Abstract

Fossiliferous Devonian strata are known from New Zealand in only two areas in the South Island, near Reefton and the Baton River.

At Reefton, Devonian beds occur in fault-bounded slices in which the structure is not known with certainty. The sequence includes sandstones, limestones and mudstones and is probably more than 4,000 feet thick.

The Devonian sediments in the Baton River area consist of at least 8,000 feet of predominantly mudstones which are probably unconformable on Ordovician rocks.

Shelly fossils, especially brachiopods, belong to European as well as endemic genera and have been thought to indicate affinities with the early Devonian Malvinokaffric faunal province.

The two sequences, of different lithofacies and biofacies, cannot yet be correlated in detail with each other. Both appear largely Lower Devonian; the Middle Devonian age suggested for part of the Reefton sequence is unproved.

The Tuhua Orogeny has been proposed for the diastrophic event which concluded sedimentation in this period.