Tag

paleontology

25 posts

• 10 May 2026The Boiling Crater: The Hydrothermal Vents of the Panorama DistrictIn Western Australia's Pilbara Craton, 3.24-billion-year-old hydrothermal vent deposits preserve the earliest known evidence of seafloor hot springs and the microbial life they hosted.
• 10 May 2026The Reef That Wasn't: The Archaean Carbonates of the Steep Rock LakeIn a drained lakebed in Western Australia, 2.7-billion-year-old carbonate platforms preserve the oldest known stromatolite reefs—built by microbes before the continents had stabilised.
• 10 May 2026The Limestone Cathedral: The Naracoorte Cave SystemsBeneath South Australia's sheep pastures, the Naracoorte cave systems preserve a 500,000-year fossil record of Australia's vanished megafauna within layered sediment cones.
• 10 May 2026The Inland Reef: The Stromatolites of Lake CliftonIn the shallow waters of a Western Australian lake, living microbial reefs—thrombolites and stromatolites—build layered limestone structures nearly identical to the earliest known fossils on Earth.
• 10 May 2026The Ice That Carved a Strait: The Bassian PlainDuring the last glacial maximum, sea levels dropped 120 metres, exposing the Bassian Plain—a land bridge connecting Tasmania to the mainland where now the cold waters of Bass Strait flow.
• 09 May 2026The Buried Forest: The Yarraloola Tree Stumps of the Fortescue BasinIn the Fortescue Basin of Western Australia, 2.7-billion-year-old fossil tree stumps—among the oldest known—preserve the first tentative steps of life onto land.
• 09 May 2026The Clay That Remembers: The Cambrian Shales of the Georgina BasinIn the Georgina Basin of Queensland, 500-million-year-old shales preserve trilobite exoskeletons so finely detailed that individual lenses in their compound eyes remain visible.
• 09 May 2026The Opalised Beak: The Cretaceous Inland Sea of Lightning RidgeBeneath the opal fields of Lightning Ridge lies the fossilised bed of a vast Cretaceous inland sea, where the bones of plesiosaurs, dinosaurs, and monotremes were replaced by precious opal over 100 mi
• 09 May 2026The Coral Staircase: The Limestone Terraces of the Eyre PeninsulaAlong the Eyre Peninsula's southern coast, a 25-kilometre staircase of calcarenite terraces records 1.6 million years of wobbling sea levels and the slow work of windblown shell fragments.
• 09 May 2026The Petrified Forest: The Nullarbor’s Eocene WoodlandsBeneath the Nullarbor Plain's limestone crust lie fossilized Eocene woodlands, where 45-million-year-old tree stumps and pollen reveal a lush temperate forest that once stretched across a continent on
• 08 May 2026The Lake That Vanished: Willandra Lakes and the Mungo LandscapeAt Lake Mungo in New South Wales, a dried lake system preserves 50,000 years of human history and the fossilized bones of Australia's megafauna in layered lunette dunes.
• 08 May 2026The Sandstone Citadel: The Arnhem Land EscarpmentThe 1.6-billion-year-old Arnhem Land escarpment, a vast sandstone plateau shaped by ancient rivers and monsoonal rains, shelters some of Australia's oldest rock art and most isolated endemic species.
• 08 May 2026The Living Stripes: The Domes of PurnululuExplore the Bungle Bungles of Purnululu, where 360-million-year-old sandstone is preserved by a living skin of cyanobacteria and iron oxide.
• 08 May 2026The Volcanic Ark: The Basalts of Barrington TopsExplore the Barrington Tops of New South Wales, where Eocene basalt shield volcanoes created a high-altitude sanctuary for Australia's ancient Gondwanan rainforests.
• 08 May 2026The Equatorial Ice: The Elatina RhythmitesExplore the Elatina Formation in South Australia, where 635-million-year-old glacial rhythmites provide evidence for the 'Snowball Earth' phenomenon.
• 08 May 2026The Exhumed Ocean: The Devonian Reef of the KimberleyExplore the Devonian Reef Complex of the Kimberley, a 375-million-year-old limestone fortress that preserves a perfectly exhumed Paleozoic seafloor.
• 08 May 2026The Polar Rift: The Otway Eumeralla FormationExplore the Eumeralla Formation of the Otway Ranges, where 110-million-year-old sandstones preserve the record of Australia's polar dinosaurs and the rifting of Gondwana.
• 08 May 2026The Pitfall Archive: The Megafauna of NaracoorteExplore the Naracoorte Caves of South Australia, where limestone pitfall traps have preserved a 500,000-year record of Australia's lost Pleistocene megafauna.
• 08 May 2026The Ghost in the Quartzite: The Ediacaran BiotaAn exploration of the Ediacara Hills in South Australia, where 550-million-year-old sandstones preserve the world's first large, complex, soft-bodied organisms.
• 08 May 2026The Dark Floor: The Bulldog Shale of the EromangaAn exploration of the Bulldog Shale, the dark Cretaceous mudstone that preserves the frozen marine world of Australia's ancient inland sea.
• 08 May 2026The Living Stone: The Stromatolites of Hamelin PoolExplore the living stromatolites of Hamelin Pool, Western Australia, where ancient microbial mats continue to build the stone structures that oxygenated the early Earth.
• 08 May 2026The Thumbprint of the Archean: The North Pole DomeA journey into the 3.5-billion-year-old North Pole Dome of the Pilbara, where the world's oldest microbial fossils are preserved in pristine chert.
• 08 May 2026The Glass Menagerie: The Opalized Fossils of the EromangaAn exploration of the rare geological process in the Eromanga Basin that transforms Cretaceous fossils into precious opal.
• 08 May 2026The Horizontal Silence: The Nullarbor PlainA study of the Nullarbor Plain, a vast Miocene limestone seabed that remains one of the flattest places on Earth.
• 08 May 2026The Drying Pool: The Devonian Fish of CanowindraThe Canowindra fossil site in New South Wales preserves a 360-million-year-old moment when thousands of Devonian fish were trapped in a drying pool.