The Devonian, Pivot Coal Measures in southern Victoria Land are non-carbonaceous. The sequence contains bedding parallel, titaniferous ironstones up to 50 cm thick, but no coal or carbonaceous shale, the unit is consequently renamed Pivot Member of the Arena Sandstone. The more Fe-Ti oxide-rich (up to 40 modal %) beds appear black and coal-like with conchoidal fracture and closely spaced cleat-like fractures. The coal-like beds grade laterally and vertically into less altered sedimentary rocks in which fine bedding-parallel concentrations of Fe-Ti oxide pick-out parting surfaces on ripples and other sedimentary structures. Thin section petrography shows that the Fe-Ti oxide is replacive, and outcrop relationships show that the replacement was related to dolerite intrusion 200 million years after the sedimentary host was deposited. Replacement of muscovite, biotite and chlorite by Fe-Ti-oxide occurred at 179 ± 3 Ma, at pressures of 0.3–0.4 kbar and at temperatures as low as 380°C.

Much of Antarctica's Devonian to Jurassic geological history is interpreted from the study of the Beacon Supergroup in the central Transantarctic Mountains. The upper part of the succession has been extensively investigated, although, few studies focus on the basal rocks. Deposition occurred within a Transantarctic basin believed to have extended along the edge of the East Antarctic Craton in early Beacon time, either as a marginal, passive margin, or a cratonic basin. Early basinal deposits include the Devonian Taylor Group and Upper Carboniferous–Lower Permian glacial sediments. Previous studies concluded that the Taylor Group in CTM was deposited as a continuous sheet across the low-relief Kukri Erosion Surface that developed on the planed Ross orogenic belt. These interpretations also concluded that late Palaeozoic glaciation truncated the Devonian sheet. New data suggest that this view, and current models for the early Beacon basin, maybe incorrect. Lithofacies, palaeocurrent orientations, sandstone composition, and stratigraphical relationships of central Transantarctic Mountains rocks suggest that deposition occurred within two intermontane or successor basins following post-orogenic uplift of the Ross terrain. Segregation of lithofacies and onlap of Taylor Group rocks onto an undulating Kukri Erosion Surface show that a basement high separated non-marine deposits between the Byrd and Ramsey glaciers from marine sediment in the Ohio Range. Onlap of glacial rocks and palaeocurrent data suggest intermontane conditions continued until the Early Permian.

Six ichnocoenoses in the clastic Devonian Horlick Formation (max. 56 m) confirm the nearshore marine character of eight of the nine lithofacies present. Abasal sand sheet overlies a weathered granitic land surface (Kukri Erosion Surface) on Cambro–Ordovician granitoids. The level nature of this surface and the way it cuts across weathering profiles, suggests that the surface had been modified by marine processes prior to deposition. The basal sand sheet (Cross-bedded Sand sheet Lithofacies) contains tidal bundles, and at its top, abundant Monocraterion (Monocraterion Ichnocoenosis). The second sand sheet (Pleurothyrella Lithofacies) is heavily burrowed and shows alternating periods of sedimentation, burrowing, and erosion below wave base as the sea deepened (Catenarichnus Ichnocoenosis). With increasing transgression, finer sediments were deposited (Laminated Mudstone and Feldspathic lithofacies) in an unstable pattern of coarse sandbars and finer troughs (Cruziana-Rusophycus and Arenicolites ichnocoenoses) crossed by active longshore marine channels (Poorly-sorted Lithofacies, Spirophyton Ichnoocoenosis). Short-lived but powerful storms produced thin shelly tempestites (Shell-bed Lithofacies), whereas sporadic, very thin phosphate rich beds (Phosphatic Lithofacies) may have resulted from marine transgressions across the basin. The deepest water is probably represented by sediments of the Spirifer Lithofacies (Rosselia Ichnocoenosis). The Schulthess Lithofacies is regarded as fluvial, deposited in the lower reaches of a river draining a land area that lay towards Marie Byrd Land. Channels in the basal sand sheet indicate movement to the southwest, but orientation became more variable higher in the sequence. Four new measured sections are figured. The relationship of the Ohio Range to the rest of Antarctica during the Devonian is suggested.