Download Data- Wanganui Basin Molluscs (Johnson and Curry, submitted)

These data include the distributions of marine mollusc species in the Plio-Pleistocene sections of the Wanganui Basin, New Zealand. Species occurrences were obtained from Beu and Maxwell (1991) and undescribed material collected by Gordon Curry (University of Glasgow).

The data are provided for downloading as three tables in CSV text format. The tables can be linked together to form a relational database. In each table, column names are included as the first row. Missing values are indicated by an "NA".

Sample information is stored in wangsamples.csv. This table includes five columns:

  1. SampleNo - an unique index code for each sample
  2. SampleName - the name of the sample
  3. Start - Estimated lower age limit of the sample interpolated from the timescale of (Naish et al., 1998). Note that this is a negative number to assist in plotting (so that older samples have lower ages)
  4. End - Estimated upper age boundary interpolated for the sample
  5. Formation - Name of the formation from which the sample was collected.
A list of species included in the samples can be found in wangtaxa.csv. This table includes five columns. The first column specifies a unique index number for each taxon, and the remaining columns include names for the species. Subgeneric determinations are available for some species. Where subgenera were not included in Beu and Maxwell (1990), this field has been assigned a missing value (indicated by an NA in the field).

Species occurrences within each sample are presented in wangoccs.csv. This simple table includes three columns. The first column includes a taxon index, the second column specifies a sample index, and the third column indicates abundance. Because only presence/absence data are included, all abundances are set to 1. The first four rows of this column are shown below and indicate that species 637, 643, 660, and 667 can be found in sample 20. Examination of the taxon list and sample lists show that sample 20 is WilkiesShell.4124, and the four species recovered are Sigapatella novaezelandiae, Zegalerus cf.tumens, Maoricolpus aff.roseus, and Stiracolpus propagodus.

TaxNo, SampleNo,Abundance
637,20,1
643,20,1
660,20,1
667,20,1

This work was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the US National Science Foundation. For more information, please contact Ken Johnson

References:

  1. Beu, A. G. & P. A Maxwell. 1990. Cenozoic molluscs of New Zealand. New Zealand Geological Survey Paleontology Bulletin 58, 518 pp.
  2. Johnson, K. G. & G. B. Curry. 2001. Regional biotic turnover dynamics in the Plio-Pleistocene molluscan fauna of New Zealand. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 172:39-51.
  3. Naish, T. R., S. T. Abbott, B. V. Alloway, A. G. Beu, R. M. Carter, A. R. Edwards, T. D. Journeaus, P. J. J. Kamp, B. J. Pillans, G. Saul, K. J. Woolfe, 1998. Astronomical calibration of a southern hemisphere Plio-Pleistocene reference section, Wanganui Basin, New Zealand. Quaternary Science Reviews 17: 695-710.
Back to the data set archive
Back to the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology
Last modified 27 November 2001