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Incredible spider and fish fossils tell the story of Australia

2022-01-08T14:20:57.332Z


Fossils of fossilized spiders, cicadas, wasps, plants and fish, dating to between 11 million and 16 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, are painting a vivid picture of the rainforest ecosystems that were once abundant in Australia.


(CNN) -

Australia's arid deserts and scrublands weren't always like this, according to a newly discovered and remarkably well-preserved fossil site in New South Wales.

Fossilized spiders, cicadas, wasps, plants and fish, dating to between 11 million and 16 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, are painting a vivid picture of the rainforest ecosystems that were once abundant in Australia.


"It is an extremely important fossil site. It has everything we hope for, exceptionally well-preserved fossils from a time we don't know much about," said Matthew McCurry, a paleontologist at the Australian Museum Research Institute, who authored a study of the site. which he published in the journal Science Advances this Friday.

"The Miocene was the time when most modern Australian environments were established, so this fossil site is really Australia's origin story."

During the Miocene, reduced rainfall caused rainforests around the world to shrink, leading to increasingly arid landscapes, according to the study.

The site, called McGraths Flat and located in Central Tablelands near the city of Gulgong, was discovered by a local farmer, who found fossilized leaves in one of his fields, McCurry said.


McCurry and his colleagues visited and excavated the site seven times.

Cache of well preserved fossils

Paleontologist Matthew McCurry (above), from the Australian Museum Research Institute, and his colleagues visited the fossil site seven times.

"The fossils are incredibly beautiful to look at and using a microscope we can see the details of the fossil surfaces that are also incredibly well preserved," he said by email.

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"You can see features like individual cells and even organelles within cells. This level of detail allows us to tell a lot more about what these ecosystems were like."

For example, melanosomes discovered in a fossilized feather mean that scientists can determine the color of the feather.

In this case, they think it was dark brown to black in color.

The site, formed from iron-rich rock, was meant to be thought of as Lagerstätte, McCurry said, a German term paleontologists use to describe an exceptional site with many perfectly preserved fossils.

Plants and creatures became fossilized when iron-rich groundwater was drained into a billabong, or water well.

McCurry said his favorite fossil was a type of spider, which was the best preserved spider fossil ever found in Australia.

"It is an extremely beautiful specimen."

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-01-08

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