Tag

fossils

38 posts

• 10 July 2026The 300-Million-Year-Old Forest That Died Standing UpIn New South Wales, a 300-million-year-old fossil forest preserves dozens of trees buried upright by a Permian volcanic eruption—an entire ecosystem frozen in ash.
• 09 July 2026The 380-Million-Year-Old Reef That Preserved a Fish's Last MealThe Gogo Formation in the Kimberley preserves 380-million-year-old fish, jellyfish, and embryos in three-dimensional phosphate — the finest soft-tissue fossils of the Devonian anywhere on Earth.
• 07 July 2026The 505-Million-Year-Old Eyes That Still SeeA 505-million-year-old Cambrian predator preserved in South Australia's Emu Bay Shale still bears the world's oldest compound eyes, each with over 16,000 calcite lenses.
• 06 July 2026The 450-Million-Year-Old Graveyard That Built an IslandHow 450-million-year-old Ordovician limestone on Tasmania's west coast—a seabed of crushed trilobites and brachiopods—became the rock that built a colonial settlement.
• 05 July 2026The 510-Million-Year-Old Eye That Never ClosedHow 510-million-year-old Cambrian limestone on Kangaroo Island preserves the world's oldest compound eye—a 3,000-lens eye of an extinct trilobite relative, frozen in time.
• 19 June 2026The Leaf That Fell from a 50-Million-Year-Old Antarctic Forest: Tasmania's Lea River Fossil LeavesHow 50-million-year-old lake sediments in Tasmania preserve leaves from a rainforest that grew in the Antarctic Circle, recording a world before ice.
• 19 June 2026The Ash That Froze a 500-Million-Year-Old Sea: South Australia's Emu Bay Shale:
• 19 June 2026The Tracks That Proved a Continent Once Touched Antarctica: Victoria's Genoa River Tetrapod FootprintsHow 350-million-year-old tetrapod footprints in Victoria's Genoa River sandstone provide the earliest evidence of four-legged land animals in the Southern Hemisphere and a clue that Australia and Anta
• 19 June 2026The Storm That Buried a Reef in Mud: Western Australia's Canning Basin Devonian Reef ComplexHow a 370-million-year-old reef system in Western Australia's Canning Basin, buried alive by a single catastrophic storm, became one of the best-preserved Devonian reefs on Earth.
• 18 June 2026The Sea That Became a Desert of Bones: South Australia's Lake Eyre MegafaunaHow 400,000-year-old lake sediments in South Australia's Lake Eyre basin preserve the bones of giant marsupials, megafauna birds, and the climate shifts that killed them.
• 18 June 2026The Mud That Preserved a 380-Million-Year-Old Ecosystem: Victoria's Mount Howitt Fish BedsHow Devonian lake sediments in Victoria's Mount Howitt preserve a complete freshwater ecosystem of armored fish and early tetrapod tracks, recording life's first steps onto land.
• 18 June 2026The Sand That Preserved a 100-Million-Year-Old Polar Forest: Victoria's Koonwarra Fossil BedsHow 100-million-year-old lake sediments in Victoria's Koonwarra fossil beds preserved leaves, insects, and even dinosaur feathers from a polar forest that grew within the Antarctic Circle.
• 17 June 2026The Bone That Buried a Lake of Giant Marsupials: Queensland's Darling Downs MegafaunaHow 500,000-year-old sediment in Queensland's Darling Downs preserves the richest concentration of Ice-Age marsupial fossils in Australia, recording the extinction of giant wombats and marsupial lions
• 17 June 2026The Ash That Swallowed a Herd of Diprotodons: Queensland's Mammoth CaveHow 500,000-year-old volcanic ash and limestone collapse in Queensland's Mammoth Cave preserved the bones of Australia's largest-ever marsupial, recording the Ice Age extinction of megafauna.
• 24 May 2026The Lava That Left a Garden of Ice-Age Fossils: Victoria's Naracoorte CavesHow 500,000-year-old limestone caves in South Australia's Naracoorte preserve a fossil record of Ice-Age megafauna, sealed by sediment and the slow drip of groundwater.
• 23 May 2026The Ash That Trapped a Fossilised Forest of Leaves: Victoria's Yallourn Brown CoalHow 15-million-year-old brown coal seams in Victoria's Latrobe Valley preserve a fossilised temperate rainforest, recording Australia's final separation from Antarctica.
• 22 May 2026The Ash That Preserved a Continent's Death: Victoria's K/T Boundary at GellibrandHow a 66-million-year-old iridium-rich clay layer in Victoria records the asteroid impact that ended the Cretaceous—and the moment Australia's dinosaurs vanished.
• 22 May 2026The Lava That Built a Living Reef: Tasmania's Cenozoic Volcanoes and the Maria Island Fossil ForestHow 50-million-year-old volcanic eruptions in Tasmania buried a living temperate rainforest in ash, preserving leaves, cones, and pollen that record Australia's journey southward.
• 21 May 2026The Ash That Froze a Jurassic Forest: Queensland's Talbragar Fish BedsHow 170-million-year-old volcanic ash in New South Wales preserved a complete Jurassic lake ecosystem, with fish, insects, and plants entombed in fine-grained tuff.
• 20 May 2026The Ash That Froze a Fossilised Brain: Queensland's Murgon Fossil SiteHow 55-million-year-old volcanic ash beds in Queensland's Murgon fossil site preserved the earliest known placental mammal fossils from Australia, including a brain endocast.
• 20 May 2026The Tuff That Trapped a Rainforest: New South Wales' Miocene Chalk MountainHow 17-million-year-old volcanic ash at Chalk Mountain in New South Wales preserved an entire warm-temperate rainforest, with leaves, flowers, and fruits fallen from trees that grew near a now-vanishe
• 20 May 2026The Ash That Held a Garden of Glass: Victoria’s Devonian Rhynie ChertHow 400-million-year-old hot-spring silica in Victoria preserved the world's most complete early land ecosystem, with fungi, plants, and arthropods entombed in glass.
• 20 May 2026The Clay That Held a Fossilised Nervous System: South Australia's Emu Bay ShaleHow 514-million-year-old Cambrian mudstone on Kangaroo Island preserves soft tissues, including eyes and nerve cords, of the earliest complex animals.
• 19 May 2026The Ash That Buried a Garden: Victoria's Silurian Baragwanathia FloraHow 420-million-year-old volcanic ash beds in Victoria's Yea district preserved the world's oldest known complete land-plant community, including Baragwanathia, an ancient lycophyte that rewrote the t
• 19 May 2026The Lava That Became a Fossil Quarry: Queensland's Cretaceous Dinosaur TrackwaysHow 95-million-year-old volcanic ash beds in central Queensland preserved thousands of dinosaur footprints, capturing a moment when sauropods and theropods walked across a drying floodplain.
• 19 May 2026The Fossil Forests That Built Australia's Coal: Tasmania's Lurg HillsHow 280-million-year-old Permian glacial deposits in Tasmania's Lurg Hills preserve fossilised tree trunks that later became coal, recording the moment Australia's ice age gave way to swamp forests.
• 18 May 2026The Ash That Froze a Moment: Victoria's Miocene Leaf BedsHow 15-million-year-old volcanic ash deposits in Victoria's Yallourn region preserved a complete Miocene rainforest, including leaves that fell in autumn and never decayed.
• 18 May 2026The Ash That Became a Forest: Tasmania's Jurassic Fossil GroveHow 180-million-year-old volcanic ash beds in Tasmania's Lune River region preserved a Jurassic forest in exquisite detail, including the world's oldest known flower-like reproductive structures.
• 17 May 2026The Lava That Drew a Map of Evolution: Victoria's Devonian Fish BedsHow 380-million-year-old volcanic ash beds in Victoria's Givetian fish beds preserved a snapshot of Devonian marine life, including the world's oldest known lungfish.
• 17 May 2026The Lava That Sealed a Swamp: Queensland's Miocene Petrified ForestIn central Queensland, 25-million-year-old basalt flows entombed an ancient rainforest, preserving upright tree trunks in lava casts that reveal Australia's last warm, wet greenhouse phase.
• 15 May 2026The Ash That Turned to Coal: Sydney's Permian ForestBeneath Sydney lies a 250-million-year-old fossil forest preserved in the Hawkesbury Sandstone, where volcanic ash buried an entire Permian ecosystem and later became the coal that fuelled Australia's
• 15 May 2026The Ash That Froze a Moment: Victoria's Miocene Lake DepositAt Victoria's Bacchus Marsh, a 15-million-year-old diatomite deposit preserves a vanished lake ecosystem in microscopic silica, recording a Miocene climate when Australia was still connected to Antarc
• 14 May 2026The Ash That Preserved a Garden: Victoria's Alcoa Fossil ForestAt Yallourn in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, a 15-million-year-old fossil forest buried by volcanic ash preserves an entire Miocene ecosystem in growth position.
• 14 May 2026The Lava That Wrote a Letter: Tasmania's Cenozoic BasaltsTasmania's 55-million-year-old Cenozoic basalt flows preserved a rainforest leaf bed under lava, capturing a precise Polar-Eocene greenhouse climate snapshot.
• 12 May 2026The Lava That Buried a Forest: The Triassic Petrified Trees of ChinchillaIn Queensland's Darling Downs, a 230-million-year-old fossil forest preserves upright trees entombed by volcanic ash, revealing a Triassic landscape before dinosaurs dominated.
• 12 May 2026The Kimberley's Fossilised Barrier Reef: The Devonian Reefs of Windjana GorgeIn Western Australia's Kimberley region, 350-million-year-old Devonian reef complexes—among Earth's best-preserved ancient barrier reefs—rise as limestone walls through Windjana Gorge and Napier Range
• 12 May 2026The Bone Bed of the Nullarbor: Koala Cave's Fossil MarsupialsIn a 1.5-million-year-old cave on the Nullarbor Plain, a fossil deposit preserves the remains of giant marsupials—including a 3-metre-tall wombat relative—trapped when the plain was a lush woodland.
• 12 May 2026The Slate That Holds a Fossil City: The Emu Bay ShaleSouth Australia's Emu Bay Shale preserves 514-million-year-old Cambrian fossils in extraordinary detail, including the earliest known compound eyes.