BIOSTRATIGRAPHICAL STUDY OF VERTEBRATE FOSSILS IN SENGKANG BASIN, SOUTH SULAWESI

• Main Author: Anshari Matin, Muhammad
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Geologi, hidrologi & meteorologi
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/78879
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The island of Sulawesi is located within the transitional zone between Asia and Australia. The faunas found in this region have different morphological features compared those found in both Asia and Australia region. The limited area of Sulawesi lacks roaming space even during the last glacial maximum that allows multiple factors to affect the evolutionary paths of the island faunas. Even so, there were lot of things done to determine stratigraphy controls of the island of Sulawesi. Because of that, this study aimed to construct the composite stratigraphical column and to arrange the appearance of fossil faunas and artifacts of the region to further determine both the condition and age of the region. The methods used in this study covered outcrop observation, measured section measurement, morphological analysis of fossils, biostratigraphical analysis and the determination of paleoenvironment. Field observation was done in several spots in South Sulawesi, sites such as Cangkange, Calio, and Talepu gave out remarkable findings for additional information and relative age control for said sites. Based on biostratigraphical analysis and the literature of previous studies, the Samaoling Member of Walanae Formation covered the site of Samaoling, the study area is divided into five informal lithological unit of Sandstone Unit with shallow marine depositional environment, Conglomerate Unit 1 with estuarine-fluvial depositional environment, Conglomerate Unit 2, Conglomerate Unit 3, and Conglomerate Unit 4 all had a fluvial depositional environment. Fauna that occupied the study area came in turns starting from the appearance of Stegoloxodon celebensis and Stegodon sompoensis, the empty ecological niche left by the two taxa was filled by Paleoloxodon namadicus up until Recent, which indicated by the appearance of modern fauna such as Sus celebensis and Bubalus sp. and findings of in situ stone artifacts which showed the appearance of hominins. Meanwhile, Celebochoerus heekereni appeared abundant in each nonrecent unit.