A review of the Tertiary fossil Cetacea (Mammalia) localities in Australia

Abstract

The stratigraphy, age, lithology, and vertebrate fauna of all 56 pre-Pleistocene fossil Cetacea-bearing localities in Australia are reviewed. The majority of these localities occur in the state of Victoria, and are Miocene in age. The most complete cetacean fossils have been recovered from coastal exposures of the Upper Oligocene Jan Juc Formation, south- west of Torquay in the Torquay Basin (Victoria). The inadequately known fossil record of cetaceans in Australia is due to a lack of research, and not a lack of potentially fossiliferous rock outcrop.