I. Metcalfe

University of New England (Australia) | UNE · School of Environmental and Rural Science

Conodont biostratigraphic and high-precision U-Pb isotope data are presented for the Permian-Triassic transition in three limestone hills, Gua Bama, Gua Panjang and Gua Sei, in the Malay Peninsula. Gua Bama yielded conodonts representating the Clarkina orientalis, Clarkina wangi and Clarkina subcarinata zones and the Wuchiapingian-Changhsingian sta...

Unitary Association Method (UAM) analyses of conodont faunas from 28 sections spanning the biggest Phanerozoic end-Permian mass extinction and significant global environmental and ecosystem perturbations during the succeeding Early Triassic are presented. Based on 72 conodont species, 26 Unitary Association Zones (UAZs) are established for the late...

Eleven conodont zones are established for the Lower Triassic of the Motianling section in the Nanpanjiang Basin, South China. Detailed size measurements on 2244 P1 conodont elements demonstrate dynamic size variation patterns during the Early Triassic that are calibrated to the Early Triassic timescale and conodont zonation. Correlation of conodont...

Sundaland, the continental core of SE Asia, is a heterogeneous collage of continental blocks and volcanic arcs bounded by narrow suture zones that represent the remnants of ancient ocean basins. All the continental blocks of Sundaland were derived directly or indirectly from the Arabia-India–Australia margin of eastern Gondwana by the opening and c...

The Sukhothai Terrane in northern Thailand comprises a continental basement and a Permo-Triassic magmatic arc related to the subduction of the main Paleo-Tethys Ocean. The Donchai Group represents the oldest sedimentary sequence of the Sukhothai Terrane and consists mainly of meta-sandstone, quartzo-feldspathic schist, phyllite and silty slate. Thi...

Late Kungurian (Lower Permian) conodonts are described from the Kanthan Limestone, Perak, Peninsular Malaysia and for the first time from the Sibumasu Terrane of the Malay Peninsula. The co-occurrence of Gullodus duani , Gullodus hemicircularis, Gullodus sicilianus, Mesogondolella lamberti and Mesogondolella siciliensis represent the Mesogondolella...

Marine macroinvertebrate fossils from two petroleum exploration cores, Apium-1 and Redback-2, are described, and found to contain two separate assemblages. The assemblage from the Apium-1 core was recovered from an ca 5-m-thick interval (2756.35–2751.28 m) in the basal Hovea Member (‘inertinitic interval’) of the Kockatea Shale and includes the fol...

Brief pulses of intense volcanic eruptions along convergent margins emit substantial volatiles that drive climatic excursions that can lead to major extinction events. However, correlating volcanic outpouring to environmental crises in the geological past is often difficult due to poor preservation of volcanic sequences and the need for precise dat...

Four Tethyan ocean basins are recognised in Asia, the Proto-Tethys (Late Proterozoic - Silurian), Palaeo-Tethys (Middle Devonian - Late Triassic), Meso-Tethys (Middle Permian - Late Cretaceous) and Ceno-Tethys (late Middle Triassic- Eocene). Multi-disciplinary data, including ages of pelagic sediments, ocean plate stratigraphy, seamounts, ophiolite...

Brief pulses of intense magmatic activity (flare-ups) along convergent margins represent drivers for climatic excursions that can lead to major extinction events. However, correlating volcanic outpouring to environmental crises in the geological past is often difficult due to poor preservation of volcanic sequences. Herein, we present a high-fideli...

Supplementary conodont occurrence tables, U-Pb zircon LA-ICPMS & CA-TIMS data tables and supplementary plates of texturally altered conodonts, foraminifer, fish teeth and scales.

The Mariana Trough, a relatively simple intra-oceanic back-arc basin, is ideal for investigating magmatic processes and mantle-crust interaction in a subduction setting. We present new major- and trace element compositions for 31 basaltic lava and glass samples from the Mariana Trough back-arc spreading center. The studied lavas include phenocrysts...

Eleven conodont zones are established for the Lower Triassic of the Motianling section in the Nanpanjiang Basin, South China. Detailed size measurements on 2244 P1 conodont elements demonstrate dynamic size variation patterns during the Early Triassic that are calibrated to the Early Triassic timescale and conodont zonation. Correlation of conodont...

John Roberts Obituary

Zircon U–Pb ages, major element and trace element compositions, and Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic compositions for late Mesozoic granites from the southern Jiaodong Peninsula (eastern China) were determined. Ages for the Wulianshan, Xiaozhushan, and Dazhushan plutons are 119.1–122.3, 114.2, and 108.9 Ma, respectively. Major and trace element characterist...

Intraplate volcanism initiated shortly after the cessation of Cenozoic seafloor spreading in the South China Sea (SCS) region, but the full extent of its influence on the Indochina block has not been well constrained. Here we present major and trace element data and Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotope ratios of late Cenozoic basaltic lavas from the Khorat plateau...

Improved biostratigraphic dating and enhanced understanding of the stratigraphy and depositional and tectonic environments of Devonian and Carboniferous sequences in Malaysia have resolved ambiguities in previous published work and better constrain the nature and timing of the stages of tectonic evolution of the region. The Devonian and Carbonifero...

Early Paleozoic evolution of the northern Gondwana margin is interpreted from integrated in situ U-Pb and Hf-isotope analyses on detrital zircons that constrain depositional ages and provenance of the Lancang Group, previously assigned to the Simao Block, and the Mengtong and Mengdingjie groups of the Baoshan Block. A meta-felsic volcanic rock from...

Hainan Island is a key component of the South China Sea region and provides insights on regional geological evolution since the Paleozoic. Ten new LA-ICPMS zircon U-Pb ages from granites of Hainan Island include Late Permian (254 ± 3 Ma; 252 ± 3 Ma), Middle-Late Triassic (243 ± 2 Ma; 242 ± 3 Ma; 240 ± 2 Ma; 228 ± 2 Ma) and late Early to early Late...

Kaur, A. & Metcalfe, I. (Eds) 2003. Migrant Labour in Southeast Asia: Needed, Not Wanted. UNE Asia Centre & School of Economics International Conference, Abstracts: 1-21. University of New England.

Lower Permian (lower Sakmarian) conodonts are reported from a coherent section of Ocean Plate Stratigraphy, and from a limestone block in the Palaeo-Tethys suture zone between Lamphun and Lampang, south of Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. Conodont species from both the pelagic limestones of the OPS section and the limestone block are deep-water forms...

Limestones exposed north of Raub, Pahang, Malaysia, and sandwiched between the Bentong-Raub Suture Zone and the westernmost margin of the Sukhothai Arc terrane, yield a late Dienerian (late Induan) conodont fauna. The co-occurrence of Neospathodus dieneri Sweet (morphotypes 1, 2 and 3) and Neospathodus pakistanensis Sweet represents the Neospathodu...

Carboniferous conodonts are reported for the first time from Myanmar (Burma). Conodont faunas representative of the Scaliognathus anchoralis and Gnathodus typicus-Protognathodus cordiformis conodont zones date the sampled Taungnyo Group south of Loi Kaw, Kayah State as late Tournaisian confirming a Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) age for the sa...

Twenty-eight new high-precision Chemical Abrasion Isotope Dilution Thermal Ionisation Mass Spectrometry U-Pb zircon dates for tuffs in the Sydney and Bowen Basins are reported. Based on these new dates, the Guadalupian-Lopingian/Capitanian-Wuchiapingian boundary is tentatively placed at the level of the Thirroul Sandstone in the lower part of the I...

Tropical Southeast Asia harbors extraordinary species richness and in its entirety comprises four of the Earth's 34 biodiversity hotspots. Here, we examine the assembly of the Southeast Asian biota through time and space. We conduct meta-analyses of geological, climatic and biological (including 61 phylogenetic) datasets to test which areas have be...

New Carboniferous faunas from the Taungnyo Group, Loikaw area are reported. These include two new Late Tournaisian/early Visean (Lower Carboniferous/Mississippian) trilobite species, Liobole loikawensis, Crassibole karenniensis and conodont faunas representative of the late Tournaisian Scaliognathous anchoralis and Gnathodus typicus-Protognathodus...

South-east Asia is a giant ‘jigsaw puzzle’ of allochthonous continental lithospheric blocks and fragments (terranes) and that are bounded by suture zones (remnants of Palaeo-Tethys, Meso-Tethys and Ceno-Tethys oceans and back-arc basins). 400 million years of geological evolution have resulted in major collisional orogenic belts, magmatic belts and...

The Malay Peninsula is characterised by three north–south belts, the Western, Central, and Eastern belts based on distinct differences in stratigraphy, structure, magmatism, geophysical signatures and geological evolution. The Western Belt forms part of the Sibumasu Terrane, derived from the NW Australian Gondwana margin in the late Early Permian....

The Guadalupian-Lopingian Boundary (GLB) is defined by the first occurrence of the conodont species Clarkina postbitteri postbitteri and currently interpreted to be 259.8±0.4 Ma [1]. The Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for this boundary at Penglaitan, south China has detailed fossil and chemostratigraphy information available, but unfort...

The Early Triassic Induan–Olenekian Stage boundary (Dienerian–Smithian sub-stage boundary) has been identified at a depth of 2719.25 m in the petroleum exploration well Senecio-1 located in the northern Perth Basin, Western Australia. Conodont faunas represent three conodont zones in ascending order, the Neospathodus dieneri Zone, the Neospathodus...

Four tuffs in coal seams intersected in exploration core yielded 270 ± 0.44 Ma to 268.63 ± 0.09 Ma ages (latest Roadian to Wordian) associated with the Didecitriletes ericianus spore–pollen zone.

The chronostratigraphic framework of the Sydney, Gunnedah and Bowen basins using CA-IDTIMS geochronology is enhancing correlation of stratigraphic units and providing a better understanding of local and regional sedimentation patterns. Ages range from 271.45 Ma (Rowan Formation) to 247.71 Ma (Garie Formation). Two examples demonstrate these studies...

The Middle Permian-Early Triassic (MP-ET) of Eastern Australia hosts extensive black coal reserves of major economic importance but contains predominantly endemic biota precluding precise international correlation. MP-ET stage boundaries, and end-Guadalupian and end-Permian mass extinction levels are poorly constrained. Attempts to calibrate the MP...

SE Asian continental crust comprises a heterogeneous collage of continental blocks, derived from the India-west Australian margin of eastern Gondwana, and subduction related volcanic arcs assembled by the closure of multiple Tethyan and back-arc ocean basins now represented by suture zones containing ophiolites and accretionary complexes. The conti...

Palynology is the principle biostratigraphic tool employed to correlate thick fluvial to shallow marine successions of the Permian-Early Triassic of the Bowen and Sydney basins of eastern Australia. The regional palynofloras can be utilised for intra-continental comparisons but are only broadly correlative across Gondwana and rarely applicable as s...

The Guadalupian-Lopingian-Boundary (GLB) is currently placed at ∼260 Ma and defined by the first occurrence of the conodont species Clarkina postbitteri postbitteri. Near the end of the Guadalupian stage, in the mid-Capitanian a major biotic crisis occurred, which affected both terrestrial and marine organisms. Globally this event is recognised by...

The Late Paleozoic Ice Age involved several pulses of glaciation from the early Carboniferous through mid-Permian in southern Gondwana. In eastern Australia, biostratigraphy suggested the final pulse to be c. 265 Ma. New U-Pb zircon ages from volcanic layers revise the age of latest glacigenic deposits to c. 255 Ma, making the late stage of the LPI...

The late Permian Wandsworth Volcanic Group (WVG) in the southern New England Orogen (SNEO) is dominated by amalgamated rhyodacitic to felsic eruptives. Field relationships indicate a broadly contemporaneous (though not necessarily genetic) relationship with late Permian granite magmatism. Zircon SHRIMP studies show the youngest preserved member of...

SE Asia comprises a collage of Gondwana-derived continental blocks assembled by the closure of multiple Tethyan and back-arc ocean basins now represented by suture zones. Two major biogeographical boundaries, the Late Palaeozoic Gondwana-Cathaysia divide and the Cenozoic-Recent Australia-Asia divide (Wallace Line) are present. Palaeozoic and Mesozo...

Sundaland comprises a heterogeneous collage of continental blocks derived from the India–Australian margin of eastern Gondwana and assembled by the closure of multiple Tethyan and back-arc ocean basins now represented by suture zones. The continental core of Sundaland comprises a western Sibumasu block and an eastern Indochina–East Malaya block wit...

In eastern Australia, the interconnected Bowen and Sydney Basins are filled with terrestrial sediments of late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic age. These sedimentary units record significant evolutionary events of eastern Gondwana during the time interval between two major mass extinctions (end Middle Permian and Permian-Triassic), and also provide lit...

Conodont Colour Alteration Indices (CAI) values in the Craven area show a general range of 2.5-3.5, the majority being a value of 3. The higher values generally occur in the south and south-west and low values are found on the Ashnott High (Ashnott Anticline and eastern closure of the Whitewell Anticline) and in Waulsortian limestones. These values...

The Bowen and Sydney Basins make up a ca. 600 km long, NNW-trending series of basins in eastern Australia, filled with terrestrial sediments of late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic age. The basins are also important sedimentaryarchives of evolutionary events in eastern Gondwana during times that are characterized by two major extinctions (end Middle Pe...

High-resolution geochronology with an age resolution at the permil level is instrumental in testing proposed causal links between continental-scale, short-term volcanic events and environmental crises that affect life globally. Synchroneity with large-scale volcanic events has been shown for three of the five most severe extinctions, namely the end...

We have studied three Permian–Triassic (PT) localities from China as part of a combined magnetostratigraphic, 40Ar/39Ar and U–Pb radioisotopic, and biostratigraphic study aimed at resolving the temporal relations between terrestrial and marine records across the Permo-Triassic boundary, as well as the rate of the biotic recovery in the Early Triass...

The end-Permian mass extinction is now robustly dated at 252.6 ± 0.2 Ma (U–Pb) and the Permian–Triassic (P–T) GSSP level is dated by interpolation at 252.5 Ma. An isotopic geochronological timescale for the Late Permian–Early Triassic, based on recent accurate high-precision U–Pb single zircon dating of volcanic ashes, together with calibrated cono...

Measured lithostratigraphic sections of the classic Permian–Triassic non-marine transitional sequences covering the upper Quanzijie, Wutonggou, Guodikeng and lower Jiucaiyuan Formations at Dalongkou and Lucaogou, Xinjiang Province, China are presented. These measured sections form the framework and reference sections for a range of multi-disciplina...

Ferrari et al. [Ferrari, O.M., Hochard, C., Stampfli, G.M., 2008. An alternative plate tectonic model for the Palaeozoic–Early Mesozoic Palaeotethyan evolution of Southeast Asia (Northern Thailand–Burma). Tectonophysics 451, 346–365. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2007.11.065.] redefine the “Shan-Thai” terrane in Thailand as a Cathaysian Indochina-derived ter...

SE Asia comprises a collage of continental terranes derived directly or indirectly from the India-Australian margin of eastern Gondwana. The Late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic evolution of the region involved the rifting and separation of three elongate continental slivers from eastern Gondwana and the successive opening and closure of three ocean basins...

Several sedimentary basins in west Australia contain petroleum reservoirs of Late Permian or older age that are overlain by thick shaly sequences (400–2,000 m) that have been assigned an Early Triassic age. The age of the base of the Triassic shales has been, and continues to be, contentious with strata being variously ascribed to the latest Permia...

Late Permian (late Changhsingian), possible Early Triassic Induan (Dienerian), and early Olenekian (Smithian) conodonts have been recovered from the Hovea Member of the Kockatea Shale in the exploration well Corybas 1, northern Perth Basin, Western Australia. Placement of the biostratigraphic Permian - Triassic boundary is in the lower part of the...

Two contrasting parallel tectonic sutures can be recognised through the Yunnan–Thailand region of mainland Southeast Asia; they are sutures of the Devonian–Triassic Palaeo-Tethys Ocean and a Permian back-arc basin. The Changning–Menglian and Inthanon suture zones are regarded as the Palaeo-Tethys Suture Zone. The Jinghong–Nan–Sra Kaeo suture is reg...

Lower Permian (lower Kungurian) conodonts are reported from the Indochina Block of Southeast Asia. The fauna from the Tak Fa Formation of the Saraburi Limestone Group exposed in limestone hills NNW of Khok Samrong, Thailand, includes Sweetognathus subsymmetricus Wang, Ritter and Clark (early forms) and Pseudosweetognathus costatus Wang, Ritter and...

ErwinD. H.2006. Extinction. How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago. ix + 296 pp. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press. Price US $24.95 (hard covers). ISBN 0 691 00524 9. - Volume 145 Issue 1 - Ian Metcalfe

The current immigration debate in labour-importing countries such as Malaysia centres largely on whether migrants are an asset or a threat. On the one hand, migrant labour is an important economic asset in meeting labour shortages, keeping down labour costs and providing a range of skills not available locally. On the other, there are concerns that...

The marine conodont fossil species, Hindeodus changxingensis Wang, that has a distinctive morphology, is restricted to a very narrow stratigraphic interval essentially from the Permian–Triassic extinction event through the internationally recognized boundary and into the very earliest Triassic. The species is geographically widespread in the Tethya...

The recovery of conodonts associated with ash beds and magnetostratigraphy in the key Zhongzhai Section, near Langdai, Liuzhi, Guizhou Province, provides precise and definitive control on the position of the Permian–Triassic boundary in the transition from marine to non-marine facies of western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan Provinces of southwestern C...

Trans-Asian labour migration, a defining feature of Asian globalisation prior to 1940, comprised mainly Chinese and Indian emigration to Southeast Asia and was quantitatively and qualitatively as significant as European transatlantic migration. Although migrant workers were regarded as sojourners, they established diasporic communities across the r...

East and Southeast Asia comprises a complex assembly of allochthonous continental lithospheric crustal fragments (terranes) together with volcanic arcs, and other terranes of oceanic and accretionary complex origins located at the zone of convergence between the Eurasian, Indo-Australian and Pacific Plates. The former wide separation of Asian terra...

The age and timing of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction have been difficult to determine because zircon populations from the type sections are typically affected by pervasive lead loss and contamination by indistinguishable older xenocrysts. Zircons from nine ash beds within the Shangsi and Meishan sections (China), pretreated by annealing follo...

Coiled nautiloid Shells referred to Sibyllonautilus bamaensis Sone sp. nov. are reported from the top of the Gua Bama limestone hill in Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia. This is the first record of the genus in Southeast Asia; a pre-Ladinian, Triassic age is indicated for the occurrence. Based on the presence of Sibyllonautilus and previously reported L...

Any discussion of gender-related issues for industrialising Asia must be placed in the context of recent and current economic, social and demographic trends and changes. Increased female literacy and higher educational attainment have led to easier entry for women into the paid workforce, and with this, increased social security and related benefit...

Colour alteration indices (CAls)of conodonts in Peninsular Malaysia range in value from 1.5 to 8. The lowest values are found in Triassic limestones in northwest Peninsular Malaysia and the highest values occur in Palaeozoic strata within or close to zones of deformation or to intrusives. Palaeozoic conodonts from the Sibumasu Block (Western Belt o...

Bangladesh is situated on the largest delta plain in the world at the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna river systems which have their headwaters in the Himalayas and north-eastern hills of India. Half of the flat to gently undulating delta flood plain, with its network of river systems, is at elevations less than 10m above sea level...

Michael Benton’s book focuses on the largest mass extinction of life on Earth known to science, when indeed, life did nearly die! The book is organized into twelve chapters. Chapters 1–4 provide a historical discourse which explores early discoveries of vertebrate fossils, the development of Cuvier’s concept of extinction, and the contributions of...

A new Middle Permian locality in northern Johore, Peninsular Malaysia, yields a small-sized, but compositionally unique, brachiopod fauna consisting of eight species: Pseudoleptodus sp., Caricula cf. salebrosa Grant, Neochonetes(Nongtaia) aff. arabicus (Hudson & Sudbury), Karavankina sp., Transennatia cf. insculpta (Grant), Hustedia sp., Orthotheti...