaut, E.H. and V. Suteethorn, 1998. The

biogeographical significance of the Mesozoic vertebrates from Thailand. In: R. Hall and J.D.

Holloway (eds.) Biogeography and geological evolution of SE Asia, Backhuys Publ., Leiden, p. 83-90.

Martin, K., 1888. Ein Ichthyosaurus von Ceram. Sammlungen Geol. Reichsmus. Leiden, Ser. 1, 2, p. 70-86.

Von Huene, F., 1931. Ichthyosaurier von Seran und Timor. Neues Jahrbuch Min. Geol., Palaont.,

Beilage Band 66, B, p. 211-214.

CONCLUSIONS

This compilation of data on pre-Cenozoic faunas and floras is a reminder of the rich heritage of

paleontological studies carried out over the last

150 years in Indonesia and a review of their

significance for age dating and paleogeography and

plate tectonic reconstructions.

REFERENCES Key references are given at the end of each

chapter. For additional titles not quoted in this

paper see one of the Bibliography listings below: Van Gorsel, J.T., 2013. Bibliography of the geology of

Indonesia and surrounding areas, 5th Edition, 1655p. (online at: www.vangorselslist.com)

Van Gorsel, J.T., 2014. Annotated bibliography of biostratigraphy and paleontology of Indonesia- SE Asia. Berita Sedimentologi 29, Supplement (29A), p. 3-337. (online at :www.iagi.or.id/fosi)

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The Manusela Limestone in Seram: Late Triassic age for a

‘Jurassic’ petroleum play Tim R. Charlton1 and J.T. (Han) van Gorsel2 11 Saint Omer Ridge, Guildford, Surrey GU1 2DD, U.K. 2Houston, Texas, USA.

Corresponding author: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

A well-known Mesozoic hydrocarbon exploration target in eastern Indonesia is the ‘Jurassic

Limestone Play’, validated by the Oseil oilfield in NE Seram. However, there is no biostratigraphic evidence to support a Jurassic age for the Manusela Limestone that forms the reservoir in this play, while numerous paleontological studies on outcrops and wells instead document only Late Triassic faunas and microfloras. We here review the paleontological literature on Seram and suggest that the Manusela Limestone is of latest Triassic (Late Norian-Rhaetian) age, while the Early-Middle Jurassic interval is condensed or absent over the structural highs established as a result of the Manusela Limestone accumulation. This revised (but in reality >100 years old) age model fits well in Tethys-wide trends where sponge- and algae-dominated reefs blossomed during the Norian-Rhaetian from the Alps to NW Australia-Papua New Guinea, while a major extinction event at the end of the Triassic caused a collapse of carbonate reef systems globally, leading to a virtual absence of reefal limestones during the Early-Middle Jurassic.

Outcrop of massive Upper Triassic Manusela Limestone along the north coast of Central Seram between Sawai and Saleman (photo courtesy of Guido Baroncini)

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INTRODUCTION

The Mesozoic Manusela (or Asinepe) Limestone is a striking geological element of Seram island,

forming prominent morphological features such as

the Nief Gorge in NE Seram, and the summit of

Gunung Binaia, at 3019m the highest point in the

Banda Arc (Figure 1). These massive shallow marine limestones also form a proven hydrocarbon

reservoir in NE Seram, with minor oil production

from the 1913 BPM wells at Nief (Zillman and

Paten 1975), the 1988 East Nief 1 well with

significant oil shows, the 1993 Oseil oil discovery

(now in production) and the recent (2012) Lofin discovery. The Manusela Limestone is the primary

reservoir target for wider petroleum exploration in

Seram, and this is commonly, but we suggest

incorrectly, referred to as the ‘Jurassic carbonate

play’.

The view that the Manusela Limestone is of Late

Triassic to Middle Jurassic age is common not only

in oil industry literature (e.g. O’Sullivan et al.

1985, Price et al. 1987, Kemp 1992, Kemp and

Mogg 1992, Pertamina/BPPKA 1996, PND 2006, Dradjat and Patandung 2012, Lopulisa et al. 2012,

etc.), but is also shared by the Geological Survey

(Harahap et al. 2003) and academic groups

working on the regional geology of the area (e.g.

Sukamto and Westermann 1992, Milsom 2000,

Carnell and Wilson 2004, Hill 2005, Pownall et al. 2013). However, a (partial) Jurassic age for the

Mesozoic limestones on Seram is not supported by

any paleontological evidence, whereas numerous

historic and modern studies have identified only

Late Triassic-age fossils.

The present article re-iterates the evidence in favour of a Late Triassic age for the Manusela

Limestone, as most convincingly argued by

Wanner (1907), Wanner, Knipscheer and Schenk

(1952) and Martini et al. (2004).

TRIASSIC-JURASSIC STRATIGRAPHY OF SERAM

Observations on the Mesozoic stratigraphy and paleontology of outcrops on Seram and nearby

Buru island date back to the early twentieth

century, with significant contributions by

geologists including Martin (1901-1903), Wanner

(1907, 1923), Verbeek (1908), Deninger (1918), Brouwer (1919) and Rutten (1919-1920, 1927).

Subsequent important contributions to the

Mesozoic stratigraphy and paleontology of Seram

include studies by Valk (1945), Germeraad (1946),

Van der Sluis (1950), Van Bemmelen (1949),

Audley-Charles et al. (1979) and Tjokrosapoetro and Budhitrisna (1982). Modern contributions

with microfaunal/microfloral information include

Al-Shaibani et al. (1983, 1984) and Martini et al.

(2004), as well as papers from oil company staff

operating on Seram (O’Sullivan et al. 1985, Price et al. 1987, Kemp and Mogg 1992, Nilandaroe et al.

2002). Unfortunately, due to the complex fold and

thrust belt structure and poor outcrop on the

island, the vast majority of faunal/floral data are

from isolated samples rather than from continuous

stratigraphic successions.

Figure 1. Geology and location map of Seram, showing outcrop distribution of the Late Triassic

Manusela Limestone from the NW coast to central and eastern Seram, and the principal oil

discoveries in NE Seram.

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The main stratigraphic elements recognised in the

Triassic- Jurassic of Seram are, from old to young

(Figure 2): (1) a Late Triassic marine clastic unit

(Kanikeh Formation); (2) a Late Triassic limestone-dominated package (Manusela and Saman Saman

Formations); (3) a very thin Early Jurassic marine

transgressive interval and hiatus; (4) a more

widespread Late Jurassic marine shale (Kola

Shale). The paleontological content of these units

is summarized below and in Table 1.

Audley-Charles et al. (1979), recognizing close

geological similarities between Seram and Timor,

proposed a model of ‘para-autochthonous’ and

‘allochthonous’ nappes for Seram, as then also interpreted for Timor (Carter et al., 1976; Barber et

al., 1977). They placed the Triassic deeper marine,

thin-bedded Saman-Saman facies in a para-

autochthonous/‘Australian’ tectonic unit, while

the more massive, oolitic Asinepe (=Manusela)

facies was placed in an allochthonous/‘Asian’ terrane, thrusted over the para-autochthon from

the S/SW. In Timor there is now overwhelming

evidence for the Triassic shallow to deep marine

clastic and carbonate successions having

accumulated in a single connected sedimentary system, and given the very strong similarity of

Triassic successions in the two islands, this single-

terrane interpretation must also apply to Seram.

This is the structural/stratigraphic framework that

we adopt in the present study.

1. Triassic clastics: Kanikeh Formation

This is a predominantly or perhaps entirely marine

clastic succession, often described as greywacke,

mainly in ‘flysch-type’ facies, micaceous, with

locally common plant remains and rich in

metamorphic rock detritus. Following Deninger (1918) it is now generally known as the Kanikeh

Formation. Thickness estimates range from ~400m

(Wanner 1907) to ~1000m or more (Audley Charles

et al. 1979; Tjokrosapoetro et al. 1993). It contains undisputed Late Triassic bivalves such as Monotis salinaria and Halobia and the brachiopod Halorella. Halorella amphitoma (Plate 1, Fig. 3) is a

well-known marker species for the Norian in the

European Alps.

The vast majority of fossils reported from the

Kanikeh Formation are of Late Triassic age, mainly

Norian. Krumbeck (1923) distinguished three

zones in the Kanikeh Formation: (1) Carnian

Halobia shale; (2) Lower Norian Myophoria-

Trigonia-Protocardia shale; and (3) probably Middle

Norian Monotis salinaria beds.

Figure 2. Mesozoic stratigraphy of Seram. Dark Blue= deeper marine limestone, Light Blue=

shallow marine, reefal or platform limestone

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The Carnian-Norian age range established by these

early studies agrees well with more recent

palynological analyses as reported by P.T.

Geoservices (1991; in Kemp and Mogg, 1992), who placed the Kanikeh Formation samples in the Samaropollenites speciosus to P. crenulatus

palynozones. These zones were believed to

represent Ladinian to Norian age range, but more recent calibrations place the S. speciosus zone in

the (Late) Carnian-earliest Norian and the Minutosaccus crenulatus zone in Middle-Late

Norian (Brenner et al. 1992, Nicoll and Foster

1998, Cirilli 2010, Riding et al. 2010). Dinoflagellate genera Sverdrupiella, Heibergella

and Suessia were reported from the Kanikeh

Formation of Seram by Helby et al. (1987) and

interpreted as most likely Middle-Late Norian in age.

No Middle Triassic macrofossils were found by the

early explorers (Wanner et al. 1952). One study on

outcrop samples of the Kanikeh Formation

suggested the presence of Middle Triassic-age palynoflora (Price 1976, unpublished report;

quoted in Kemp and Mogg 1992). Anisian age was

believed to be indicated by the occurrence of Falcisporites and Lunatisporites noviaulensis in one

sample and a Ladinian-Carnian age by gymnosperm taxa such as Ovalispollis sp., Ellipsovelatisporites sp., Rimaeosporites sp. and

Patinasporites sp. in another sample. However, in

our opinion this evidence for Middle Triassic

section in Seram remains inconclusive, as these

taxa are long-ranging and most of them actually

also occur in assemblages of Carnian-Norian

'Onslow-type' warm-temperate palynological assemblages of the region.

2. Manusela - Saman Saman Limestone

The Mesozoic carbonate-dominated succession of

Seram can be subdivided into different facies: 1. Shallow marine, massive, locally oolitic

reefal/carbonate platform facies (Manusela or

Asinepe Formation; older names include Bula

Limestone, Pharetrone Limestone). Fossils in the

reefal facies are often rare or difficult to recognize

due to dolomitization and karstic diagenesis, but wherever present they are dominated by

calcareous sponges with subordinate calcareous

algae, hydrozoans and corals.

2. Deeper marine, cherty limestone facies (Saman-Saman Limestone; older names include Misolia

Limestone, etc. 3. Thin-bedded bituminous limestones. These do

not outcrop extensively on Seram, but bitumen-

impregnated limestone was observed at the base of

a Late Norian limestone on the south coast of

Seram (Weber, unpublished report 1926, quoted in Price et al. 1987). These are probably moderately

deep marine deposits, and are presumed to be the

principal hydrocarbon source rock in Seram (cf.

Livsey et al. 1992, Peters et al. 1999).

In its type area in the Manusela mountains of central Seram (Figure 1) it appears that the

Manusela Formation is many hundreds of metres

stratigraphic thickness (Rutten 1927), with

Audley-Charles et al. (1979) estimating 1000-

1500m thickness and Tjokrosapoetro et al. (1993) up to 1000m. With a structurally massive

limestone such as this, and considering the

enormous mass of virtually uninterrupted

limestones exposed in the Manusela Mountains,

these are probably genuine stratigraphic

thicknesses rather than structural repetitions of thinner stratigraphic sections duplicated by cryptic

thrusts. The Manusela Mountains probably

comprise massive accumulations of Late Triassic

shallow marine limestones, presumably

accumulating in rapidly subsiding rift sedimentary basins (cf. Price et al. 1987; Kemp and Mogg

1992). In northern Seram, in contrast, Wanner

(1907) and Rutten (1919) found that lithologically

similar limestones occur as lenses within the

Upper Triassic ‘flysch’ succession. In these areas

stratigraphic thicknesses are substantially reduced: Wanner (1907) estimated 80-100m, and

Deninger (1918) and Martini et al. (2004) about

150m.

Kemp and Mogg (1992) interpreted the deeper water Saman Saman Limestone as underlying, and

partly interdigitating with, the shallow marine,

reefal Manusela Formation, an interpretation

followed here (Figure 2).

The most likely interpretation for the age of faunas in the carbonate interval of Seram is Late Triassic,

and more precisely Late Norian-Rhaetian (e.g.

Wanner 1907, Wanner et al. 1952, Flugel 1981,

2002, Martini et al. 2004). Fossil evidence for this

is compiled in Table 1 and discussed further below. However, as already mentioned, most oil-

industry and academic studies routinely extend

the top of the Manusela Limestone into the Early-

Middle Jurassic (Pliensbachian-Callovian; e.g.

Kemp 1992). This results from an erroneous

interpretation of a Jurassic age for the sponge-like fossil Lovcenipora (Van Bemmelen 1949, Van der

Sluis 1950; see further discussion below),

combined with a near-absence of Early-Middle

Jurassic sediments in the area.

3. Early- Middle Jurassic condensed succession and/or hiatus

Early and Middle Jurassic faunas are poorly

represented in Seram. The only well documented

fauna of this age is from a ~60 cm thick

glauconitic-sandy limestone from the Nief Gorge area of East Seram, where it overlies (weathered?)

massive oolitic limestones (Wanner and

Knipscheer, 1951). The fauna is composed of a

relatively rich diverse assemblage of Early Jurassic ammonites, brachiopods (Spiriferina spp.,

Rhynchonella spp.) and gastropods (Table 1).

Faunas and lithology suggest an open marine shelf environment with a very low sedimentation rate.

This fauna is closely related to middle Liassic

European Tethys faunas, but is not known from

anywhere else in Indonesia.

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While there is no additional evidence on Seram for

Jurassic fossils in limestones, there are some

indications for the possible presence of Early

Jurassic-age shales in the Bula area of NE Seram. These shales may form part of the matrix of what

Rutten (in Van der Sluis 1950) described as a

‘soup of shales with (Triassic) limestone blocks’,

and is now known as a Neogene melange described

as the Salas Block Clay. Jurassic fossils from this

unit include: 1. An Ichthyosaurus vertebra, possibly of the

Liassic genus Eurypterygius (Von Huene 1931).

Comparable ichthyosaur fossils have been found in

Timor and Tanimbar, with the Tanimbar example

from a basinal grey shale facies equivalent to the

Lower-Middle Jurassic Wai Luli Formation of Timor (Charlton et al. 1991);

2. An ammonite of the Hettangian-Sinemurian genus Ectocentrites (Wanner et al. 1952).

3. Unspecified Early Jurassic palynological age

determinations from blocks of ‘Kanikeh Formation’

(i.e. flysch) within the Salas Block Clay (Price,

unpublished report 1976, quoted in Kemp and

Mogg 1992).

4. Late Jurassic Kola Shale

The Kola Shale is found immediately above the

Triassic limestones in exploration wells in NE

Seram, but has only rarely been found at outcrop.

The Kola Shale contains a characteristic Late

Jurassic assemblage of brachiopods (Malayomaorica malayomaorica), pelagic bivalves

(Inoceramus haastii group) and belemnites

(Belemnopsis gerardi group) (Wanner et al. 1952).

This open marine faunal assemblage is typical of

the Oxfordian-Kimmeridgean of the Gondwanan

Tethys margin ('Maorian Province'). In the Oseil 1 well this shale interval was characterised by the dinoflagellate species Omatia montgomeryi, which

in recent calibrations is usually placed in

Kimmeridgean- Early Tithonian time.

.TABLE 1 TRIASSIC- JURASSIC FAUNA OF SERAM

FOSSIL GROUP KEY SPECIES AGE REFERENCES

KOLA SHALE ('FATJEH SHALES'; Late Jurassic)

Brachiopods Malayomaorica malayomaorica, Oxfordian-

Kimmeridgean

Krumbeck 1923,

Wandel 1936

Belemnites Belemnopsis gerardi group Oxford-Kimm. Wanner et al.

1952

Bivalves Inoceramus haasti group U? Oxfordian Wandel 1936

Dinoflagellates Omatia montgomeryi Kimm- E

Tith.? Oseil 1 well

Calcispheres Stomiosphaera moluccana,

Cadosina fusca Malm Wanner 1940

E-M JURASSIC CONDENSED SECTION

Brachiopods

Rhynchonella spp., Spiriferina

rostrata, S. alpina, S. spp.,

Terebratula

Liassic Wanner and

Knipscheer 1951

Ammonoids Oxynoticeras, Phylloceras,

Echioceras, Lytoceras,

Dactylioceras, Coeloceras,

Liassic Wanner and

Knipscheer 1951

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Brodiceras

MANUSELA/ SAMAN SAMAN LIMESTONE

Corals

Montlivaltia molukkana,

Thecosmilia aff. clathrata,

Retiophyllia cf. wanneri, Oedalmia

norica, Isastrea seranica

Late Norian-

Rhaetian

Wanner 1907,

Wilckens 1937,

Wanner et al.

1952, Martini et

al. 2004

Hydrozoa/

Demosponge Lovcenipora vinassai Norian

Wanner 1907,

Gerth 1910

Calcisponges

('Pharetronen')

Molengraaffia regularis,

Blastochaeta intabulata,

Peronidella moluccana, Deningeria

camerata, D. miriabilis, Seranella,

Cryptocoeliopsis gracilis

Late Norian-

Rhaetian

Wilckens 1937,

Germeraad 1946

Brachiopods

Misolia pinajae, M.aspera, M.

misolica, Halorella rectifrons, H.

amphitoma

Late Norian-

Rhaetian

Wanner 1907,

Krumbeck 1923

Bivalves

Oxytoma inaequivalve intermedia,

Pecten cf. acutauritus, Monotis

salinaria?

Late Norian Krumbeck 1923

Calcareous Algae Solenopora triasina, Cayeuxia,

Bacinella

Pia 1924,

Germeraad 1946,

Martini et al. 2004

Foraminifera

Triasina hantkeni, Aulatortus

sinuosus, A. spp., Agathammina

austroalpina, Galeanella,

Tetrataxis inflata,

AIpinophragmium perforatum,

Piliammina sulawesiana, Duotaxis

birmanica, Gandinella falsofriedli

(Late Norian?-

) Rhaetian

Al-Shaibani et al.

1983, 1984;

Martini et al. 2004

Calcareous

Nannofossils

Prinsiosphaera triassica,

Archaeopontosphaera primitiva

(Late Norian?-

) Rhaetian Oseil 1 well

Dinoflagellates Rhaetigonyaulax rhaetica,

Beaumontella spp., Rhaetian Martini et al. 2004

Palynomorphs

Corallina spp., Falcisporites

australis, Minutosaccus crenulatus,

Taenisporites rhaeticus,

Semiretisporites gothae

Late Norian-

Rhaetian

Oseil 1 report,

Martini et al. 2004

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PALEONTOLOGY AND AGE CONTROL OF THE MANUSELA LIMESTONE A significant number of paleontological

publications exist on Triassic fossils from Seram,

starting with Wanner (1907) on material from the

Bula area of NE Seram. Key subsequent studies on Seram Triassic faunas include Krumbeck (1923;

molluscs), Pia (1924; algae), Wilckens (1937;

corals, sponges), Wanner et al. (1952; general), Al-

Shaibani et al. (1983, 1984; foraminifera) and

Martini et al. (2004; foraminifera, corals, palynology). Most of these authors recognised the

‘Tethyan’ character to the Late Triassic faunas of

Seram, and many of the species identified are the

same as those from the Northern Calcareous Alps,

Oman, Iran, etc. and also from Timor.

From Table 1 it is apparent that most of the fossils

described have been assigned Late Norian ages, but Rhaetian marker fossils are also present: 1. Corals: Retiophyllia is the dominant coral in

Rhaetian reefs in the Alps and other areas; 2. Bivalve mollusks: Oxytoma inaequivalve

intermedia, reported from massive Misolia

limestones of Seram by Krumbeck (1923), is also

present in beds assigned to the Rhaetian of Timor and in the Rhaetian Kossen Beds of the Alps

(Gazdzicki et al. 1979); 3. Foraminifera: Triasina hantkeni, Tetrataxis inflata, Gandinella falsofriedli and

KANIKEH FM ('Triassic Graywacke-Flysch')

Ammonoids Juvavites ceramensis, Cycloceltites

appiani, Sirenites, Halorites macer

(Early?)

Norian

Wanner 1928,

Wanner et al.

1952

Pelagic hydrozoa Heterastridium conglobatum Norian Gerth 1909, 1942

Brachiopods

Halorella amphitoma, H.

plicatifrons,

H. rectifrons, Misolia asymmetrica

Norian Wanner 1907

Koninckina alfurica, Spirigera

moluccana, Retzia bulaensis Carnian?

Wanner 1907,

1952, Hasibuan

2010

Bivalves

Monotis salinaria, Amonotis

rothpletzi Late Norian

Wanner 1907,

Krumbeck 1923 ,

Wanner et al.

1952, Hasibuan

2010

Myophoria seranensis, Cardita,

Palaeocardita buruca, Trigonia

seranensis, Serania seranensis,

Krumbeckiella, Aequipecten,

Hologyra timorensis

Early Norian

Halobia deningeri, H. comata,

Posidonomya gibbosa Carnian

Calcareous Algae Macroporella sondaica,

Sestrosphaera Norian Pia 1924

Dinoflagellates Sverdrupiella, Heibergella Norian Helby et al. 1987

Palynomorphs Samaropollenites speciosus-

Minutosaccus crenulatus. zones

Carnian-

Norian

Geoservices 1991

in Kemp 1992

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AIpinophragmium perforatum reported by Martini et

al. (2004) are generally placed in the Rhaetian (e.g.

Gazdzicki et al. 1979, Zaninetti et al. 1992); 5. Dinoflagellates: Rhaetigonyaulax rhaetica, is a

generally recognized marker for Rhaetian age (Riding et al. 2010); 6. Calcareous nannofossils: Prinsiosphaera triassica, reported from core section from near the

top of the Manusela Formation (Oseil 1 well

report), is the dominant nannofossil species in the

latest Triassic of the (Meso-)Tethys Ocean and ranges in age from Late Norian to Rhaetian

(Bralower et al. 1991, Gardin et al. 2012). The well

report also reported the presence of Archaeopontosphaera primitiva, a species originally

described from the Rhaetian of Austria. These

occurrences emphasises that the top of the Manusela Limestone is also latest Triassic in age

in well penetrations, not Jurassic.

As noted by Wilckens (1937), Martini et al. (2004)

and others, calcareous sponges are the dominant

reef builders in the Manusela Limestone, with corals generally representing less than 20% of the

fauna. This is the normal pattern in Late Triassic

reefs of the Tethys, although regionally corals

become dominant in the Rhaetian (Flugel 2002,

Payne and Van de Schootbrugge 2007). For Seram the dominance of calcareous sponges may be due

to facies control, but may also point to an age that

is primarily Late Norian rather than Rhaetian.

From the paleontological information presented

above and in Table 1, it is safe to conclude a Late Norian-Rhaetian age range for the

Manusela/Saman Saman limestone complex, as

also suggested by Martini et al. (2004). The

underlying Kanikeh Formation probably spans a

Carnian to ‘Middle’ Norian age range.

Significance of Lovcenipora

As already mentioned, the erroneous change from

the previously established Late Triassic age

interpretation for the Seram limestones to a

Jurassic age interpretation was first suggested by

Van Bemmelen (1949) and Van der Sluis (1950). They based this on the occurrence of Lovcenipora

in the Seram limestones, which they believed to

signify a Jurassic (indeed Late Jurassic) age.

Wanner, Knipscheer and Schenk (1952) were quick

to point out that this was incorrect, and listed the

faunal groups of undisputed Late Triassic age within the Seram limestones. Unfortunately,

however, this publication was written in German

and published in a Swiss journal at a time of

limited interest in eastern Indonesian geology, and

so remained unnoticed by many subsequent workers.

Lovcenipora Giattini 1902 is a calcareous sponge

or coral-like creature, originally described from the Upper Triassic Megalodon Limestone of Lovcen,

Montenegro. The exact taxonomic position of this

fossil is still debated, but it is now usually classified as a chaetetid sponge (Demospongiae). The first record of Lovcenipora from Seram was by

Wanner (1907) (Plate 1, Figure 1), who described it as a new species of tabulate coral, Pachypora intabulata. Gerth (1910) and Vinassa de Regny

(1915) correctly identified this Seram fossil as Lovcenipora vinassai.

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PLATE 1- Late Triassic fossils from Seram (Wanner 1907)

1. Section of Lovcenipora vinassai from breccious Manusela Limestone near Bula, NE Seram. Initially described

as a coral (Pachypora intabulata) by Wanner, but now viewed as chaetetid calcareous sponge. 2. Montlivaltia

molukkana, solitary coral from Bula Limestone of East Seram 3. Halorella amphitoma, a Norian rhynchonellid

brachiopod from Bula area, NE Seram 4. Monotis salinaria, Norian pelagic bivalve mollusks from the Kanikeh

Formation.

Typical Lovcenipora are most common in Late

Triassic limestones across the Tethys realm, from

the Northern Calcareous Alps to Oman, UAE, Iran

and the NW Australian margin (Wombat Plateau), as well as in Panthalassan terranes now in British Columbia and Japan. Lovcenipora vinassai is also

known from Timor and Buru islands, always in

limestones with Late Triassic faunas (Wanner and

Knipscheer 1951). For instance: - West Timor: in >15 ‘Fatu Limestone’ localities

where it is associated with undisputed Late Triassic brachiopods (Misolia, Halorella), and

corals (Montlivaltia, etc.) (summarised in Wanner

et al. 1952);

- East Timor: Fatu Limestone near Tutuala; with Triassic Halobia and Misolia. (Grunau 1957, p. 84); - Buru: associated with Triassic algae Macroporella

(Gerth 1910, Pia 1924).

Although Lovcenipora-like fossils have also been

described from limestones of Jurassic and

Cretaceous age, most of these are probably misidentifications. For instance, Lovcenipora

described from the Early Cretaceous Saling

Limestone in the Gumai Mountains of South

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Sumatra by Vinassa de Regny (1925) are different from true Triassic Lovcenipora, and should instead

be assigned to Cladocoropsis miriabilis (Yabe,

1946).

TETHYAN TRIASSIC REEF PATTERNS AND

END-TRIASSIC EXTINCTIONS

The presence of latest Triassic reefal limestones in

Seram (and similar occurrences on Buru, Misool,

Timor, East Sulawesi, Papua New Guinea and the

Wombat Plateau of the NW Australian margin)

closely follows reef development trends observed across the Tethys (e.g. Flugel, 2002; Payne and

Van de Schootbrugge, 2007). Reefal carbonates are

very rare in Early and Middle Triassic, but Early

Carnian and particularly Late Norian- Rhaetian

were times of widespread development of reefal/carbonate platform limestones along the

margins of the Tethys.

The well-known end-Triassic mass extinction event

eliminated over 90% of all coral, sponge and other

species around 200 Ma (e.g. Hautmann, 2012). It is believed to be associated with a global eustatic

sea level drop. It caused a collapse of the Late

Triassic carbonate reef ecosystems, which then led

to a global virtual absence of reef systems in the

Early Jurassic (e.g. Leinfelder et al., 2002). This is therefore another reason why the presence of

Early-Middle Jurassic-age reefal limestones in

Seram is unlikely.

CONCLUSIONS

In summary:

(1) As suggested by Wanner et al. (1952), Martini et

al. (2004) and many others, all paleontological information from the Manusela Formation

limestones of Seram supports a Late Triassic age,

while there is no evidence for any fossils

characteristic of a Jurassic age in this limestone;

(2) The Manusela Limestone formation is of Late

Norian-Rhaetian age, demonstrated by multiple fossil groups;

(3) The underlying Kanikeh Formation clastics are

of Carnian-Norian age, demonstrated by the

biostratigraphy of ammonites, brachiopods,

bivalves, palynomorphs and other groups; (4) The Manusela Limestone appears to be overlain

directly by the Late Jurassic Kola Shale in

petroleum exploration wells, demonstrating that

the Early and Middle Jurassic is either absent or

very thin, at least on the structural highs on which

the Manusela Limestone accumulated in northern Seram. The absence or incomplete Early-Middle

Jurassic section may be due to erosion at the time

of the Triassic-Jurassic boundary global fall in sea

levels; at a tectonically-driven relative fall in sea

levels associated with Middle Jurassic continental rifting; to an unusually thin, condensed and

generally unrecognized stratigraphic record; or to a

combination of all of these;

(5) The Late Triassic flourishing of reefal limestone

on Seram, followed by the end-Triassic collapse of

the reef/platform carbonate system, fits with the

pattern observed all along the Tethys margins, including nearby localities in eastern Indonesia,

the NW Australia margin and Papua New Guinea.

(6) Faunas and lithofacies of the Late Triassic

succession and the Norian-Rhaetian limestones in

Seram are remarkably similar to those in the

western Tethys (Northern Calcareous Alps, Oman, etc.). Numerous studies on faunal taxonomy,

biostratigraphy, biofacies and carbonate

sedimentology undertaken in those areas should

be very useful for more detailed comparison with

the Late Triassic of eastern Indonesia; (7) The Manusela Limestone is a proven

hydrocarbon reservoir. The change in the age of

the principal reservoir unit suggested here has

potentially significant implications for regional

hydrocarbon exploration:

- The Late Triassic was a time of reefal limestone development in eastern Indonesia and surrounding

areas, and carbonate reservoirs of this age may

also be a potential target outside Seram. However,

known regional occurrences are sponge-algal

dominated systems that, except for the oolitic shoal platform facies, tend to have poor primary

porosity. Adequate reservoir quality will therefore

probably depend primarily on secondary diagenetic

porosity and/or fractures;

- The Late Triassic limestones are probably

genetically associated with deep marine bituminous platy limestones and marls, such as

those in the Winto Beds of Buton and the 'Fogi

Beds' (Ghegan Formation) of Buru and the Aitutu

Formation of Timor. The syn-rift character of the

Late Triassic sedimentary environments in Seram and other areas of eastern Indonesia should place

potential source and reservoir successions in close

juxtaposition.

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Planktonic foraminifera biozonation of the Middle Eocene-

Oligocene Kebo Formation, Kalinampu area, Bayat, Klaten,

Central Java

Dian Novita, Didit Hadi Barianto and Moch. Indra Novian

Dept. of Geological Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta

ABSTRACT

Research on foraminifera from the Paleogene volcanoclastics-dominated Kebo Butak Formation of Central Java is limited. A study was conducted in the Kalinampu and surrounding areas of Bayat, Klaten, Central Java. The study included measuring of three stratigraphic sections and geological mapping. The study area contains the Nampurejo pillow lava, which is considered to be the base of the Kebo-Butak Formation (part of the 'Old Andesites' complex of South Java), but its Middle Eocene age is older than previously assumed. Correlation and biozone interpretation allowed the recognition of 12 planktonic foraminifera zones, ranging in age from Middle Eocene (P11) to Early Miocene (N5). Depositional environments are all deep marine, ranging from lower bathyal to upper bathyal.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study was to determine the Eocene-Oligocene planktonic foraminifera

biozonation and age of the lower part of Kebo

Formation in the Kalinampu, Sendangrejo and

Mojosari areas, Bayat district, Klaten,

approximately 40 kilometers SE of the city of

Yogyakarta (Figure 1). The Kebo formation is dominated by volcanoclastic sediments, deposited

in a marine environment, and is important

because it demonstrates a period of early

volcanism in the Southern Mountains of Java. The

thick volcanoclastic-rich section is underlain by a relatively thin series with white marls that are rich

in Middle Eocene - Early Oligocene deep marine

planktonics-dominated faunas, and which are the

focus of this study.

The post-Kebo-Butak Miocene planktonic foraminifera biozonation in the Southern

Mountains of Central Java was well documented

by Kadar (1986), but research on Paleogene

foraminifera near the base of the Kebo Formation

has been very limited. Sumarso and Ismoyowati (1975) were the first to mention the presence of

Middle and Late Eocene (P14-P15) planktonic

foraminifera in the Wungkal-Gamping Formation

of the nearby Jiwo hills, but they did not provide

any details on faunal succession and localities.

The other area in Central Java from which similar Eocene planktonic foraminifera have been reported

is the Nanggulan area, West of Yogyakarta

(Hartono 1969; Siregar and Harsono 1981 and an

unpublished study by Lunt and Sugiatno, 2003).

This paper reports the results of our study on

small foraminifera in the Kalinampu, Sendangrejo,

Mojosari and Mranggen areas (Figure 1). The

outcrop sections selected in the area are considered to represent the basal part of the Kebo

Formation, because they are located closest to the

Nampurejo pillow lava, which is considered to be

the base of the formation. While there are some

complexities such as faults, it is still relatively easy

to reconstruct a continuous rock sequence.

REGIONAL GEOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY The study area is part of the Southern Mountains

of Central Java, at the northern margin of what

Van Bemmelen (1949) called the Baturagung

Range. According to Toha et al (1994) the Cenozoic

sediments of the Southern Mountains were mainly

formed by gravity depositional processes, and are about 4000 meters thick. Almost the entire section

is tilted to the south due to tectonic forces active

since the Late Oligocene to Late Miocene.

Basement of the basin is composed of pre-Tertiary metamorphic rocks. According to Sumosusastro

(1956) these rocks are composed of phyllite, mica

schist, gneiss and crystalline limestones.

Metamorphic basement is overlain by the Eocene

Wungkal-Gamping Formation, which is composed

of Eocene sandstone, sandy marl, mudstone, claystone and limestone lenses. Overlying the

Wungkal-Gamping Formation are the Kebo-Butak,

Semilir and Nglanggran Formations, all are

composed of volcanoclastic sediments. They

represent a period of intensive volcanic activity in

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the Southern Mountains, and were referred to as 'Old Andesites' by Van Bemmelen (1949).

Figure 1. Location map of study area SE of Yogyakarta, showing three lines of measured sections.

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Our study is focused mainly on the lower part of

Kebo Formation. A comparison of Southern

Mountains stratigraphic columns from several

researchers shows that different authors assigned different ages to the Kebo Formation (Figure 2). Toha et al. (1994) and Surono (2009) placed the

age of the base of the Kebo-Butak Formation in the

Early Oligocene (N2).

The Kebo-Butak Formation was deposited in a marine basin surrounded by active volcanoes. The

volcanoes became major sediment suppliers to the

nearby basin. The oldest volcanic deposit is the

Nampurejo pillow lava (Figure 4). According to

Surono (2008) the age of the Nampurejo pillow lava is between ~33.2 to 31.3 Ma (Early Oligocene),

older than the age of most of the volcanoclastic

Kebo-Butak Formation, which generally ranges

between ~26.5 and 21 Ma (Late Oligocene - Early

Miocene). Deposition of the Kebo-Butak formation

indicated widespread arc volcanism in the

Southern Mountains.

Geology of the Kalinampu Area Geological mapping was conducted to determine

the lateral distribution of the rocks. The oldest

fossiliferous rock is the mudrock micrite layer that

is intercalated between volcanic breccias (Figure 3)

. The age of the layer is P11 (Middle Eocene). This

facies is thinning to the northwest. The source of sediment was derived from the southeast entrance

into the basin, and then spread towards the

northwest. Above this facies primary volcanic

products were deposited, such as lava and

pyroclastic rocks. In some places pillow lava structures are found (Figure 4). In the East of the

area of research a polymict breccia lithology is

developed with tuff fragments, clay and sand,

probably in a tuff matrix.

Figure 2. Compilation of Southern Mountains regional stratigraphy from previous authors.

Focus for this study is the lower part of the Kebo Formation, here concluded to range from P14 -

N5 (Middle Eocene - Early Miocene).

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Significant geological structures developed in the

study area, with several major faults. The Kalinampu-Mojosari fault is a strike slip with a

vertical component. The fault plane was observed

in the Kalinampu river cliffs, where the fault plane

parallels the direction of the river. Strike and dip of

the Kalinampu fault plane are N70°E/77° or

trending NE-SW. The lineament is terminated by

another NW-SE trending lineament. Other faults include the Mojosari reverse fault and the

Sumberan normal fault. The distribution of

formations and faults in the study area is shown

on the geological map of Figure 5.

Figure 3. Outcrop of dark volcanic breccia (A) underlain by white micrite

mudrock facies (B).

Figure 4. Outcrop of Nampurejo Lava with

pillow structures (A).

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Figure 5. Geological map of study area.

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METHODOLOGY

Three stratigraphic sections were measured in the study area to determine the stratigraphic

succession of rocks in the field (Appendices 1-3).

The measurement technique included the use of a

Jacob stick, so there is no need for thickness

corrections. Paleontological samples were taken from layers of fine-grained rocks and some of the

coarser-grained rocks, and then sieved to obtain

the small foraminifera fossils. The standard

sampling interval for paleontology was 1 meter.

However, because the foraminifera were most

abundant in the lower part of the section, paleontological sampling was maximized at the

base of the measured section. Petrographic

samples were taken to represent each of the facies

in study area.

BIOZONATION RESULTS

From the study of the distribution of foraminifera

in each measured section, followed by correlations, we identified 12 zones of planktonic foraminifera

as defined by Bolli et al. (1985) in the Kalinampu-

Sendangrejo section (Appendix 1), 7 zones in the

Sumberan-Mojosari section (Appendix 2) and one

zone in the Mranggen-Dukuh section (Appendix 3). The composite section in the study area contains

12 zones:

Zone 1 (Middle Eocene Zone-P11)

This zone is only found in the Kalinampu-

Senangrejo section. The lower limit of this zone is unknown while the upper boundary of this zone is

characterized by the appearance of Globigerinatheka subconglobata curryi. Planktonic

foraminifera species found in this zone include Globigerinatheka mexicana, Globigerinatheka index, Globigerinatheka subconglobata, Planorotalites pseudoscitula, Pseudohastigerina danvillensis, Truncorotaloides rohri and Turborotalia cerroazulensis.


This zone is found only in the Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section and is marked by Morozovella lehneri range zone, characterized by the presence

of Morozovella lehneri. Other fossils in this zone

include Acarinina spinuloinflata, Globigerina eocaena, Globigerinatheka mexicana kugleri, Globorotaloides carcoselleensis, Hastigerina cf. bolivariana, T. cerroazulensis possagnoensis - pomeroli transition, T. cerroazulensis and T. cerroazulensis pomeroli.


This zone is found only in the Kalinampu-

Sendangrejo section. The base of the zone is defined by the last occurrence of Globigerinatheka kugleri mexicana and the top by the last

occurrence of Globigerinatheka subconglobata.

Other fossils found in this zone includes Acarinina spinuloinflata, Catapsydrax dissimillis, Globigerina

eocaena, G. medizzani, Globigerinatheka subconglobata luterbacheri, Globorotaloides possagnoensis, Planorotalites pseudoscitula,

Pseudohastigerina danvillensis, Turborotalia cerroazulensis possagnoensis pomeroli transition, Truncatulinoides rohri, Turborotalia centralis and T. cerroazulensis pomeroli.


This zone is found in the Kalinampu-Sendangrejo

and Sumberan-Mojosari sections. In the Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section, the base of the

zone is marked by the first occurrence of Globigerina medizzani, the top by the last

occurrence of Planorotalites pseudoscitula. Other

foraminifera in this zone include Acarinina rugosoaculatea, A. spinuloinflata, Catapsydrax

dissimillis, Globigerina cryptomphala, G. eocaena, G. senni, G. mexicana, Globoborotaloides carcoselleensis, Pseudohastigerina danvilensis, T. cerroazulensis possagnoensis - pomeroli transition,

Turborotalia cerroazulensis pomeroli and

Truncorotaloides rohri. In the Sumberan-Mojosari

section, zone P14 is marked by a partial Globorotaloides carcoseleensis zone. The lower part

at this zone is unknown and the upper initiated by the first occurrence of Globorotaloides carcoseleensis. Foraminifera in this zone include

Catapsydrax dissimilis, Globigerinatheka subconglobata luterbacheri and Turborotalia

cerroazulensis pomeroli.

Zone 5 (Late Eocene Zone-P15/16)

This zone was found in two sections. In the

Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section the base of the

zone is marked by the last occurrence of Globigerina sennii, the top by the first occurrence

of Globigerinatheka mexicana. Other fossils found

in this zone include Acarinina spinuloinflata, Globigerina cryptomphala, G. medizzani, Globigerinatheka index tropicalis, Globorotaloides carcoselleensis, Pseudohastigerina danvillensis, Turborotalia cerroazulensis possagnoensis - pomeroli transition and T. cerroazulensis pomeroli.

In the Sumberan- Mojosari section, this zone is bound by the first occurrence of Globigerinatheka subconglobata luterbacheri and ends with the first

occurrence of Globigerina praeturrilina. Other

species in this zone are Catapsydrax dissimilis, Globigerina ampliapertura, G. cryptomphala, G. eupertura, G. hagni, G. lozanoi, G. praebulloides occlusa, G. praeturrilina, G. tripartita and

Turborotalia cerroazulensis pomeroli. Reworked

fossils from erosion of older rocks include Globigerina corpulenta, G. sennii and Turborotalia griffinae.

Zone 6 (Late Eocene Zone-P16/17)

This zone is found in two sections. In the

Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section, the base of this zone is defined by the last occurrence of T. cerroazulensis possagnoensis - T. pomeroli

transition, while the top is marked by the first occurrence of Globigerina yeguaensis.

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Other fossils are Globigerina eocaena, G. hagni and

G. pseudovenezuelana. The most abundant species

is T. cerroazulensis pomeroli. In the Sumberan-

Mojosari section, the base of the zone is the first occurrence of Globigerina tripartita and it ends

with the first occurrence of Turborotalia cerroazulensis cunialensis. Other species present

are Catapsydrax dissimilis, Globigerina ampliapertura, G. praebulloides leroyi, G. sellii and

G. subconglobata luterbacheri.

Zone 7 (Early Oligocene Zone-P18/19)

This zone is also found in two sections. In

Kalinampu-Sendangrejo, the base of this zone is marked by the first occurrence of Globigerina yeguensis and the top by the first occurrence of

Globorotalia opima nana. Other fossils in this zone

are Catapsydrax dissimillis, Globigerina eupertura, G. ampliapertura, G. ciperoensis anguliofficinalis, G. cryptomphala, G. eocaena, G. ouachitaensis, G. praebulloides and G. praebulloides leroyi. The most abundant foram species is Globigerina yeguensis.

In the Sumberan-Mojosari section, this zone is defined by the last occurrence of Globigerina sellii at the base and the last occurrence of Globigerina tapurensis at the top. Other species in this zone

are Catapsydrax dissimilis, Globigerina ampliapertura, T. cerroazulensis pomeroli - cerroazulensis transition and Turborotalia centralis.

Reworked fossils include Globigerina hagni and G. subconglobata. The Globigerina ampliapertura

partial range zone is similar to P19. This zone is

unknown for the lower boundary and the top is marked by the last occurrence of Globigerina ampliapertura. Many fossils were found reworked:

Globigerina hagni, Turborotalia cerroazulensis cocoaensis, Globigerina lozanoi, Globorotaloides carcoselleensis, Hankenina alabamensis and

Turborotalia centralis.

Zone 8 (Middle Oligocene Zone-P20/N1)

In the Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section, the lower

part of this zone is marked by the first occurrence of Globigerina ampliapertura, the upper part by the

first occurrence of Globorotalia venezuelana. Other

fossils found in this zone are Globigerina yeguensis

and Globorotalia opima nana. The most abundant

species is Globigerina ampliapertura. In the

Sumberan-Mojosari section, this zone is between the last occurrence of Globigerina ampliapertura at

the base and the first occurrence of Globigerina yeguensis at the top. Other species in this zone are

Catapsydrax dissimilis, Globigerina ciperoensis anguliofficinalis, G. praebulloides leroyi and

Globorotalia opima nana. Reworked Eocene fossils

include Globigerapsis index, Globigerina pseudovenezuelana, Globorotalia ehrenbergi, Orbulinoides beckmanni and Planorotalites

pseudoscitula.

Zone 9 (Middle Oligocene Zone-P21/N2)

In the Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section, this zone is characterized by the range of Globorotalia opima opima. Other foraminifera in this zone are

Globigerina ampliapertura, G. tripartita, G.

venezuelana and G. yeguensis. In the Sumberan-

Mojosari section, this zone is also characterized by the Globorotalia opima nana range zone. Other

species present are Globigerina praebulloides occlusa and G. tripartita. There are many reworked

Eocene species: Globigerina medizzani, Globigerina praeturrilina, Globigerina sennii, Globorotaloides carcoselleensis, Hastigerina bolivariana, Morozovella lehneri, Planorotalites pseudoscitula

and P. renzi.

Zone 10 (Late Oligocene Zone-N3) The base of this zone is the last occurrence of Globorotalia opima opima and the top is the first

occurrence of Globigerina ciperoensis angulisuturalis. Other fossils found in this zone are

Catapsydrax dissimilis, Globigerina praebulloides

leroyi, G. praebulloides occlusa, Globigerinoides primordius, Globorotalia mayeri and Globorotalia opima opima transition to nana. The dominant

species is Globigerina angulisuturalis. In the

Sumberan-Mojosari section, this zone was not

found, but on the track Mranggen-Hamlet sample DKH12 contained Globigerina binaiensis,

Globigerina opima nana-opima transition and

Globorotalia mayeri and Globigerina tripartita. This

suggests most this section is within the zone N3

age range.

Zone 11 (Early Miocene Zone-N4)

This zone is only found in the Kalinampu-

Sendangrejo section and is marked by the range of Globigerinoides primordius. Other fossils found in

this zone are Catapsydrax dissimilis, Globigerina binaiensis, G. angulisuturalis, G. ciperoensis, G. praebulloides leroyi, G. praebulloides occlusa, G. pseudovenezuelana, G. tripartita, G. venezuelana, G. yeguensis and Globorotalia opima nana - opima opima transition.

Zone 12 (Early Miocene Zone-N5) This zone is found only in the Kalinampu-

Sendangrejo section and is between the first occurrence of Globigerina binaiensis at the base

and the last occurrence of Globigerina venezuelana

at the top. In the zonation of Blow (1969) this

corresponds to zone N5. Other fossils in this zone are Globigerina praebulloides leroyi, G. praebulloides occlusa, G. sellii, G. tripartita, G. venezuelana, G. yeguensis and the Globorotalia opima opima - G. opima nana transition.

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

Interpretations of depositional environments were

made by using small benthic foraminifera.

Depositional environments of the Eocene - Early Miocene in this region are all deep, open marine

and range from lower bathyal to upper bathyal.

The Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section located in the

southern study area is in the areas of deepest

marine facies, as shown by the benthic foraminifera Bolivina robusta, Cibicides robertsonianus, Globulina minuta,

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Gyroidina broekhiana, Gyroidinoides soldanii, Lenticulina edinata, Neoponides magnitifer, Nodogenerina virgule, Nodosaria flintii, Oridorsalis

umbonata, Pseudoglandulina comatula, Uvigerina auberiana and Uvigerina schwageri. This

foraminifera association suggests sedimentation in

top of the lower bathyal zone.

The Sumberan-Mojosari section, located NE of the

Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section, shows a shallower paleoenvironment than the Kalinampu-

Sendangrejo section. Benthic foraminifera identified include Amphicoryna sp., Neoponides margaritifer, Planularia siddalliana and

Praemassillina arenaria. This foraminiferal

association suggests the sediments were deposited

near the top of the upper bathyal zone. The Late Oligocene in the Mranggen-Dukuh section in the

northern part of the study area is the shallowest.

The presence of the benthic foram species Globulina inaequalis suggests the depositional

environment is outer neritic.

DISCUSSION

The presence of Eocene planktonic foraminifera from the basal Kebo Formation in this part of the

Southern Mountains has not been documented

before, although many of the species mentioned in

Sumarso and Ismoyowati (1975) from the

Wungkal-Gamping Formation of the Jiwo Hills and

by Siregar and Harsono (1981) and Lunt and Sugiatno (2003) from the Nanggulan area are also

found in our study area.

The contact between the Eocene pillow lavas with

sedimentary rocks can clearly be seen in the Sumberan-Mojosari section, where sediments

above the pillow lava at Sumberan are correlated

with zone P14 (Middle Eocene), based on the presence of Truncorotaloides rohri. The Nampurejo-

Kalinampu pillow lava is located in the village and

does not have clear boundaries with sediments sampled in the Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section. It

is assumed to be the same as the Sumberan pillow

lava which is older than P14. The separation of the

pillow lava outcrops between Nampurejo and

Sumberan is assumed to be due to lateral shift by

the major shear fault in the area (Figure 5).

Surono (2009) mentioned that the Nampurejo

pillow lava is the base of the volcanoclastic Kebo-

Butak Formation sediments. From the biozonation

data obtained above, the Sumberan and Nampurejo pillow lavas are older than zones

Middle Eocene zones P12-P14. In the Kalinampu-

Sendangrejo section, we found sediments below

the pillow lava that indicate Middle Eocene planktonic foram zone P11 (Globigerinatheka subconglobata curryi zone). It is possible that the

Nampurejo pillow lava should not be viewed as the

base of the Kebo Formation sediments. The lava

flow may only represent one or more relatively

limited episode(s) of submarine basaltic volcanism

in a time characterized mainly by continuous Middle Eocene- Early Oligocene deep marine

pelagic sedimentation, and not necessarily the

onset of voluminous arc volcanics that characterize

the younger, Late Oligocene-earliest Miocene part

of the Kebo-Butak, Semilir and Nglanggran

sections. An alternative lithostratigraphic interpretation is to view the Middle Eocene-Early

Oligocene section in the study area as the deep

water equivalent of the Wungkal-Gamping Beds of

earlier authors (Figure 2). However, we do suggest

that starting from zone P12 (Middle Eocene; with the presence of Morozovella lehneri, Figure 6.3) the

stratigraphy in this area of the Southern

Mountains of Central Java is dominated by

volcanic material.

CONCLUSION

Biozonation analyses of planktonic and small

benthic foraminifera in three measured sections show that sediments in the study area were

deposited since zone P11 (Middle Eocene). It

demonstrates that the Middle-Late Eocene in this

part of the Southern Mountains of Central Java

was deposited in a deep, open marine facies,

deeper than age-equivalent sediments in the Nanggulan area further west.

Starting from zone P12 sediments are dominated

by volcanics, although the peak of volcanism, with

the highest sedimentation rates, appears to be around zone N3 (Late Oligocene). This proves that

volcanism in the Southern Mountains of Central

Java started much earlier than previously

suspected.

Appendix 1. Middle Eocene-Early Miocene biozonation of the Kalinampu-Sendangrejo section. This is the most complete of the three section studied. Total thickness is 390m, half of which is

interpreted as Zone N3 (Late Oligocene; Kebo-Butak volcanoclastics). Thickness of the Eocene basal part of the section (P11-P17) is 60m. Appendix 2. Late Eocene-Oligocene biozonation of the Sumberan-Mojosari Section. Total thickness 285m. Base of section is the Sumberan pillow lava, which is overlain by marl of Middle Eocene (zone P14) age. Most of the Middle Eocene- Early Oligocene section is composed of volcanoclastics.

Appendix 3. Late Oligocene biozonation of the Mranggen-Dukuh section. Total thickness 183m, entirely composed of thick volcanoclastic fining-

upward beds. Most samples from mudstone interbeds are barren, except for Late Oligocene (zone N3) planktonic foraminifera near top.

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REFERENCES Blow, W.H., 1969. Late Middle Eocene to Recent

planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy. Proc.

First Int. Conf. Planktonic Microfossils,

Geneva 1967, 1, Brill, Leiden, p. 199-422.

Bolli, H.M., Saunders, J.B. and Perch-Nielsen, K.,

1985. Plankton Stratigraphy. Cambridge University Press, London, 1032p.

Bothe, A.C.D., 1929. The geology of the Hills near

Djiwo and the Southern Range. 4th Pacific

Science Congress, Bandung, 23 p. Hartono, H.M.S., 1969. Globigerina marls and their

planktonic foraminifera from the Eocene of Nanggulan, Central Java. Contr. Cushman

Found. Foram. Res. 20, 4, p. 152-159.

Kadar, D., 1986. Neogene planktonic foraminiferal

biostratigraphy of the South Central Java

area, Indonesia. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung, Spec. Publ. 5, p. 1-83.

Lunt, P. and Sugiatno, H., 2003. A review of the

Eocene and Oligocene in the Nanggulan area, South Central Java, 34p. (Unpublished Report)

Siregar, P. and Harsono P., 1981. Stratigraphy and planktonic foraminifera of the Eocene-

Oligocene Nanggulan Formation, Central Java.

Publ. Geol. Res. Dev. Centre, Bandung,

Paleont. Ser. 1, p. 9-28.

Sumarso and Ismoyowati, T., 1975. Contribution to the stratigraphy of the Djiwo Hills and their

southern surroundings (Central Java). Proc.

4th Ann. Conv. Indon. Petrol. Assoc. (IPA) p.

19-26, Jakarta.

Sumosusastro, S., 1956. A contribution to the

stratigraphy of Eastern Djiwo Hill and the Southern Range in Central Java. Indonesian

Journal of Natural Science 112, 115-134.

Surono, 2008. Litostratigrafi dan sedimentasi

Formasi Kebo dan Formasi Butak di

Pegunungan Baturagung, Jawa Tengah Bagian Selatan. Jurnal Geologi Indonesia 3, 4,

p. 183-193.

Surono, 2009. Litostratigrafi Pegunungan Selatan

bagian Timur Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta

dan Jawa Tengah. Jurnal Sumber Daya Geol.

19, 3, p. 209-221. Toha. B., Purtyasti, R.D., Sriyono, Soetoto,

Wartono R., Subagyo P., 1994. Geologi daerah

Pegunungan Selatan, Suatu Kontribusi,

Fakultas Teknik, Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Van Bemmelen, R.W., 1949. The Geology of Indonesia, Vol. 1 A, Government Printing

Office, Nijhoff, The Hague, 732p.

Figure 6. Eocene planktonic foraminifera from the Kalinampu area. 1. Truncorotaloides rohri, 2.

Turborotalia cerroazulensis pomeroli, 3. Morozovella lehneri, 4. Globigerinatheka subconglobata curryi, 5. Globigerinatheka cryptomphala, 6. Turborotalia cerroazulensis cunialensis.

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APPENDIX 1

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APPENDIX 2

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APPENDIX 3

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Learning Biostratigraphy in University of Gadjah Mada Diyaning Ratri and Fitra Annurhutami

University of Gadjah Mada

Biostratigraphy is an even-semester elective course

(non-mandatory) only offered to sophomores and higher in Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta.

Many students choose to take this course on their

4th semester since it will ease them to understand

other advanced materials on the next semesters

such as paleontology and stratigraphy analysis. The course usually starts in the 4nd week of

February and held every Thursday for 2x50

minutes.

The course is being carried out by two lecturers.

The first is Mr. Akmaluddin, he is an expert in microfossil analysis, especially in foraminifera and

calcareous nannofossils. Mr. Sugeng Wijono, the

second lecturer, has been in this field for many

years and specialized in spore/pollens (Figure 1).

Students are really enthusiastic to learn this

subject. The class required minimum of 10

students to establish the class but there are

around 50 to 60 students per class enrolled in this

course. One of the reasons why this course has been really popular is because the lecturers handle

the course directly; no assistants needed. There

are no laboratory sessions. That’s why every

presentation session is conducted interactively so

the students’ participation is highly encouraged.

Other than tasks and homework, the lecturers provide opportunity for discussion within or after

the class. Students are also encouraged to review

published scientific papers related to biostratigraphy.

In the beginning of the course, students are

introduced to the theories related to

biostratigraphy. Then, in the first seven weeks they are given basic materials such as; biostratigraphy

and its application, fossils and how they are

formed, preparing samples (mainly planktons and

benthonic fossils) for observation, fossil analysis to

know its living environment and age, and defining

biozonations.

The final goal of the course, after this seven weeks

program, is to literally make the biozonation itself

from field report data (Figure 2). Then, the result is

compared and analyzed by published biozonation papers e.g. from Postuma or Bolli and Sanders to

strengthen its objectiveness.

In my perspective, I’m amazed on how the age and

paleoenvironment can be determined by learning this course. It would be very helpful to understand

the process during the geological mapping.

Figure 1. Biostratigraphy Lecturers in Gadjah Mada University, Mr. Akmaluddin (left) and Mr. Sugeng Wijono (right).

Figure 2. An example of biozonation table.

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Learning Biostratigraphy in University of Pembangunan

Nasional “Veteran” Yogyakarta Hari Irwanto and Satrio Esti Hapsoro

Geological Engineering Department - Faculty of Mineral Technology, University of Pembangunan Nasional

“Veteran” Yogyakarta

Biostratigraphy class is one of many scientific

disciplines in the curriculum of Geological

Engineering Department, University of Pembangunan Nasional “Veteran” Yogyakarta. The

campus had been located at SWK street 104 North

Ringroad, Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta Province.

Biostratigraphy is a branch of stratigraphy which

focus on correlating and knowing relative ages of sediment layers by using the fossil contained

within them. This subject was learned in the 5th

and 6th semester. The main focus of the study in

the 5th semester is on micropaleontology. For

students who are interested to continue on stratigraphy, they could take biostratigraphy class

in the 6th semester.

There are three lecturers in Biostratigraphy,

namely :Ir. Mahap Maha, M.T., (master in

biostratigraphy), Ir. Umiyatun Choiriah, M.T., (master in nanoplankton) and Ir. Achmad

Subandrio, M.T., (master in planktonic

foraminifera). There were 14 lectures on

micropaleontology and biostratigraphy. The

students were divided into 4 groups with 20 students each. The classes are very interactive

with plenty questions and answers in every

session, which make great discussions. These

discussions made us enjoy the study.

Laboratory sessions were held in the Paleontology laboratory. This laboratory has a complete

equipment, such a 20 binocular microscopes,

benthonic and planktonic foraminifera models,

fossils collection, biostratigraphy chart, and many

others (Figures 1 and 2). Paleontology laboratory

have 10 lecturer assistants who helped us in

practical assignment. In this laboratory, the

students are focus on describing the fossils characteristic, include a form, aperture, suture,

chamber’s amount, and identifying genus and

species name. We also learn how to prepare

foraminifera fossils from sampling until ready to be

identified. At the end of the semester, a field

excursion is organized (Figure 3).

Learning biostratigraphy is very delightful. The

interactive class, kind lecturers and practically

work make us better understanding in

biostratigraphy lesson but we think it is better if laboratory session have much longer duration

because many of the students do not finish their

work on time.

Figure 1. Microscope cupboard.

Figure 2. Biostratigraphic chart.

Figure 3. Field excursion.

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Learning Biostratigraphy in University of Diponegoro,

Semarang Lucky Agustina and Samuel Richard Natanael Simorangkir

University of Diponegoro

Biostratigraphy is a branch of stratigraphy, which

focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages

contained within them. In Diponegoro University,

Semarang, Central Java Province, we learn

biostratigraphy in micropaleontology subject, in

the 5th semester. In total there are 6 months per semester and we get approximately 12 classes

given by the lecturers and 10 other classes given

by the lecturer assistants in the laboratory. In the

class, there are 100 students, taught by 2

lecturers Mr. Hadi Nugroho, and Ms. Anis

Kurniasih. They are the lecturer in paleontology, with master degrees. The lecturer assistants in the

laboratory are our senior students who were

interviewed and selected by the lecturers.

The lecturers teach us just a little about biostratigraphy in the class, because they also

teach us about basic paleontology, microfossils,

and their application. In the laboratory we learn

more about biostratigraphy. In fact we also learn

on how to measure stratigraphic sections in field

(Figure 1), then pick some samples to do biostratigraphic analysis in the laboratory. The

paleontological laboratory facilities in our campus

are located in a small room with minimum

equipment. There are limited materials for fossils

analysis. With only 4 binocular microscope, a couple of books for a hundred students, we have to

make time shifts for our laboratory sessions

(Figures 2 and 3). These time shifts give more

chance for the students to learn in determining

fossils.

Biostratigraphy rarely becomes interesting topic to discuss for students in our university. There are

just a few students who like to make

biostratigraphy as a case study for their thesis.

Figure 1. Fieldtrip of Measuring Stratigraphy for

Biostratigraphy analysis based on foraminifera

microfossils

Figure 2. Paleontology & Petrography

Laboratory in Diponegoro University.

Figure 3. Some tools and equipments for

analysis in laboratory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratigraphy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil

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Maybe it is because the facility doesn’t support

much for it. Unlike other students, we’d like to

take that opportunity in putting our intention to

this subject. We took biostratigraphy as a case study for our thesis and try to apply what we get in

class. Although we don’t really like the determining

step because our eyes often get tired to see these

microfossils, we try to enjoy through it. Because,

with these amount of microfossils, we can be the

history master and tell a lot what happenned long time ago.

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The life and scientific legacy of Indonesian paleontologist

Dr. Tan Sin Hok (1902-1945) Munasri1 and J.T. (Han) van Gorsel2 1Pusat Penelitian Geoteknologi- LIPI, Bandung

2Houston, Texas

ABSTRACT

Tan Sin Hok was probably Indonesia's most influential paleontologist. He was born and raised in West Java and was the only Indonesian with an academic earth science education from The Netherlands before World War II. His Ph.D thesis in 1927 was a pioneering study on little-known Cretaceous radiolaria and Tertiary calcareous nannofossils from Roti and Timor. Subsequent work during his professional career as paleontologist of the Geological Survey in Bandung mainly focused on evolution of Cenozoic larger foraminifera. Tan's scientific legacy was accomplished before he was 40 years old, when the Japanese occupation terminated his research and the turmoil immediately thereafter took his life. Although Tan Sin Hok made significant original contributions to taxonomy and evolution of several microfossil groups, he initially failed to recognize the potential biostratigraphic value of radiolaria and nannofossils; important high-resolution zonations of these groups were developed by other workers in the 1950's and later. Tan's novel approach to evolution and systematics of larger foraminifera of Indonesia appeared to resonate only with 'schools' in The Netherlands, probably largely because his publications were mainly written in Dutch and German and published in Dutch and 'Netherlands Indies' journals with limited distributions.

INTRODUCTION Tan Sin Hok was an internationally well-known

Indonesian micropaleontologist, although few

geologists in Indonesia today are familiar with his work. This current series on Biostratigraphy of SE

Asia in Berita Sedimentologi would not be

complete without a tribute to this important

scientist.

Tan Sin Hok's life story was the focus of a recent

short paper in GEOMAGZ magazine (Munasri,

2014). Additional information on Tan Sin Hok's

personal history is in the obituary by Mohler

(1949) and in the transcripts of 600 personal

letters sent to relatives in The Netherlands by Tan Sin Hok's Dutch wife Eida Tan-Schepers between 1929-1946, (online at http://brieven-tan-schepers.nl). These letters generally end with a few

lines by Tan Sin Hok himself.

PERSONAL HISTORY Education Tan Sin Hok was born in 1902 in Cipadang near

Cianjur, West Java, from a Chinese father and a

Sundanese-Chinese mother, and was the youngest

of three brothers. The Tan family operated a

successful rice-milling business. He grew up in

Sundanese culture and spoke Malay (now Bahasa Indonesia) and Sundanese languages as his

mother tongue. In 1907, at age five, Tan Sin Hok

entered Primary School (Europeesche Lagere

School) in Cianjur. When he was eight years old in 1910, his father died. Following Chinese customs,

he and his family were then adopted by the family

of his uncle, who also ran a rice mill business near

Cianjur. Subsequently, Tan Sin Hok attended

Koning Willem III grammar school in Batavia, graduating in 1919.

The relative affluence of the Tan family enabled

their uncle Tan Kiat Hong to spend 18,000 Dutch

Guilders from his own resources to fund the

studies of Tan Sin Hok and his older brother Tan Sin Houw in The Netherlands. Tan Sin Hok thus

became the first (and only) Indonesian before

World War II with an academic degree in earth

sciences and mining (there were no academic

institutions with geology/mining programs in Indonesia at that time). Tan started at the School

of Mines of the 'Technische Hoogeschool'

(Technical University) of Delft in late 1919, at age

17, and graduated as a Mining Engineer in 1925,

followed by completion of a Ph.D degree under

Professor H.A. Brouwer in October 1927. Tan's thesis was a study of Cretaceous-Tertiary pelagic

marls and their microfossils from the Outer Banda

Arc islands, mainly Roti.

Paleontologist in Bandung (1929-1942) After graduation Tan spent a year in Bonn,

Germany, to become familiar with paleontological

collections of Indonesian fossils in the department

of Professor J. Wanner.

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In June 1929 Tan and his Dutch wife arrived back

in Indonesia, where he started work as a

paleontologist at the Paleontological Laboratory of

the 'Dienst van den Mijnbouw' in Bandung (= Bureau of Mines or Geological Survey; now Badan

Geologi = Geological Agency), where he would

remain for the remainder of his career.

Illustrious predecessors at the Paleontological

Laboratory in Bandung included I.M. van der Vlerk (1922-1928) and J.H.F. Umbgrove (1926-1929),

who had established a significant tradition of

larger foram studies, but who both had returned to

academic positions in Leiden and Delft respectively

when Tan Sin Hok arrived in Bandung. After Van der Vlerk's departure to The Netherlands in 1928,

the Laboratory was briefly headed by H.P. Gerth in

1928-1929, who was then replaced by mollusk

specialist C.H. Oostingh in October 1929, who had

arrived around the same time as Tan Sin Hok.

For the 10+ years from 1929-1940, interrupted by

a year-long leave in Europe in 1937-1938, Tan and

Oostingh formed the Paleontological Laboratory

staff, part of this time also with mammal specialist

Ralph Von Koenigswald (1931-1934). Their primary responsibilities were paleontological

support work for Mijnwezen's mapping programs

on Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi-

Buton. In addition, they conducted productive

research programs on taxonomy, evolution and

biostratigraphic zonation of larger foraminifera and mollusks respectively.

Much of Tan's time in Bandung was a period of

decline for the Bureau of Mines, with several

rounds of budget and personnel reductions following the 1929 economic crisis. In a letter of

January 1934 Tan mentioned budget cuts that

resulted in the dismissal of Von Koenigswald and

other engineers, and a 25% reduction in salary for

all Mijnwezen personnel. This was also the time when the systematic mapping of Sumatra was

terminated and other field programs were scaled

back. Publications of results of surveys as

'Verhandelingen' of the Jaarboek van het

Mijnwezen had already virtually ceased after 1930.

Tan Sin Hok published about 30 papers in his

Bandung period, mainly on Tertiary larger

foraminifera. Thalmann (1949) mentions that

during a May 1941 visit Tan still had numerous

manuscripts for future publications, but these have never been published.

After Oostingh's untimely death of pneumonia in

April 1940 Tan Sin Hok was the only remaining

professional paleontologist at the Survey. However,

the German occupation of The Netherlands in May 1940 forced a re-focusing of activities at

'Mijnbouw' towards strategic minerals. Tan was re-

assigned from paleontology to geological fieldwork,

conducting surveys of gypsum, quartz sand and

coal deposits, mainly on Java (see also titles of 1940-1941 unpublished reports at end of this

paper).

Tan Sin Hok's work and reputation attracted visits

to Bandung by other prominent

micropaleontologists of that time, including Australian academics Irene Crespin (1939) and

Martin Glaessner and oil company

geologists/micropaleontologists working in

Indonesia like Hans Kupper (BPM, Plaju) and Hans

Thalmann and H.J. MacGillavry (NKPM/Stanvac, Palembang; 1939-1941).

Figure 1. Part of Tan Sin Hok's City of Bandung identity card during Japanese Administration in 1942

(from www.brieven-tan-schepers.nl)

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Japanese Occupation and post-war murder

(1942-1945)

After the Japanese invasion in March 1942 Tan

Sin Hok initially continued to work at the Geological Survey, but now under Japanese

administration (Figure 1). His first task under

Japanese administration was a survey of Eocene-

Oligocene coal deposits of SW Java (Cibadak near

Sukabumi and Cimandiri near Bayah). He may

have deliberately misrepresented the results of this survey work. In a letter of 13 November 1945 Mrs. Eida Tan-Schepers wrote (HvG translation): "Hok continued his geological work after the surrender in March ’42. He found it far from pleasant to work for these guys, most of whom understood very little of the business, but he felt obliged to continue to work, while making sure that they did not get their hands

on all of the geological information" (www.brieven-

tan-schepers.nl/index.php/1945/item/594-1945-

11-13). Lunt (2013 p. 196) confirms Tan Sin Hok's

apparent sabotage. Unlike most maps produced by

'Mijnwezen', Tan's maps of the SW Java coal regions in his 1942-1943 reports were very difficult

to reconcile with topography and known geology of

the region, so it was suspected Tan could have

deliberately misrepresented these strategic coal

occurrences.

On September 1, 1943 Tan and his family were

arrested and interned in Japanese prison camps,

like his European former colleagues, presumably

because of being a member of the Freemasons. He

spent two years in internment, first at Sukamaskin prison in Bandung and later in a camp in Cimahi,

West Java. Due to his strong health Tan survived

this internship relatively unscathed. He was

released at the end of August 1945 and was

reconciled with his wife and three children two weeks later.

Despite his sympathy for the Indonesian

Independence movement, Tan became a victim of

Indonesian extremist nationalists on 1 December

1945, only three months after his release from interment and only 43 years old. He was shot and

killed in his house in Bandung, while his family

escaped from the back of the burning house

through a corn field to safety at the Borromeus

hospital. Tan's body is buried at the cemetery for Dutch victims of the war at 'Ereveld Pandu' in

Bandung. His wife and three children repatriated

to The Netherlands in April 1946.

THE SCIENTIFIC LEGACY Tan Sin Hok is known primarily for his work on

radiolaria, calcareous nannofossils and larger foraminifera. However, during his work at the

Geological Survey in Bandung he also provided

paleontological support to ongoing mapping work

and published brief papers on identifications of

Cretaceous planktonic foraminifera, Permian

brachiopods and fusulinid foraminifera, etc.,

across Indonesia.

The card catalog at the library of the Geological Agency in Bandung (Figure 2) contains more than

60 entries of unpublished reports and publications

on paleontology, field surveys and economic

geology, written by Tan Sin Hok until 1942 for the

Bureau of Mines (Dienst van den Mijnbouw).

Unfortunately, some of the Tan Sin Hok reports, especially the unpublished ones, are not available

any more from the library. Also the original thin

sections of the Tan Sin Hok collection are no

longer officially stored at the Geological Museum in

Bandung after the major renovation in 2000.

During his career Tan Sin Hok described many

new genera and species of radiolaria, calcareous

nannofossils and larger foraminifera, some of

which are still used today as important index

fossils. In turn, several genera and species foraminifera, nannofossils and radiolaria were

named in his honor by later workers (Table 1).

Composition of chalk- and marl rocks of the

Moluccas (1927)

Tan's first major work was his 1927 thesis 'On the

composition and origin of chalk and marl deposits

of the Moluccas' (Figure 3), in which numerous

new species were described in these then poorly-

known microfossil groups. This rapidly made Tan

the leading authority on radiolaria and calcareous

nannofossils, judging from his contribution on

these groups in the major review 'The paleontology

and stratigraphy of the Netherlands Indies' (K.

Martin Memorial Volume) (Tan Sin Hok, 1931).

Figure 2. Tan Sin Hok entries in the card

catalog of the library of the Geological Agency,

Bandung, containing titles of about 60 reports

and publications, written between 1927 and-

1943 (see also Reference lists).

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RADIOLARIA STUDIES Before 1927, relatively little work had been done

on fossil radiolaria of Indonesia. The only two

substantial publications were by British

paleontologist G.J. Hinde: in 1900 (Late Jurassic-

Early Cretaceous radiolaria from samples collected

by Molengraaff in Central Kalimantan), and in 1908 (Triassic-Cretaceous radiolaria from samples

collected by Verbeek in Roti, Savu, Sulawesi, etc.).

Tan Sin Hok's 1927 thesis work on radiolaria from

Roti island was thus a significant contribution.

Taxonomic description of assemblage from

Roti

Tan Sin Hok (1927) systematically described 4 new

genera and 141 species of radiolaria from four

marly limestone samples from an area West of

Bebalain, SW Roti. The assemblages are diverse, and well-preserved, and 138 of the species

identified were believed to be new (see Table 1).

The samples were collected by Brouwer in 1912

and Verbeek in 1899. Most species were found in

sample 150, but samples 149, 154 and 384 appear

to contain a lower diversity selection of the same species. Unfortunately, in his species descriptions

Tan did not specify from which of the samples the

holotype came from.

All described species were illustrated by hand-

drawn figures (selected examples in Figure 4). The only species identified by Tan as a previously-described species was Eucyrtidium cinctum (Hinde)

(= Dictyomitra cincta), originally described by Hinde

(1908) from a chert sample collected by Verbeek on

nearby Savu Island.

Age interpretation of Roti Radiolaria

Unfortunately, Tan Sin Hok's work did not do

much to stimulate the use of radiolaria as

biostratigraphic indicators. This was partly caused

by his misinterpretation of the age of the Roti

assemblages. For no apparent plausible reason, other than possible lithologic similarities with

nearby Neogene marls, Tan assumed the

radiolarian marls to also be of Late Neogene age. In

reality most species are now known to be mostly of

Early Cretaceous age, but some are regarded as Middle and Late Jurassic elements.

Figure 3. Doctoral Thesis of Tan Sin Hok at 'Technische Hogeschool Delft' in 1927, entitled ' On the

composition and genesis of chalks and marl rocks of the Moluccas'. With hand-written dedication to his

promotor Prof. Dr. H.A. Brouwer. It is a pioneering study of radiolarians and calcareous nannoplankton

from Cretaceous and Tertiary deep water sediments of Timor, Roti, Yamdena, Halmahera and Ambon.

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Riedel (1953) was the first to recognize the Late

Jurassic- Early Cretaceous age of the radiolaria

described by Tan from Roti Island (although Late Tertiary radiolaria are present in other samples

from Roti). Bukry (in Riedel and Sanfilippo, 1974)

analyzed calcareous nannofossils of Roti Sample

150 and concluded these were typical mid-

Cretaceous species. A survey of range charts by modern radiolaria workers shows that (1) several of Tan's species, like Dictyomitra pseudoscalaris

(Tan), Eucyrtidium (now Archeodictyomitra)

brouweri and Sphaerostylus lanceola are still being

used, (2) all of them are assigned an Early

Cretaceous age, and (3) none of them are younger

than early Aptian (Sanfilippo and Riedel 1985, Baumgartner 1992, Jasin and Haile 1996,

O'Dogerty 2009, etc.).

Many of the Tan Sin Hok radiolarian species from

Bebalain, Roti are also present in the Early

Cretaceous of East Sulawesi (Hojnos 1934), the

Barru area of South Sulawesi (Munasri 2013), the

Kolbano area of West Timor (Munasri, in prep.)

and Pulau Laut, South Kalimantan (Wakita et al., 1998). Some species were also found in Japan,

China, Europe and the Middle-Late Jurassic of

Panthalassan terranes of western North America (Hull 1997). Tricolocapsa ruesti Tan (also known as

T. rusti or Williriedellum ruesti) was subsequently

identified in the Middle Jurassic Wailuli Formation

of Roti (Sashida et al. 1999). This species appears to be most common in the Middle Jurassic, but

may range into Early Cretaceous (Paleobiology

Database).

Examples of Tan species found outside of Roti and their interpreted ages include: Pseudodictyomitra lilyae (Tan) (Early Cretaceous)

Dictyomitra pseudoscalaris (Tan) (Early Cretaceous)

Archeodictyomitra excellens (Tan) (Early

Cretaceous) Pantanellium squinaboli (Tan) (Late Jurassic- Early

Cretaceous) Hemicryptocapsa capita Tan (Early Cretaceous)

Cyrtocapsa grutterinki Tan (Middle Jurassic- Early

Cretaceous) Archeodictyomitra brouweri (Tan) (Early

Cretaceous) Sethocapsa rutteni (Tan) (Late Jurassic)

Tricolocapsa ruesti Tan (Middle Jurassic -Early

Cretaceous) Tricolocapsa parvipora Tan (Middle Jurassic)

Archicapsa pachiderma (Tan) (Early Jurassic).

The reason for Tan Sin Hok's major error in age

interpretation is not clear. He was undoubtedly

aware of the presence of Mesozoic radiolarian-rich

limestones on Roti Island, as his thesis advisor Brouwer (1922) had already identified radiolarian

marls from Roti with Triassic bivalves and with

Jurassic ammonites and belemnites. On p. 65 and

p. 73-74, Brouwer even argued that some of the

white radiolarian-rich marls near Bebalain (including samples 150, 154 which Verbeek (1908)

assumed to be of Neogene age), were more likely of

Mesozoic (Jurassic) age, because of the presence of

small manganese nodules (not known from Late

Tertiary marls but common in Jurassic), and

absence of planktonic foraminifera (common in true Neogene marls).

The use of Radiolaria as index fossils

In 1927, and at several occasions thereafter, Tan

Sin Hok expressed his doubts about the value of radiolaria as zonal markers, e.g. in Tan Sin Hok (1931, p. 95): "From the point of stratigraphy the radiolaria are of but small importance". It is not

clear what this strong statement was based on,

because at that time very few radiolarian

assemblages had been studied, and for most of

these there was no good independent age information available. It was probably driven by

his own misinterpretation of the Roti material,

which made him conclude that many species

ranged from Mesozoic to Neogene.

Figure 4. Examples of radiolaria from Bebalain,

Roti island, hand-drawn by Tan Sin Hok. These

are distinct species, which are found in several

places in Indonesia, Japan and Europe. 1.

Pseudodictyomitra lilyae (Tan), 2. Dictyomitra

pseudoscalaris (Tan), 3. Archaeodictyomitra

excellens (Tan), 4. Arcaheodictyomitra brouweri

(Tan), 5. Cyrtocapsa grutterinki Tan, 6.

Pantanellium squinaboli (Tan), 7.

Hemicryptocapsa capita Tan, 8. Tricolcapsa rusti

Tan, 9. Sethocapsa rutteni (Tan), 10.

Tricolocapsa parpivora Tan, 11. Archicapsa

pachiderma (Tan).

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TABLE 1 NEW TAXA DESCRIBED BY TAN SIN HOK

Calcareous

Nannofossils

(1927)

Family Discoasteraceae

Genus Discoaster, Eu-discoaster, Helio-discoaster, Hemi-discoaster

Species Discoaster brouweri, D. hilli, D. pentaradiatus, D. molengraaffi, D. triradiatus, D.

barbadiensis, D. ehrenbergi , D. barbadiensis , D. barbadiensis var. bebalaini

Radiolaria

(1927)

Genus Cenolarcopyle, Hemicryptocapsa, Stylocryptocapsa, Holocryptocapsa

Species

(138)

Caenosphaera immanis, Sphaeropyle chonopora, S. nova, S. fallax, Carposphaera

diversipora, C. haeckeli, Xiphosphaera tuberosa, Stylosphaera squinaboli,

Conosphaera tuberosa., Ellipsoxiphus rugosus, Lithapium spinosum, Spongodiscus

cribrosus, Cenolarcopyle fragilis, Stypolarcus laboriosus, Tripocalpis ellyae,

Cornutella apicata, C. acuta, C. procera, C. nitida, C. facilis, C. adunca, Archicorys

turgida, Cyrtocalpis operosa, C. pachyderma, C. digitiformis, Archicapsa guttiformi,

A. mutila, Dictyophimus gracilis, Peromelissa crassa, Sethoconus cordayae, S.

nashi, Sethocapsa martini, S. hastata, S. nobilis, Dicolocapsa verbeeki, D.

cephalocrypta, D. exquisita, Stylocapsa pachyderma, S. pylosa, S. hastellata,

Theocapsa urniformis, T. simplex, T. laevis, T. curata, T. elata, T. variabilis,

Tricolocapsa parva, T. dispar, T. pachyderma, T. simplex, T. parvipora, T. nodosa,

T. spinosa, T. frequens, T. triangulosa, T. riusti, Hemicryptocapsa capita, H.

regularis, H. pseudopilula, Stylocryptocapsa verbeeki, S. fallax, H olocryptocapsa

fallax, H. hindei, Lithostrobus erectus, L. nodosus, L. pseudomulticostatus, L.

dignus, L. ornatus, L. parvus, Dictyomitra mediocris, D. lilyae, Stichomitra

pseudoscalaris, Lithomitra excellens, L. pseudopinguis, Eucyrtidium parviporum, E.

brouweri, E. deformis, E. thiensis, Eusyringium kruizingai, E. niobeae, E. ingens,

Syringium ingens, S. molengraaffi, Lithocampe grutterinki, L. pseudochrysalis, L.

hanni, Cyrtocapsa grutterinki, C. houwi, C. horrida, C. molengraaffi, C. ovalis, C.

asseni, C. rottensis, C. piriformis, C. pseudacerra, C. gilseae, C. miserabilis, C.

pseudinauris, C. molukkensis, C. pseudoreticulata, C. indonesiensis, Stichocapsa

bebalainsis, S. wichmanni, S. rutteni, S. pseudornata, S. lageniformis, S.

pseudopentacola, S. pseudodecora, S. pseudocincta, S. fallax, S. singularis, S.

pseudapicata, Artocapsa bicornis, A. ultima

Larger

foraminifera

(1932-1939)

Family Miogypsinidae 1936

Genera Katacycloclypeus 1932, Radiocycloclypeus 1932, Vacuolispira 1936,

Conomiogypsinoides 1936, Eolepidina 1939

Species

Cycloclypeus koolhoveni, C. oppenoorthi, C. eidae, C. posteidae, C. inornatus, C.

postinornatuus, C. indopacificus, C. postindopacificus, Radiocycloclypeus stellatus,

R. radiatus, Katacycloclypeus transiens, K. posttransiens, K. biplicatus,

Heterostegina praecursor, H. bantamensis (all 1932), Lepidocyclina stratifera 1935,

L. omphalus 1935, L. zeijlmansi 1936, Miogypsinoides ubaghsi, M. bantamensis,

Miogypsina primitiva, M. borneensis, M. indonesiensis, M. musperi (all 1936),

Miolepidocyclina excentrica 1937

NEW TAXA named after TAN SIN HOK

Calcareous

Nannofossils

Genus Tansinius Filipescu and Hanganu 1960

Species Discoaster tani Bramlette and Riedel 1954, Discoaster tani nodifer Bramlette and

Riedel 1954, Discoaster tani ornatus Bramlette and Wilcoxon, 1967

Radiolaria Species Minocapsa tansinhoki Hull 1997, Acanthocircus tansinhoki Pessagno and Hull

2002

Larger

foraminifera

Genus Tansinhokella Banner and Hodgkinson 1991

Species Miogypsina tani Drooger 1952

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Tan Sin Hok (1935) critically reviewed the Hojnos

(1934) paper 'On age determinations based on

radiolarians of E Sulawesi'. Hojnos had identified

Late Jurassic- Early Cretaceous radiolaria in samples collected by Van Loczy in East Sulawesi,

but Tan argued that all radiolaria species were

long-ranging, should not be used for age

determination, and that some of the Sulawesi

species also occurred in the Neogene of Roti. As we

know now, Tan was wrong in his age interpretation of the Roti samples and the Hojnos (1934)

interpretation was probably quite reasonable.

Tan's misguided skepticism on the use of

radiolaria as index fossils may have been the reason why he never conducted any further

studies on radiolaria after his 1927 thesis work.

CALCAREOUS NANNOFOSSIL STUDIES

Calcareous nannoplankton (coccoliths) are a group

of extremely small calcareous planktonic algae (2-

30 microns), which require very high-magnification

(x500 or more) for study. Studies of this group started with Ehrenberg (1836), but very little

systematic work was done between their initial

discovery and the routine use of these forms in

biostratigraphy since the 1960's.

Discoasters from Roti The papers and thesis of Tan Sin Hok (1926, 1927,

1931) on the star-shaped sub-group he named

'Discoasters' from Neogene marls of Roti and Timor

were a pioneering effort. Discoasters are now the

most important calcareous nannofossil group for biostratigraphic zonation of the Cenozoic of

tropical and subtropical provinces. Several of the

new names proposed by Tan are still in use today

and some have become significant zonal marker species (Discoaster brouweri, Discoaster pentaradiatus, Discoaster barbadiensis, etc ; Figure 5, 6).

Most of Tan Sin Hok's nannofossil material was

from Sample 168 from the Bebalain area of South

Roti, collected by Brouwer in 1912. This sample

from Roti was restudied several times. Kamptner (1955) described 99 additional new species of

nannossils. Martini (1971) examined the material

and placed it in zone NN10. Jafar (1975) also

identified many additional species, including index species Discoaster bollii, D. hamatus and Catinaster coalitus, and the determined age of the sample as

within zone upper NN9, late Middle Miocene. The sample also contains reworked Cretaceous, Eocene

and Early Miocene nannoplankton.

Tan Sin Hok (1927) proposed eight new species of

'calcareous asterisks', which were all assigned to the genus Discoaster. Later workers have described

over 200 additional species of this genus, of which

about 100 are commonly used. Unfortunately, Tan

was not very careful in his systematic descriptions

of his proposed family Discoasteridae and its

members, although, in Tan's defense, the rules of

the Internal Commisions of Zoological and

Botanical Nomenclature were not as well-defined

then as they are today (and in 1927 it was not even known whether coccoliths were animals or plants). The genus name Discoaster was

apparently used by Tan only as an informal name,

without generic description and without

designating a type species. All new species of

discoasterids in Tan's 1927 paper were assigned to Discoaster, but they were also classified into three

formally described (sub-)genera: - Eu-discoaster (star-shaped discosterids; type

species Discoaster brouweri Tan; other new species

in this genus: Discoaster hilli, D. pentaradiatus). In

Tan (1931) considered synonym of Discoaster; - Helio-discoaster (rosette-shaped discoasterids;

type species Discoaster barbadiensis Tan; other

new species in this genus: Discoaster barbadiensis var. bebalaini, D. ehrenbergi); - Hemi-discoaster (star-shaped discoasterids with

arms welded together; type species Discoaster molengraaffii Tan; other new species in this genus:

Discoaster triradiatus). The distinguishing feature

is now believed to be a diagenetic variation of Eu-discoaster, so genus and species are invalid.

According to the nomenclatural rules of today, the name Discoaster and all of Tan's new species are

legally invalid because they lack type species

designation, holotypes and type localities (Prins

1971, Theodoridis 1983, Doweld 2014). One of the new species (Discoaster triradiatus) was never

figured. Some of these omissions were 'fixed' by Loeblich and Tappan (1963, 1966). Today it is

common practice to include all discoasterid species in Discoaster and ignore Tan Sin Hok's other three

genus names, although this is historically

incorrect. A proposal by Doweld (2014) intends to

legitimize this practice.

The use of Calcareous nannofossils as index

fossils

Tan Sin Hok (1927) did not realize how successful

discoasterids were going to be in future

biostratigraphic applications when he claimed that "Discoasteridae, etc. are of little value from a stratigraphic point of view". Part of the reason may

have been that some of his samples apparently

contained mixed assemblages with reworked species (e.g. Middle- Late Eocene Discoaster barbadiensis Tan associated with Miocene species).

Subsequent work, starting with Bramlette and Riedel (1954) and expanded by Bukry, Martini,

Gartner, Perch-Nielsen, etc., has proven that

nannofossils are very useful biostratigraphic

indicators, and are now one of the primary tools

for high-resolution age dating of Cretaceous- Cenozoic marine sediments. As noted for

radiolaria, Tan's misguided skepticism on the use

of calcareous nannofossils as index fossils may

have been the reason why he never conducted any

further studies on this group after his 1927 thesis

work.

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Another apparent weakness in Tan's (1927) work is his interpretation of depositional environments of

the nannofossil marls from Roti and Timor, which

he interpreted as 'low-energy, lagoonal deposits',

instead of the deep marine pelagic sediments that

most workers today would view these as.

FORAMINIFERA STUDIES A pioneer of evolution of Cenozoic larger

foraminifera (1930-1939)

When Tan Sin Hok arrived at his first job at the

Paleontological Laboratory of the Geological Survey ('Dienst Mijnwezen') in Bandung in 1928, he found

a significant collection of Cenozoic larger

foraminifera from Indonesia, built by his

predecessors I.M. van der Vlerk and J.H.F.

Umbgrove. Both of them had already published

multiple papers on larger foraminifera, including their milestone 1927 joint paper proposing the

larger foraminifera biozonation now known as the

'East Indies Letter Classification', which is still in

use for dating shallow marine carbonates in SE

Asia.

Van der Vlerk and Umbgrove, and most

micropaleontologists before and after Tan Sin Hok,

initially used the traditional, 'typological' approach

to taxonomy in larger foraminifera: new species

were defined on morphological criteria, and a holotype was designated and illustrated. Species

are then identified as to similarity with the selected

holotype. Such classification is generally artificial

as it does not capture normal variability within

populations, and has led to a proliferation of species names, based on difference is size, shape,

ornamentation, etc. Many of which are 'normal'

variants in single populations, which do not

deserve separate species names.

From 1931-1941 Tan Sin Hok published a series of papers demonstrating the existence of more-or-less

gradual evolution in several lineages of Cenozoic

larger foraminifera from Indonesia. These evolutionary series of Heterostegina to

Cycloclypeus, Heterostegina to Spiroclypeus, Pararotalia to Miogypsina and Lepidocyclina show

similar, parallel changes over periods of 12-30

million years. A review of Tan's larger foram work

by the Swiss NKPM/Stanvac paleontologist in

Palembang Hans Thalmann (1938) is one of many

papers to endorse the merits of Tan Sin Hok's

novel approaches to larger foraminifera. Several examples of Tan's work were also discussed in

Lunt and Allan (2004) and Van Gorsel, Lunt and

Morley (2014).

Several new genera and species of larger foraminifera were described by Tan. Some of these are still in use, including Katacycloclypeus, Radiocycloclypeus and Cycloclypeus koolhoveni

(see Table 1).

1. On the genus Cycloclypeus Carpenter (1932)

Tan Sin Hok's first major work on larger foraminifera was the 1932 book on the genus Cycloclypeus, mainly from SW Java, a work called

'an outstanding monograph' by Drooger (1955).

Figure 5. Calcareous nannofossils of Discoaster

group from Neogene of Roti (Tan Sin Hok 1927): 1.

Coccolithophora leptophora, 2-3 Discoaster ehrenbergi

(= D. multiradiatus= reworked Paleogene), 4 D.

barbadiensis var. bebalaini (= reworked Eocene?), 5-8

D. brouweri var. beta, gamma (= D. challengeri), theta,

9-11 D. molengraaffi (= D. brouweri), 12 'coccolith', 13.

D. brouweri var. alpha, 14 D. pentaradiatus.

Figure 6. Discoaster tani and Discoaster tani

nodifer; a new species and subspecies named after

Tan Sin Hok by Bramlette and Riedel (1954).

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Its main merit is that it documents (1) the

evolution from an earliest Oligocene large Heterostegina ancestral species into Cycloclypeus

by acquiring a concentric growth pattern, (2) how

through this concentric growth is reached progressively earlier in the ontogeny from

Oligocene-Recent (Figure 7), (3) classified the

successive stages of the main lineage into species

based on their degree of evolution; (4) documents the existence of two side-lineages Katacycloclypeus

and Radiocycloclypeus.

This work also contains a discussion of the

mechanism of the evolutionary processes.

Evolutionary change was viewed as being

independent of environment, caused by genetic shifts, with each genetic shift resulting in a

mutational step. Tan argued that evolution in Cycloclypeus was not entirely gradual, but that

distinct abundance peaks of 32, 30, 27, 24, 21, 19,

17, 15, 12, 6, 4 and 3 pre-cyclic nepionic stages

suggested stepwise small mutations. Subsequent workers have been unable to confirm such peaks and distinct mutational steps in Cycloclypeus

(Drooger 1955, MacGillavry 1962) or in other larger

foraminifera (e.g. Van der Vlerk and Gloor 1968).

Instead, larger foram workers tend to not find only

gradual shifts in progress in successive populations, primarily towards reaching more

efficient radial symmetry (Drooger, 1993).

2. Studies on Lepidocyclina (1934-1936)

Earlier workers like Douville, Rutten, Van der

Vlerk and others had already done much work to describe and name Oligocene-Miocene Lepidocyclina species from Indonesia.

Lepidocyclinids are generally viewed as immigrants

from The Americas into SE Asia in Early Oligocene

time, but Tan Sin Hok (1936) described the primitive species Lepidocyclina (Polylepidina) zeijlmansi from the Eocene of the upper Kutai

Basin, C. Kalimantan, which shows similarities to Orbitosiphon species from NE India (Rutten 1950).

3. Studies on Spiroclypeus (1937) In the 1930's the Spiroclypeus larger foram group

was known only from the Late Oligocene- Early Miocene in the Indo-Pacific province (but not

Europe), except for some disputed occurrences in

North Borneo. Tan Sin Hok (1937) was the first to describe the Late Eocene species Spiroclypeus vermicularis from beds with Pellatispira and other

Eocene marker fossils in the upper Kutai Basin of Kalimantan. Spiroclypeus is now known to

represent two parallel evolutionary developments,

one in Late Eocene and the other within the Late Oligocene, both evolving from Heterostegina

ancestors by the acquisition of lateral chambers

(see also Lunt and Renema, 2014).

Figure 7. Composite figure with illustrations from Tan Sin Hok (1932) On the genus

Cycloclypeus. Drawings of horizontal sections on top row show evolution from Operculina with

spirally arranged chambers (A) to Heterostegina with subdivided-spiral chambers (B) to

Cycloclypeus with concentrically arranged chambers (C) and Recent C. guembelianus. Photos

on bottom row Early Oligocene Heterostegina depressa from SW Java and microspheric Miocene

Cycloclypeus eidae from East Kalimantan.

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4. Studies on Miogypsinidae (1936-1937)

A series of six papers in the journal 'De Ingenieur

in Nederlandsch Indie' ('The Engineer in the

Netherlands Indies') documents the evolution and distribution of species of the important Late

Oligocene- Middle Miocene miogypsinid group. In it

Tan Sin Hok documented the evolution from a small benthic Rotalia species to primitive

Miogypsinoides in the Late Oligocene by the

development of partial concentric growth of

chambers. This is followed by a gradual reduction in the number of spiral chambers prior to

concentric growth (Miogypsinoides complanata to

M. bantamensis to M. dehaartii) (Figure 9). At the

start of the Miocene, miogypsinids starts to acquire

lateral chambers, which then defines them as members of the genus Miogypsina (Figure 8). The main Early-Middle Miocene Miogypsina lineage is

further subdivided into evolutionary stages of

successively shorter initial spiral nepionic stages (Miogypsina gunteri- M. tani- M. globulina- M. cushmani or M. indonesiensis- M. antillea) (Figure

9).

Figure 8. Left to right:

1. Miogypsinoides

bantamensis Tan

1936- horizontal

section, 2.

Miogypsinoides-

vertical section;3.

Miogypsina kotoi-

horizontal section, 4.

Miogypsina musperi

Tan- vertical section

(all from East

Kalimantan).

Figure 9. Schematic

view of Late Oligocene-

Middle Miocene

evolutionary

development of

miogypsinid embryonic

stages, mainly based

on work of Tan Sin Hok

(from Lunt and Allan

2004).

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5. Larger Foram Zonation and the 'Letter

Classification' (1936, 1939)

In 1936 and 1939 Tan Sin Hok published two

papers on zonation of larger foraminifera, in which he was critical of the latest version of the 'East

Indies Letter Classification' as proposed by

Leupold and Van der Vlerk (1931). He questioned

the validity of certain zonal definitions, like Top Assilina = Top Ta, Base Lepidocyclina = Base Td,

base Spiroclypeus = base Te2, base Miogypsina =

base Te5, etc. Tan's objections are partly valid, but despite these, the Letter Stage zonation has held

up quite well as a 'first-pass' zonation and age

interpretation tool for Indonesian limestones.

6. Evolution and the phylomorphogenetic classification of larger foraminifera

In and after 1936 Tan further elaborated the

principle of 'nepionic acceleration' in several

lineages of larger foraminifera. It states that in

successive populations the ancestral initial stage

of spirally-arranged chambers becomes progressively shorter, and the concentric growth

stage is reached progressively earlier in the

ontogeny.

These well-documented evolutionary trends formed the basis of Tan's 'phylomorphogenetic analysis'

approach to Cenozoic larger foraminifera

classification and zonation. Instead of classifying

foraminifera into morphotypes populations can

now be characterized based on evolutionary

development of the embryonic stages. Instead of names populations may now be characterized by

measurements or counts of parameters that

characterize the embryonic chamber

arrangements. These parameters show consistent

changes through time, which then allow much finer biostratigraphic refinement than the popular

'Letter Classification'. These parameters are also

independent of paleoenvironmental factors, which

is important because a 'base' or a 'top' of a larger

foram genus/species in a stratigraphic profile is

rarely its true evolutionary appearance or extinction level, but is usually marks a change in

facies.

Although subsequent workers refined and modified

the work started by Tan Sin Hok (mainly by Dutch Schools headed by Van der Vlerk in Leiden,

Drooger in Utrecht and MacGillavry in

Amsterdam), the basic trends identified by Tan

remained unchanged. I.M. van der Vlerk was a

good example of a larger foram specialist who changed his approach to Lepidocyclina after Tan

Sin Hok's work, evolving from the traditional

naming of species based on morphologic types in

the 1920's to characterizing lepidocyclinid

populations by measured parameters of the

embryon in the 1950's and later (Van der Vlerk

(1955, 1959), Van der Vlerk and Gloor (1968)). The main contributions of modern workers include

improved calibrations of larger foram zones and

evolutionary stages to other biozonations like

planktonic foraminifera and to the standard time

scale.

FINAL THOUGHT

The 'Modern Paleontology' of Tan Sin Hok:

where did it go?

Mohler (1938) wrote a glowing review of Tan Sin Hok's ongoing larger foraminifera work. Translated from German, he wrote "Each insightful paleontologist will agree that the hitherto followed traditional method of species identification must be abandoned unconditionally in favor of the evolutionary-morphogenetic method. The old method will not lead to progress, but will at best complicate the nomenclature. It is now no longer only about an inventory of foraminifera in sediments, but about a

direct phylogenetically oriented chronology....The modern paleontologist will gradually be liberated from the shackles of purely descriptive systematics. The aim of paleontologists is not only in distinguishing and describing new systematic units, but to find, develop and interpret laws...to complete deciphering of the essence fossil documents. The future and development of foraminifera paleontology lies solely in morphogenetic phylogenetic, biostratigraphically-paleontologic analysis and synthesis of fossils"

Unfortunately, the Tan Sin Hok approach of

biometrically classifying larger foram populations has not been universally followed, except by the

Dutch micropaleontology 'schools' and occasional

other workers like Papp and Kupper in Austria and

Chaproniere in Australia. British, Japanese,

American, etc. workers tended not to think in these new terms. This is probably not because of

negative perceptions of the validity of Tan's

approach, but mainly because most his work was

relatively inaccessible to much of the world outside

The Netherlands and Netherlands Indies, due to

languages in which most papers were written (Dutch, German) and to the limited distributions of

the journals in which they were published.

Another limiting factor is undoubtedly the time-

consuming preparation of a statistically significant

number of oriented thin sections required for this

type of analysis.

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS (1926-1943) Tan Sin Hok, 1926. On a young Tertiary limestone on

the isle of Rotti with coccoliths, calci and manganese peroxide spherulites. Proc. Kon. Nederl.

Akad. Wetensch., Amsterdam, 29, 8, p. 1095-1105. Tan Sin Hok, 1927. Over de samenstelling en het

ontstaan van krijt- en mergel-gesteenten van de Molukken. Jaarboek Mijnwezen Nederl.-Indie 55 (1926), Verhand. 3, p. 5-165. (also Ph.D. Thesis, Delft University, 165p.)

Tan Sin Hok, 1927. Discoasteridae Incertae Sedis. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., Amsterdam, 30, 3, p. 411-419.

Tan Sin Hok, 1930. Enkele opmerkingen over de stratigraphische verspreiding van Trybliolepidina v.d. Vlerk. De Mijningenieur 11, p. 144-146.

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Tan Sin Hok, 1930. Over Spiroclypeus met opmerkingen over zijn stratigraphische verspreiding. De Mijningenieur 11, 9, p. 180-184.

Tan Sin Hok, 1930. Over Cycloclypeus: voorlopige resultaten eener biostratigraphische studie. De Mijningenieur 11, 12, p. 233-242.

Tan Sin Hok, 1931. Discoasteridae, Coccolithinae and Radiolaria. In: B.G. Escher et al. (eds.) De palaeontologie en stratigraphie van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie, Feestbundel K. Martin, Leidsche Geol. Meded. 5, p. 92-114.

Tan Sin Hok, 1932. On the genus Cycloclypeus Carpenter, Part 1 and an appendix on the Heterostegines of Tjimanggoe, S. Bantam, Java. Wetensch. Meded. Dienst Mijnbouw Nederlands Indie, 19, p. 1-194.

Tan Sin Hok (1933. Notiz uber das Basalskelett von "Verbeekina". Wetensch. Meded. Dienst Mijnbouw Nederl.-Indie 25, p. 57-65.

Tan Sin Hok, 1933. Uber Leptodus (Lyttonia auctorum) cf. tenuis (Waagen) vom Padanger Oberland (Mittel Sumatra). Wetensch. Meded. Dienst Mijnbouw Nederl.-Indie 25, p. 66-70.

Tan Sin Hok, 1934. Uber mikrosphare Lepidocyclinen von Ngampel (Rembang, Mitteljava). De Ingenieur

in Nederl.-Indie (IV), 1, 12, p. 2-3-211. Tan Sin Hok, 1935. Over ouderdomsbepalingen op grond

van radiolarien van Oost-Celebes. De Ingenieur in Nederl. Indie 1935, IV, 4, p. 31-33.

Tan Sin Hok, 1935. Zur Theorie des Trimorphismus und zum Initialpolymorphismus der Foraminiferen. Natuurk. Tijdschr. Nederl. Indie, 45, 3, p. 171-188.

Tan Sin Hok, 1935. Uber Lepidocyclina gigantea Martin von Sud-Priangan (West-Java), Tegal (Mittel-Java) und Benkoelen (Sud-Sumatra). De Ingenieur in Nederl.-Indie (IV), 2, 1, p. 1-8.

Tan Sin Hok, 1935. Zwei neue mikrosphare Lepidocyclinen von Java. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-Indie (IV), 2, 2, p. 9-18.

Tan Sin Hok, 1935. Die peri-embryonalen Aquatorialkammern bei einigen Orbitoiden. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-Indie (IV, Mijnbouw en Geologie), 2, 12, p. 113-126.

Tan Sin Hok, 1936. Bemerkungen uber die Cycloclypeen von Sipoera (Mentawai-Inseln). Geol. Mijnbouw 15, 7, p. 57-58.

Tan Sin Hok, 1936. Vindplaatsen van Globotruncana Cushman in West-Borneo. Natuurk. Tijdschr.

Nederl.-Indie 96, 1, p. 14-18.

Tan Sin Hok, 1936. Lepidocyclina zeijlmansi n.sp., eine neue Polylepidina von Zentral Borneo, nebst Bemerkungen uber die verschiedenen Entstehungsweisen der Lepidocyclinen. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie (IV, Mijnbouw en Geol.), 3, 1, p. 7-14.

Tan Sin Hok (1936. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Lepidocycliniden. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch. 39, 8, p. 990-999.

Tan Sin Hok, 1936. Zur Kenntnis der Lepidocycliniden. Natuurk. Tijdschr. Nederl.-Indie 96, p. 235-280.

Tan Sin Hok, 1936. Zur Kenntnis der Miogypsiniden. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie (IV), 3, 3, p. 45-61.

Tan Sin Hok, 1936. Zur Kenntnis der Miogypsiniden. I Fortzetsung. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie ( IV) 3, 5, p. 84-98.

Tan Sin Hok, 1936. Zur Kenntnis der Miogypsiniden. II Fortzetsung und Schlusz. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie (IV), 3, 7, p. 109-123.

Tan Sin Hok, 1936. Over verschillende paleontologische criteria voor de geleding van het Tertiair. De Ingenieur in Nederl. lndie (IV), 3, 9, p. 173-179.

Tan Sin Hok, 1937. Note on Miogypsina kotoi Hanzawa. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie (IV), 4, 2, p. 3-32.

Tan Sin Hok, 1937. Weitere Untersuchungen uber die Miogypsiniden I. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-Indie (IV), 4, 3, p. 35-45.

Tan Sin Hok, 1937. Weitere Untersuchungen uber die Miogypsiniden II. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie (IV), 4, 6, p. 87-111.

Tan Sin Hok, 1937. On the genus Spiroclypeus Douville with a description of the Eocene Spiroclypeus

vermicularis nov. sp. from Koetai in East Borneo. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-Indie (IV), 4, 10, p. 177-193.

Tan Sin Hok,1939. On Polylepidina, Orbitocyclina and Lepidorbitoides. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie (IV), 6, 5, p. 53-84.

Tan Sin Hok, 1939. The results of phylomorphogenetic studies of some larger foraminifera (a review). De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie (IV), 6, 7, p. 93-97. (also in 6th Pacific Science Congress, California 1939)

Tan Sin Hok, 1939. Remarks on the “Letter

classification” of the East Indian Tertiary. De Ingenieur in Nederl.-lndie (IV), 6, 7, p. 98-101.

Tan Sin Hok, 1943. Note on the occurrence of Miogypsinoides Yabe and Hanzawa in Oligocene deposits. Proc. Imp. Acad. Tokyo 19, 9, p. 585-586.

UNPUBLISHED REPORTS AT GEOLOGICAL AGENCY, BANDUNG (with Catalog Numbers) 1937. Verslag van het onderzoek van foraminiferen

gesteenten van blad 26 Sagaranten Java, 26 p. (E37-30).

1938. Orienteerend onderzoek van een collectie foraminiferengesteenten van Mangkalihat, ten behoeve van Ir. Ubaghs, 2p. (F38-3).

1939. Foraminiferen van het Kusttertiair ten Noorden der Mahakkam en ten Zuiden der Bungalun, op ground collectie Ir. Harting, 64p. (F39-5).

1939. Foraminiferen van Koetai uit de collectie Ir. Pott, 31p. (F39-7).

1939. Rapport over het onderzoek van foraminiferen gesteenten van Mangkalihat en Sangkulirang, 21p. (F39-8).

1939. Samenvatting der resultaten en werkzaamheden over 1938, 15p. (F39-11).

1939. Over foraminiferen gesteenten van Bl. 70 B en 74 A (Java), 4 p. Paleontologi laporan. (E39-16).

1940. Report on the investigation of potash-feldspar and molybdemite by the mantri surveyors Wagimin and Riswani in the granite areas of the Lampong district, 7 p. (E40-1).

1940. Verslag van een tocht naar de kleivindplaatsen van Banjoeasin Kembaran (Res. Kedoe) op 7 Augustus 1940 (Report on a trip to the clay area at

Banyuasin-Kembaran, Kedu on 7th August 1940), 2 p. (E40-8?)

1940. Verslag van een tocht naar zuid Madiun (B1 95) in de maand Februari 1940 ten behoeve van een onderzoek naar gips, hars en marmer, 58p. (E40-14, E40-15, E40-8) (Report to South Madiun on February 1940 concerning the research to gypsum, resin and marble)

1940. Verslag van een onderzoek van een onderzoek van de mariene glastuffen ten zuiden van Nanggoelan (Gouv. Jogyakarta 76A), 17p. (E40-101).

1940. Verslag van een tocht in het kwartszandsteengebied in de omgeving van Sermo (Blad 72, Poerworedjo) in Juli-Augustus ’40 (E40-102) (Report about a trip in the quartz sandstone area in the surroundings of Sermo (sh. 72, Poerworedjo) in July-August 1940, 10p. (E41-56).

1940. Verslag van een bespreking met den heer F.U.M. Bunning op 25 Juli 1940 over bleekaarde, gips, krijt, vormzand en veldspaat, 8p. (About clay and Feldspar deposit in Aceh). (A40-14).

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1941. Report on the investigation about the usefulness for the glass and ceramic industry of potash feldspar rocks of the Lampung districts. Second supplementary report, 6p. (A41-3).

1941. Rapport over eenige chemische analyses van kaliveldspaat van de Lampongsche districten (aanvullend rapport), 3p. (A41-12).

1941. Voorloopig verslag van een orienteerende tocht naar de dolomiet kalken ten N van Kp. Sekapoe (Bl 114 C) op 13 December 1940, 4p. (E41-17).

1941. Report on some chemical analyses of potassium feldspar from the Districts of Lampong (Suplementary report), 3p. (A41-39).

1941. Report on an investigation of the occurrences of gypsum at Djatirogo (sheet 97), Tjepu (sheet 98), Bodjonegoro (sheet 104) and Lamongan (sheet 109) by the mantri surveyors Arsad and Andojo during April and May 1941, 11p. (E41-64).

1941. Report on the investigation about the usefulness

for the glass and ceramic industry of Potash feldspar rocks of the Lampung district, (second supplementary report), 6p. (E41-44).

1941. Verslag over een onderzoek naar het voorkomen van gips op de Bladen 97 (Djatirogo), 98 (Tjepoe), 104 (Bodjonegoro) en 109 (Lamongan), 21p. (E41-79).

1941. Report on a trip to the dolomitic rocks of the Sekarkoeroeng anticlines South of Grissek sheet 115h., 8p. (E41-81).

1941. Verslag van een tocht van 8-22 Dec. naar gips, glastuf, kalk en zandvoorkomens in de residentie Jogyakarta, Soerabaya en Madura, 34p. (E41-26, E41-28).

1941. Rapport inzake de vestiging van een glas bedrijf in het Toebansche, 22p. (E41-31).

1942. Nota over aluin vindplaatsen op Java, 11p. (E42-57).

1942. Preliminary report on the geology of Lebaknangka section of the Cimandiri coal field, 7p. (E42-49).

1942. Preliminary report on the investigation of the Cimandiri coal field, 2 p. (E42-48).

1942. The results of an investigation of the eastern part of the Sukabumi-Cibadak coalfield during June 6th- June 16th, 2602 (1942), 19p. (E42-45).

1942. I. Result of an investigation of the granite of Pasir Tendjolaut (South of Karangnunggal). II. The mineralogical and chemical composition of the iron ore of Pasir Tendjolaut, S of Karangnunggal (sheet 45B), 5 p. (E42-41).

1942. The Oligocene coal-area of Cikarang (Cimandiri coalfield, sheet 14: Bayah), 15p. (E42-51).

1942. Gips vindplaatsen op Madoera, 16p. (E42-62). 1942. Preliminary report on the geology of Lebaknangka

section of the Cimandiri coal field, 7p. (E42-49). 1943. Our present knowledge concerning the geology

and the industrial value of the vitric tuff in the region South of Nanggulan (E43-38).

1943. Memorandum on the prospection of Kalium feldspar in the year 1940 and 1941, 5 p. (A43-13).

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO WORK AND LIFE OF TAN SIN HOK

General Lunt, P., 2013. Foraminiferal micropalaeontology in SE

Asia In: A.J. Bowden et al. (eds.) Landmarks in foraminiferal micropalaeontology: history and development, The Micropalaeontological Society, Spec. Publ. 6, Geol. Soc. London, p. 193-206.

McGowran, B., 2013. Martin Glaessner's foraminiferal micropaleontology. In: A.J. Bowden et al. (eds.) Landmarks in foraminiferal micropaleontology: history and development, The Micropaleontological

Society, Geol. Soc., London, Spec. Publ., p. 227-250.

Munasri, 2014. Tan Sin Hok: ahli mikropaleontologi kelas dunia dari Cianjur. Geomagz 4, 2, p. 86-87.

Thalmann, H.E., 1949. Tan Sin Hok 1902-1945. The Micropaleontologist 3, 4, p. 25-26.

Calcareous Nannofossils Bramlette, M.N. and Riedel, W.R., 1954. Stratigraphic

value of discoasters and some other microfossils

related to Recent coccolithophores. J. Paleontology 28, p. 385-403.

Doweld, A.B., 2014. Proposals to conserve the name Discoaster against Eu-discoaster, Helio-discoaster and Hemi-discoaster, and the names Heliodiscoaster and Hemidiscoaster with those spellings (fossil Prymnesiophyta (Algae) vel Haptomonada (Protista)). Taxon 63, 1, p. 195-197.

Honjo, S. and Minoura, N., 1968. Discoaster barbadiensis Tan Sin Hok and the geologic age of the Setogawa Group. Proc. Japan Academy 44, 3, p. 165-169.

Jafar, S.A., 1975. Calcareous nannoplankton from the Miocene of Rotti, Indonesia. Verhand. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch., Afd. Natuurkunde, ser. 1, 28, p. 1-99.

Kamptner, E., 1955. Fossile Coccolithineen-Skelettreste

aus Insulinde; eine mikropalaeontologische Untersuchung. Verhand. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wet., Amsterdam, ser. 2, 50, 2, p. 1-105.

Loeblich, A.R. and Tappan, H., 1966. Type fixation and validation of certain calcareous nannoplankton genera. Proc. BioI. Soc. Washington 76, p. 191-196.

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Book Review : Mesozoic Geology and Paleontology of

Misool Archipelago, Eastern Indonesia By Fauzie Hasibuan (Geological Agency); published in 2012 by the Geological Agency, Ministry

of Energy and Mineral Resources, Republic of Indonesia

Reviewed by Herman Darman (Shell International EP).

Scientific publications on the Mesozoic of Eastern Indonesia are very rare. This region is relatively

remote and accesses to outcrops are generally

difficult. Recent publications are predominantly

published by petroleum companies based on their

subsurface data. It is important to integrate subsurface and outcrops to understand the

geology of the area. Hasibuan’s research on

becomes important piece of information because

he worked entirely based on outcrop data.

Misool Island is located in the west of the ‘bird head’ of Papua. Silurian-Devonian age formation

cropped out in the south of this island. The

stratigraphy is younging towards the north and

end with Paleocene age formation in the north. In

term of stratigraphy, this island has the most complete section in East Indonesia. Therefore,

geological study on Misool Island is a key to

understand the regional setting in this area.

The Geological Agency published this book in soft

cover, containing 230 pages, including color

figures and outcrop photos. The book is 24.3 cm x 17.3 cm in size (Figure 1). As Hasibuan’s thesis

focus on macro-paleontology he included 22 black

and white photos plates of macro fossils, together

with their descriptions. The book is structured as

followed: 1. Intro (12 pages)

2. Regional geology (29 pages)

3. Systematic paleontology (133 pages)

4. Biostratigraphy (9 pages)

5. Biostratigraphic correlation and age (11 pages)

6. Paleogeography and geological history (3 pages) 7. Conclusions (2 pages)

8. References (24 pages)

The nice colorful stratigraphic column of Misool

Island summarized the stratigraphy of the outcrops which exposed mostly in the

southeastern part of the island and adjacent islets.

The geological map also shown the stratigraphic

divisions of the island, which probably better to

put in a larger folded sheet.

The author put detail descriptions of7

Brachiopods, 3 Annelids, 3 Gastropods, 58

Bivalves, 4 Nautiloids and 26 Ammonoids. Based

on these fossils and their distribution, a

stratigraphic correlation was established in chapter 5. Hasibuan also included global

biostratigraphic correlation panels, where he

compared Misool stratigraphy with other location in and outside Indonesia.

Figure 2 shows an example of the pictures plate of

the macro-fossils described in this book. Hasibuan provide the detail description with dimensions,

location of occurrences, age, diagnosis and his

personal remarks.

Figure 3 contain examples of outcrop photos discussed in this book.

This book is an excellent example of stratigraphic

work, which is done by a professional. It is very

important for university libraries to have a copy of

this book, so that students can see an example of a research on stratigraphy, and the lecturers can

use it as a teaching material. It is also

recommended for those who work in this region to

Figure 1. Book cover of "Mesozoic Geology and Paleontology of Misool Archipelago, Eastern Indonesia" by F. Hasibuan

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refer to this book as it discuss stratigraphic type

localities.

The book is available from

Geological Agency of the Republic of Indonesia,

general contact information

URL: http://www.bgl.esdm.go.id

Address: Jl. Diponegoro No.57, Bandung, 40122, Jawa Barat, Indonesia

Telephone: +62 22 721 5297; Fax: +62 22 721 6444; Email: [email protected]

.

Figure 3. Example of macro fossil photos.

This plate include pictures of Unionites sp,.

Scale bar is 1 cm.

Figure 2. Example of color figures of

outcrops.

http://www.bgl.esdm.go.id/

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Covers of selected paleontologic publications on paleontology of Indonesia.

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Covers of selected paleontologic publications on paleontology of Indonesia (cont’d).

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Berita Sedimentologi BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA … · Kalinampu area, Bayat, Klaten,...

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