The role of fossils in interpreting the development of the Karoo Basin

Abstract

The Permo-Carboniferous to Jurassic aged rocks off the main Karoo Basin of South Africa are world renowned for the wealth of synapsid reptile and early dinosaur fossils, which have allowed a ten-fold biostratigraphic subdivision of the Karoo Supergroup to be erected. The role of fossils in interpreting the development of the Karoo Basin is not, however, restricted to biostratigraphic studies. Recent integrated sedimentological and palaeontological studies have helped in more precisely defining a number of problematical formational contacts within the Karoo Supergroup, as well as enhancing palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and basin development models.