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Swansea Heads - Fossilised Forest and Swampland

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Swansea Heads - Fossilised Forest and Swampland

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https://australian.museum/learn/australia-over-time/fossils/sites/lightning-ridge/I have some text resources about this...

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Deposits at Lightning Ridge yield some of the rarest, most beautiful and precious fossils in the world.

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Talbragar is a well-known fossil site in Australia and contains one of the most significant Jurassic terrestrial fossil deposits in Australia. It is also the only Jurassic fish site found in New South Wales.

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North Sydney Basin, NSW (Permian) - This includes here and Newcastle/Hunter sites

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North Sydney Basin, NSW (Permian) - This includes here and Newcastle/Hunter sites

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The Sydney region, extending from Wollongong to Newcastle and Lithgow, is part of a large geological feature called the Sydney Basin.

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Permian fossils and palaeoenvironments of the northern Sydney Basin, New South Wales

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Permian fossils and palaeoenvironments of the northern Sydney Basin, New South Wales

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Where is Canowindra?

Canowindra is a town in central-west New South Wales, 300 km west of Sydney.

Why is Canowindra important?

The Canowindra fauna is a very rich Late Devonian fish fauna. All of the fossil specimens are preserved on a single bedding plane, part of an ancient fish community which had been trapped in a pool of water which dried up, killing the fish. Incoming sediments later buried these fishes quickly and quietly, with minor disturbance to the fish skeletons. The Canowindra site is listed as part of Australia's National Heritage because of its international scientific importance.

Fossil time period: Canowindra

The Devonian Period (416 - 359 million years ago) is known as the Age of Fishes, since the aquatic and marine environments were populated by large numbers and varieties of fishes. Only later in the Devonian did the first tetrapods (four legged animals) appear. Plants were establishing themselves on land and by the Late Devonian some had reached tree size. Australia, as a part of the super-continent Pangaea, was drifting southwards away from the equator and was thus experiencing a general cooling. There was also general uplift and by the Late Devonian there was less marine sedimentation but extensive terrestrial sedimentary basins, particularly in the east.

Canowindra fossils

The fauna is dominated by two species of antiarch placoderms (armoured fishes), Bothriolepis and Remigolepis (97% of the fauna). Groenlandaspis, an arthrodiran placoderm, is much rarer, with only about 50 specimens recovered. The sarcopterygians (lobe-finned fishes) are even rarer, with the remains of approximately 20 individuals so far noted. Along with Canowindra grossi, the sarcopterygian taxa Mandageria fairfaxi Johanson & Ahlberg, 1997, Cabonnichthys burnsi Ahlberg & Johanson, 1997, Gooloogongia loomesi Johanson & Ahlberg, 1998 and Soederberghia simpsoni Ahlberg et al., 2001 have been described. Soederberghia simpsoni is a lungfish, a group with a good fossil record, but today known only from three genera in South America, Africa and Australia (the Queensland lungfish, Neoceratodus). Soederberghia is also known from a Late Devonian locality near Forbes, New South Wales, and from Pennsylvania, U.S.A. and East Greenland.

In 2019 the Australian Museum Research Institute worked with Pedestal3D and the Age of Fishes Museum on the ambitious task of capturing the most important slabs as 3d virtual objects. Nearly 200 large slabs were captured using photogrammetry and structured light scanning in just over a week. Explore three of the more significant slabs below.

Slab F47L53

This is the original slab found in 1955, collected by a road worker who was working approximately 10 km west of Canowindra. During this process he unearthed a large rock slab with unusual "footprint-like" impressions on it. Unaware of what he'd found, the road worker had pushed the slab to the fence, where it was later rediscovered by Bill (William) Simpson. Bill suspected the impressions on the slab were fossils, and contacted the palaeontologist at the Australian Museum, Dr Harold Fletcher. Along with Dr Ted Rayner, Fletcher confirmed the identification and transported this slab back to the Australian Museum were it was put on display in 1966. Later it was returned to Canowindra where it now resides on show in the Age of Fish Museum.

Click on the '?' for instructions

Canowindra Fossil Fish Slab 21

This slab shows a rare snapshot into an ancient lake ecosystem on the point of collapse. The rocks preserve an environment at the edge of a drying lake during the Late Devonian (358.9- 372.2 million years ago). As this ancient lake system dried, fishing started to crowd and jostled for space to stay in the deepest parts of the water column. Larger fish overpower smaller fish, even of the same species, with smaller fish relegated to survive near the shoreline. This is obvious in the high density of small fish occurring along a long and distinct band, representing the waters edge. Past this edge, the land would have been above water and only a few fish which foolishly attempted to crawl out of the pond were trapped here.

Click on the '?' for instructions

Canowindra Fish Fossil Slab 75

This slab contains the triangular skull of the largest predatory fish found in the fossils deposits at Canowindra. Mandageria fairfaxi (pronunciation: Man-daj-ee-ree-a fair-fax-i) was a large, air-breathing, lobe-finned fish, broadly belonging to the same group as modern day lungfishes. It would have reached up to 2 m in length, with a 40 cm skull lined with multiple rows of large conical teeth. Unusually it had a functional neck joint in the skull, which is uncommon feature among fish. This neck joint, along with additional bones in the skull and fins, suggest that Mandageria was a close relative to some of our earliest fishy cousins, such as the famous Tiktaalik from Canada. It's also special, because in 2015 it was selected as the state fossil of New South Wales.

Click on the '?' for instructions

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The Canowindra fossil fauna is a very rich Late Devonian fish fauna and is listed as part of Australia's National Heritage.

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Bluff Downs - Fossil Sites - Australian Beasts - ABC Science

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Australia has the most diverse collections of living mammals in the world. No other continent has the egg-laying monotremes and the pouched marsupials living side by side with placental mammals. Understanding how this unique collection of creatures came to be here has motivated natural historians for the last 200 years.

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Murgon is significant as the only site in Australia that records a diverse vertebrate fauna dating from the early Tertiary Period (55 million years ago), approximately ten million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

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Denmark Hill Insect Bed, QLD (Triassic) 

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Denmark Hill Insect Bed, QLD (Triassic) 

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Denmark Hill Conservation Park - Discover Our Ipswich

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Denmark Hill Conservation Park is a gem close to the city centre.

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Scan this doc for mentions of Bluff Downs. It's in there!! 

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Scan this doc for mentions of Bluff Downs. It's in there!! 

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The Triassic insects of Denmark Hill, Ipswich

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The Triassic insects of Denmark Hill, Ipswich

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** Etadunna Formation, SA (Ordovician) **

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** Etadunna Formation, SA (Ordovician) **

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National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia

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See evidence of earth's earliest animal life

The Flinders Ranges provides some of South Australia's most iconic landscapes displaying geological formations and wildlife. It is also where evidence of earth's earliest animal life has been discovered.

The Flinders Ranges, traditional lands of the Adnyamathanha people, is renowned as one of South Australia's most remarkable landscapes. The dramatic scenery, unique geological formations and iconic wildlife attracts visitors from across the world. It is a place of rich cultural heritage and exceptional scientific value, where evidence of the emergence earth's earliest complex animal life has been discovered.

Learn more about the story of Nilpena, the planet's most significant discovery.

Creating the Nilpena Ediacara National Park

Read about the world-class fossil experience that is now open for visitors to our newest national park in the Flinders Ranges.

In March 2019, the state government purchased 60,000 hectares from the Nilpena Pastoral Company which extends to Lake Torrens National Park and adjoins Ediacara Conservation Park. This land, along with the existing Ediacara Conservation Park (in its entirety) was reclassified to become Nilpena Ediacara National Park in 2021.

The state government has built a Nilpena visitor hub at this new national park that includes an Ediacaran fossil experience to explain the planet's early stages of animal life. This immersive experience is now open at the former blacksmith shop, where visitors can view fossils up-close and experience a one of a kind audio-visual fossil encounter. Visitors are welcome to visit the park by guided tour.

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Be inspired to visit South Australia's national parks. Find activities and book camp sites, accommodation and vehicle entry.

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Where is Alcoota?

Alcoota Station is located 200km north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Why is Alcoota important?

The grass-covered plains form a thin veneer over an enormous bed of fossil bones that are around eight million years old. The bones are so abundant and tightly packed at Alcoota that it is sometimes difficult to excavate one bone without breaking the one below it.

Fossil time period: Alcoota

The late Miocene (10.4-5 million years ago) was a time of global drying and cooling. As ice rapidly accumulated at the poles, sea-levels fell, rainfall decreased and rainforests retreated. Many plant and animal groups died out and other forms, better adapted to a drying world, took their place. Australia was isolated from other landmasses but its northern edge had collided with groups of islands in South East Asia.

Alcoota fossils

Thousands of fossilised bones and teeth of many different animals have been found at Alcoota. The animals include one of the largest birds that ever lived, the gigantic thunder bird Dromornis stirtoni, the wolf-sized Powerful Thylacine ( Thylacinus potens) and the large leopard-sized Alcoota Marsupial Lion ( Wakaleo alcootense).

Also found at Alcoota are fossils of the wombat-like diprotodontoids Kolopsis torus and Plaisiodon centralis, the trunked Palorchestes painei, as well as kangaroos, crocodiles, bandicoots, possums and small birds.

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The grass-covered plains at Alcoota Station form a thin veneer over an enormous bed of fossil bones that are around eight million years old.

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Dinosaur Cove & Dinosaur Dreaming, VIC (Cretaceous) 

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Dinosaur Cove & Dinosaur Dreaming, VIC (Cretaceous) 

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It is with regret that we announce the closure of the Monash Science Centre, at the Monash University Clayton campus. The MSC, together with Museum Victoria, has been the home of Dinosaur Dreaming for 20 years and its support will be greatly missed. However, the MSC will live on in spirit in the form of "Prime Sci", which will continue the proud tradition of delivering science based lessons to primary schools throughout Victoria.

Dinosaur Dreaming is celebrating its 20th annual field season this year, making it the longest running dinosaur dig in Australia. Since annual digs began in 1994 many thousands of Early Cretaceous fossil bones and teeth have been excavated from Dinosaur Dreaming's prime site near Inverloch, on the Bass Coast of Victoria.

The Dinosaur Dreaming crew will be returning to the Flat Rocks site on Saturday 2nd February for a 3 week field season. More than 50 volunteers from all walks of life, with a shared passion for fossils, will continue the excavations of previous years, in the hope of uncovering more exciting discoveries. In the last 19 years the site has yielded evidence of three groups of primitive mammals as well as at least six different types of dinosaurs, including three taxa of theropod or meat-eating dinosaurs.

Visitors are welcome to come and watch the Dinosaur Dreaming crew at work. The site is located near The Caves, approximately 6kms south of Inverloch on the Inverloch-Cape Paterson road. Check tide times before setting out as the site is within the inter-tidal zone and only accessible 3-4 hours either side of low tide.

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It is with regret that we announce the closure of the Monash Science Centre, at the Monash University Clayton campus. The MSC, together with Museum Victoria, has been the home of Dinosaur Dreaming for 20 years and its support will be greatly missed.

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About ScienceDirect
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Where is Naracoorte?

Naracoorte (300ha) lies in the south-east of South Australia, 11km south-south-east of Naracoorte township and approximately 320km south-east of Adelaide (37°S, 140°48'E). Naracoorte Caves were gazetted in 1917. The Naracoorte Caves Conservation Park was proclaimed under the South Australia National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. Visitor access at Naracoorte is controlled to protect the scientific, conservation and aesthetic values of the caves.

Why is Naracoorte important?

The Pleistocene fossil vertebrate deposits of Victoria Fossil Cave at Naracoorte are considered to be Australia's largest and best preserved (Wells et al. 1984), and one of the richest deposits in the world (Wells, 1975).
Visitors to these spectacular limestone formations in Naracoorte Caves for over a century were unaware that nearby in hidden chambers a detailed record of the local fauna had been steadily accumulating for more than 3000 centuries. Cave explorer Grant Gartrell and palaeontologist Rod Wells of Flinders University were exploring Victoria Cave hoping to find fossil bones when they broke through to a concealed passageway. In the unexplored caverns beyond they discovered the largest, most diverse and best preserved Pleistocene vertebrate fossil assemblage in Australia in what is now known as the Fossil Chamber. Because of the extraordinary richness and potential of these fossil deposits, the Naracoorte Caves were declared a World Heritage site in 1994.

Fossil time period: Naracoorte

Key stages in the evolution of the Australian climate and biota are included in the time span represented by the Naracoorte assemblage, including the period during which humans first arrived in Australia. The continent was becoming increasingly cool and dry, with occasional periods of warmer, wetter climate towards the Late Pleistocene. The dry and wet periods correspond to glacial and interglacial periods respectively on the other continents. These climatic changes, in particular increasing aridity, had profound effects on the Australian fauna and flora. By 15,000 years ago a significant number of large mammal species had become extinct.

Naracoorte fossils

For more than 300,000 years sediment and animal bones filled the Fossil Chamber through an opening in the ceiling, forming an enormous cone-shaped pile. The cave acted like a huge natural pitfall trap: animals that fell in were unable to escape through the high entrance and died, their skeletons lying nearly undisturbed for millennia. As the cone grew, fans of sediment and animal bones spread out over the cave floor. The sediment pile eventually grew up to the ceiling and blocked the entrance about 15,000 years ago, sealing the cave and its contents until discovery. Over nearly 30 years of excavation and research more than 5000 catalogued specimens have been excavated from only 4% of what is estimated to be a staggering 5000 tonnes of bone-rich sediment.
From the 3m - 4m deep fossil bed, tens of thousands of specimens representing at least 93 vertebrate species have been recovered, ranging in size from very small frogs to buffalo-sized marsupials. These include superbly preserved examples of the Australian Ice-Age megafauna as well as modern species such as the Tasmanian Devil and Thylacine, wallabies, possums, bettongs, mice, bats, snakes, parrots, turtles, lizards and frogs. The fossil material includes complete postcranial remains (many of which are partially articulated) and skulls so well preserved that even the most delicate bones are still intact.

Subsequent exploration of the cave system has resulted in the discovery of more bone-rich caverns, including the Upper and Lower Ossuaries, which have lain undisturbed for tens of thousands of years. Nobody knows the extent of the Naracoorte Cave system. There may be more hidden fossil-rich chambers awaiting discovery.

The Naracoorte fauna includes elements of the extinct Australian megafauna. During the Late Tertiary and Pleistocene there was a trend of increasing body size in animal species. The ancestors of modern species were larger then, and some species that are now extinct were very big. Zygomaturus trilobus and the marsupial 'tapir' Palorchestes azael were large marsupial herbivores. They browsed alongside giant kangaroos such as Macropus titan, a giant form of the Grey Kangaroo and Procoptodon goliah, a hoof-toed Giant Short-faced Kangaroo that could reach 3m. Wonambi naracoortensis, a gigantic snake, searched for prey along with Thylacinus cynocephalus, the Tasmanian Tiger, Sarcophilus harrisii, the Tasmanian Devil, and Thylacoleo carnifex, the leopard-sized marsupial lion.

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Pleistocene fossil vertebrate deposits of Victoria Fossil Cave at Naracoorte are considered to be Australia's largest and best preserved.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This list of fossil sites is a worldwide list of localities known well for the presence of fossils. Some entries in this list are notable for a single, unique find, while others are notable for the large number of fossils found there. Many of the entries in this list are considered Lagerstätten (sedimentary deposits that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation-sometimes including preserved soft tissues). Lagerstätten are indicated by a note ([Note 1] ) in the noteworthiness column.

Fossils may be found either associated with a geological formation or at a single geographic site. Geological formations consist of rock that was deposited during a specific period of time. They usually extend for large areas, and sometimes there are different important sites in which the same formation is exposed. Such sites may have separate entries if they are considered to be more notable than the formation as a whole. In contrast, extensive formations associated with large areas may be equivalently represented at many locations. Such formations may be listed either without a site, with a site or sites that represent the type locality, or with multiple sites of note. When a type locality is listed as the site for a formation with many good outcrops, the site is flagged with a note ([Note 2] ). When a particular site of note is listed for an extensive fossil-bearing formation, but that site is somehow atypical, it is also flagged with a note ([Note 3] ).

Many formations are for all practical purposes only studied at a single site, and may not even be named. For example, sites associated with hominin, particularly caves, are frequently not identified with a named geologic formation. Therefore, some sites are listed without an associated formation.

Site

Group, Formation, or Unit

Age

Continent

Country

Noteworthiness

Cradle of Humankind

Pliocene - Pleistocene
Africa South Africa
Hominin

Golden Gate Highlands National Park Karoo Supergroup
Permian - Early Jurassic
Africa
Southern Africa

Ledi-Geraru
Pliocene ( Piacenzian)
Africa Ethiopia
Hominin: LD 350-1, oldest fossil in genus Homo

Omo Kibish

Omo Kibish Formation (= Kibish Formation)

Pliocene - Pleistocene
Africa Ethiopia
Hominin: australopithecine remains and stone tools

Shungura Formation
Pliocene - Early Pleistocene
Africa Ethiopia
Hominin tools

La Meseta Formation Eocene Antarctica
Birds, particularly penguins

Seymour Island López de Bertodano Formation
Late Cretaceous - Early Paleocene ( Maastrichtian - Danian)
Antarctica
Non- Avian Dinosaurs, Birds

Sobral Formation
Paleocene (Danian)
Antarctica

Vega Island López de Bertodano Formation
Late Cretaceous - Early Paleocene (Maastrichtian - Danian)
Antarctica
Non-Avian Dinosaurs, Birds

Mount Kirkpatrick Hanson Formation
Early Jurassic
Antarctica
Dinosaurs, prosauropods, trees|

James Ross Island
Late Cretaceous Antarctica
Dinosaurs

Aguja Formation
Late Cretaceous
North America

Ashfall Fossil Beds
Ash Hollow Formation ( Ogallala Group)

Miocene (Clarendonian)
North America
US: Nebraska

Page-Ladson site
Sinkhole in Suwannee Limestone

Pleistocene/ Holocene
North America
US: Florida

Hominin, human/mastodon coexistence

Beecher's Trilobite Bed Frankfort Formation Ordovician North America
US: New York

Blanco Formation
Pliocene/ Pleistocene
North America
US: Kansas, Texas

Blancan fauna

Brule Formation Oligocene North America
US: South Dakota

Mammals, sunfish, cat fish

Burgess Shale
Cambrian (Albertan)
North America
Canada: British Columbia

Goodsell Ridge, Isle La Motte ( Lake Champlain)
Chazy Formation Ordovician North America
US: Vermont

Como Bluff Cloverly Formation
Early Cretaceous
North America
US: Montana, Wyoming

Non-Avian Dinosaurs, some mammals, turtles, crocodilians, and fish

Coon Creek Formation
Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)
North America
US: Tennessee and Mississippi

Marine reptiles, particularly mosasaurs and plesiosaurs

Invertebrates: Turritella (sea snails), bryozoans, clams, crabs, shrimp and some sharks

Dinosaur Park Formation
Cretaceous (Campanian)
North America
Canada: Alberta

Non- Avian Dinosaurs

Marshalltown Formation
Cretaceous (Campanian)
North America
US: New Jersey

Eutaw Formation Cretaceous North America

Jefferson Limestone Devonian North America
US: Indiana

Corals ( Tabulate coral and Rugosa

Mazon Creek Francis Creek Shale
Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian)
North America
US: Illinois

Ghost Ranch Triassic North America
US: New Mexico

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument Glenns Ferry Formation
Pliocene/ Pleistocene
North America
US: Idaho

Hagerman horse ('American Zebra'), Camelops

Green River Formation Eocene North America

Gunflint Chert
Late Archaean - Early Proterozoic
North America
Canada: western Ontario & US: Minnesota (Gunflint Range)

Stromatolite colonies of cyanobacteria

Dinosaur Park Formation
Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian)
North America
Canada: Alberta

Dinosaurs

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument John Day Formation
Oligocene - Miocene
North America
US: Oregon

Mammals: dogs, cats, oreodonts, saber-toothed cats, horses, camels, and rodents

Zion National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Kayenta Formation ( Glen Canyon Group)
Jurassic North America
US: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah

Non- Avian Dinosaurs and other vertebrates

Klondike Mountain Formation
Eocene (Ypresian)
North America
US: Washington

Hadrosaurus Foulkii Leidy Site
Woodbury Formation
Cretaceous North America
US: New Jersey

Dinosaurs: Hadrosaurus

Miguasha National Park
Devonian (Famennian)
North America
Canada: Québec

Ogallala Formation
Miocene/ Pliocene
North America
US: Texas

Burgoon Run in Blair County, Pennsylvania
Pocono Formation
Carboniferous (Mississippian)
North America

Purgatoire River track site
Late Jurassic

North America

US: Colorado

Dinosaurs: Footprints

Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite Sundance Formation
Middle Jurassic

North America

US: Wyoming

Dinosaurs: Footprints

Walcott-Rust quarry
Rust Formation

Late Ordovician
North America
US: New York

Schoonmaker Reef and Soldiers' Home Reef
Silurian
North America

US: Wisconsin

Reefs (the first discovered in North America)

Tepetate Formation
Cretaceous - Middle Eocene
North America
Mexico

Wannagan Creek site, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Tongue River Formation (= Bullion Creek Fm.)

Paleocene: Tiffanian
North America
US: North Dakota

Mammals, reptiles, birds

Two Medicine Formation
Cretaceous (Campanian)
North America
US: Montana

Dinosaurs, particularly eggs and young

Wheeler Shale Cambrian North America
US: Utah

Woodbine Formation
Cretaceous (Cenomanian)

North America

US: Texas

Dinosaurs and crocodilians

Ziegler Reservoir fossil site ('Snowmastodon Site')

Pleistocene ( Illinoian (stage))

North America

US: Colorado

Mastodon and other ice age vertebrates

Zion National Park Navajo Sandstone
Triassic - Jurassic

North America

US: Utah

?

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

Arikaree Group

Gering Formation

Monroe Creek formation

Harrison Formation

Miocene
North America

US: Nebraska

Potomac River Aquia Formation Paleocene
North America

US: Maryland and Virginia

Waco Mammoth National Monument
Pleistocene
North America
US: Texas

Tanis Hell Creek Formation
End of Cretaceous/start of Cenozoic (65.76 Ma ± 0.15 Mya)
North America United States
Apparent Lagerstätte and killing field capturing the first minutes and hours after the Chicxulub impactor and initiation of the KPg extinction event

Bostobynskaya Formation (= Bostobe Formation)

Late Cretaceous (Turonian-Campanian)

Asia
Kazakhstan
Dinosaurs

Callao Cave, Cagayan Valley
Pleistocene Asia
Philippines

Hominin

Tabon Cave, Palawan
Pleistocene Asia
Philippines

Hominin

Ejinhoro Formation Early Cretaceous
Asia

China

Dinosaurs

Fangou Formation
Paleocene
Asia

China

Jiufotang Formation
Early Cretaceous
Asia
China

Feathered dinosaurs, birds, pterosaurs

Balasinor (Raiyoli)
Asia India
Dinosaurs

Deh-e Alireza, Kerman (fa)
Jurassic Asia Iran
Dinosaur footprints, fish

Kishima Group

Daimyoji Formation

Funazu Formation

Itanoura Formation

Kakinoura Formation

Kishima Formation

Magome Formation

Matsushima Formation

Okinoshima Formation

Oshima Formation

Late Eocene/Early Oligocene

Asia

Japan

Kitadani Quarry
Kitadani Formation
Early Cretaceous

Asia

Japan

Tortonian Asia
Turkey: Evren, Ankara

Middle Triassic
Asia
China: Yunnan

Very numerous fossils of diverse marine ecosystem

Chengjiang County Maotianshan Shales Cambrian Asia
China

Maleri Formation ( Upper and Lower)

Late Triassic
Asia
India

Sangiran Pleistocene
Asia
Indonesia
Hominin

Trinil Pleistocene Asia
Indonesia: Java

Hominin, " Java Man"

Xinminbao Group

Chijinbao Formation

Digou Formation

Zhonggou Formation

Early Cretaceous

Asia

China

Xiushan Formation
Early Silurian (Llandovery)

Asia

China: Guizhou

Yixian Formation Early Cretaceous Asia
China

Jehol Biota, See also: Paleobiota of the Yixian Formation

Baissa Zaza Formation Early Cretaceous Asia
Russia

Insects: Pterygota

Atapuerca
Pleistocene ( Lower Paleolithic)
Europe
Spain

Hominin

Buñol Miocene
Europe

Spain

Calizas de La Huérguina Formation
Cretaceous (Barremian)

Europe

Spain

Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil Pleistocene
Europe

France

Hominin: Crô-Magnon

Cuevas de los Murciélagos
Pleistocene/ Holocene

Europe

Spain: La Palma, Canary Islands

Dob's Linn
Ordovician- Silurian boundary
Europe
Scotland

Graptolites

Es Pouás
Pleistocene/ Holocene
Europe
Spain: Ibiza ( Balearic Islands)

Fur Formation
Early Eocene
Europe
Denmark

Gauja Formation
Middle Devonian

Europe

Estonia and Latvia

Gilwern Hill Ordovician
Europe
Wales

Gotland Silurian
Europe
Sweden

Hunsrück Slates Devonian Europe
Germany: Bundenbach

Jurassic Coast Europe
England

Ammonites and reptiles

Las Hoyas Cretaceous Europe
Spain

London Clay Eocene Europe
England

Lourinhã Formation

Late Jurassic
Europe Portugal

Messel Pit
Messel Oil Shale
Eocene Europe
Germany

Monte Bolca Eocene Europe
Italy

Neandertal (e.g., Kleine Feldhofer Grotte)
Pleistocene Europe
Germany

Hominin

Paris Basin ( Argille Plastique)

Early Eocene
Europe
France

Rhynie, Aberdeenshire Rhynie Chert Devonian Europe
Scotland

Plants, Cyanobacteria, first Hexapoda

Sajóvölgyi Formation
Miocene ( Serravallian)
Europe
Hungary

Slieve Anierin Namurian
Europe
Ireland
Goniatites, and Bivalvia, marine and coastal fauna.

Solnhofen limestone Jurassic Europe
Germany

Stránská skála Moravian Karst formation Pleistocene Europe
Czech Republic: Moravia

Apex Chert Archaean Oceania
Australia: Western Australia ( Marble Bar)

Canowindra- Gooloogong
Devonian Oceania
Australia: New South Wales

Curio Bay Jurassic Oceania
New Zealand: Southland ( The Catlins)

Petrified forest

Ediacara Hills Ediacaran Oceania
Australia: South Australia ( Flinders Ranges)

Emu Bay Shale
Early Cambrian
Oceania
Australia: South Australia ( Kangaroo Island)

Georgina Basin
Neoproterozoic - late Paleozoic
Oceania
Australia: Northern Territory, Queensland

Gogo Formation Devonian Oceania
Australia: Western Australia

Greta Siltstone Formation
Late Pliocene
Oceania
New Zealand: Canterbury ( Hurunui)

Heathcote siltstone
Early Silurian- Late Devonian
Oceania
Australia: Victoria

Horseshoe Bay Limestone Downs Cretaceous Oceania
New Zealand: Waikato

Kangaroo Wells Miocene Oceania
Australia: Northern Territory

Riversleigh
Oligocene/ Miocene
Oceania
Australia: Queensland

Wianamatta Shale and Ashfield Shale

Late Triassic
Oceania
Australia: New South Wales ( Sydney)

Prehistoric amphibians ( Capitosauridae, Trematosaurinae), ray finned fish ( Semionotiformes and Palaeoniscidae), cartilaginous fish ( Xenacanthida) and insects ( Protorthoptera)

Otway Basin

Dutton Way - Early Pliocene

Arch site - Middle Miocene

Clifton Banks - Middle to late Miocene

Forsyth's Banks and Fossil rock stack - Early Pliocene

Spring Creek - Late Miocene to Early Pliocene

Kawarren - Late Oligocene

Leigh River - Early Miocene

Hopkins River - Middle to Late Miocene

Gibson's Steps - Bairnsdalian (Middle Miocene)

Curdie - Balcombian (Middle Miocene)

Princetown Beach - Late Oligocene

Castle Cove - Late Oligocene

Late Oligocene - Early Pliocene
Oceania
Australia: Victoria

Anacleto Formation
Cretaceous (Campanian)
South America Argentina

Candeleros Formation
Cretaceous (Cenomanian)
South America Argentina

Capadare Formation
Middle Miocene
South America Venezuela

Paleorrota
Caturrita Formation
Triassic ( Carnian - Norian)
South America
Brazil: Rio Grande do Sul

Chapadmalal Sea Cliff
Chapadmalalan Pliocene South America Argentina

Huincul Formation
Late Cretaceous ( Cenomanian)
South America Argentina

Irati Formation South America Brazil
Mesosaurs

Ischigualasto Provincial Park Ischigualasto Formation Triassic South America Argentina

Ituzaingó Formation
Late Miocene (Huayquerian)
South America Argentina
Mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, bivalves, foraminifera, ichnofossils and flora

Lecho Formation
Late Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian)
South America Argentina
Titanosaur Saltasaurus, avian and non-avian theropods

Lisandro Formation (= Cerro Lisandro Fm.)
South America Argentina

Lohan Cura Formation South America Argentina

Mangrullo Formation South America Uruguay

Punta Peters (5 km east of Panguipulli)
Panguipulli Formation Triassic South America Chile
Plants

Late Pleistocene
South America Chile
Megafauna, human activity

Pisco Formation
Late[verification needed] Miocene/Early Pliocene
South America Peru

Plottier Formation
Late Cretaceous (Coniacian - ?Santonian)
South America Argentina
Dinosaurs, Trace fossils

Portezuelo Formation
Late Cretaceous ( Turonian - Coniacian)
South America Argentina
Dinosaurs, turtles, and other animals

Puerto Madryn Formation
Late Miocene
South America Argentina

Auca Mahuevo Río Colorado Subgroup Cretaceous South America Argentina

Santana Group ( Crato Formation)

Aptian- Albian
South America Brazil
Insects, Fish, Pterosaurs

Paleorrota
Santa Maria Formation
Middle-Late Triassic (Ladinian-Carnian)
South America
Brazil: Rio Grande do Sul

Early dinosaurs

Sâo José de Itaboraí basin Itaboraí Formation
Paleocene ( Itaboraian)
South America Brazil

Sloggett Formation (= Bahía Sloggett Formation)

Late Eocene/Early Oligocene
South America Argentina

Touro Passo Formation
Late Pleistocene- Holocene
South America
Brazil: Rio Grande do Sul

La Venta Honda Group Middle Miocene South America Colombia

Yacoraite Formation
Late Cretaceous/Early Paleocene ( Maastrichtian - Danian)
South America Argentina

White Springs Local Fauna Parachucla Formation
late Oligocene
North America
United States: Florida

nearshore marine and terrestrial vertebrates

Pindaï Peninsula

Népoui Formation

Late Miocene
Oceania New Caledonia

1. ^ This site and/or formation is considered a Lagerstätte.

2. ^ This site is an example or type locality for an extensive fossil-bearing formation.

3. ^ This site occurs within a widespread fossil bearing formation, but is noteworthy for additional reasons not typical of that formation.

1. ^ Bryn, Brandon. "Science: Oldest Fossil of Homo Genus Found in Ethiopia". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015.

2. ^ Fiorillo, Anthony; Hasiotis, Stephen; Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu (August 2014). "Herd structure in Late Cretaceous polar dinosaurs: A remarkable new dinosaur tracksite, Denali National Park, Alaska, USA". Geology. 42 (8): 719-722. Bibcode:2014Geo....42..719F. doi:10.1130/G35740.1.

3. ^ "10 milyon yıllık hayvan fosilleri bulundu" [10 million years old fossils of animals found] (in Turkish). NTV MSNBC. 2009-10-07.

4. ^ "New Fossil Site in China Shows Long Recovery of Life from the Largest Extinction in Earth's History". ScienceDaily. 22 Dec 2010.

5. ^ Cosgriff, J. W. (1973). "Notobrachyops picketti, a brachyopid from the Ashfield Shale, Wiannamatta Group, New South Wales". Journal of Paleontology. 47 (6): 1094-1101. JSTOR 1303172.

6. ^ a Piñeiro, G.; Ramos, A.; Goso, C. S.; Scarabino, F.; Laurin, M. (2012). "Unusual Environmental Conditions Preserve a Permian Mesosaur-Bearing Konservat-Lagerstätte from Uruguay". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 57 (2): 299. doi:10.4202/app.2010.0113. b

7. ^

8. ^ Garrouste, Romain; Munzinger, Jérôme; Leslie, Andrew; Fisher, Jessica; Folcher, Nicolas; Locatelli, Emma; Foy, Wyndy; Chaillon, Thibault; Cantrill, David J.; Maurizot, Pierre; Cluzel, Dominique; Lowry, Porter P.; Crane, Peter; Bahain, Jean-Jacques; Voinchet, Pierre (2021-09-15). "New fossil discoveries illustrate the diversity of past terrestrial ecosystems in New Caledonia". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 18388. Bibcode:2021NatSR..1118388G. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97938-5. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 8443626. PMID 34526644.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This list of fossil sites is a worldwide list of localities known well for the presence of fossils. Some entries in this list are notable for a single, unique find, while others are notable for the large number of fossils found there.

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https://earthhow.com/fossilization/

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Fossilization is a process that turns once-living organisms into stone-like fossils. Today, we’ll look into the steps of fossilization.

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Fossilization

What Kinds of Rocks Contain Fossils?

Most fossils are found in sediments or sedimentary rocks. Fossils form when organisms die and become buried by sediment, or when organisms travel over or through sediment and leave imprints or debris. The degree of preservation of a fossil reﬂects the context of burial. For example, rocks formed from sediments deposited under anoxic (oxygen-free) conditions in quiet water (such as lake beds or lagoons) can preserve particularly ﬁne specimens. In contrast, rocks made from sediments deposited in high-energy environments where strong currents tumble shells and bones and break them up contain at best only small fragments of fossils mixed with other clastic grains. Fossils sometimes occur in volcaniclastic rocks, but they are not found in intrusive igneous rocks and tend to be destroyed by metamorphism.

Forming a Fossil

Paleontologists refer to the process of forming a fossil as fossilization. To see how a typical fossil develops in sedimentary rock, let's follow the fate of an old dinosaur as it searches for food along a riverbank (figure above). On a scalding summer day, the hungry dinosaur, plodding through the muddy ground, succumbs to the heat and collapses dead into the mud. Soon after, scavengers strip the skeleton of meat and scatter the bones. But before the bones have had time to weather away, the river ﬂoods and buries the bones, along with the dinosaur's footprints, under a layer of silt. More sediment from succeeding ﬂoods buries the bones and prints still deeper, so that the bones cannot be reworked by currents or disrupted by burrowing organisms. Later, sea level rises and a thick sequence of marine sediment buries the ﬂuvial sediment.

Eventually, the sediment containing the bones and footprints turns to rock (siltstone and shale). The footprints remain outlined by the contact between the siltstone and shale, while the bones reside within the siltstone. Minerals precipitating from groundwater passing through the siltstone gradually replace some of the chemicals constituting the bones, until the bones themselves have become rock-like. The buried bones and footprints are now fossils. One hundred million years later, uplift and erosion expose the dinosaur's grave. Part of a fossil bone protrudes from a rock outcrop. A lucky paleontologist observes the fragment and starts excavating, gradually uncovering enough of the bones to permit reconstruction of the beast's skeleton. Further digging uncovers the footprints. The dinosaur rises again, but this time in a museum. In recent years, bidding wars have made some fossil ﬁnds extremely valuable. For example, a skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex, a 67-million-year-old dinosaur, sold at auction in 1997 for $7.6 million. The specimen, named Sue after its discoverer, now stands in the Field Museum of Chicago.

Similar tales can be told for fossil seashells buried by sediment settling in the sea, for insects trapped in hardened tree sap (amber), and for mammoths drowned in the muck of a tar pit. In all cases, fossilization involves the burial and preservation of an organism or the trace (a footprint or burrow) of an organism.

The Many Different Kinds of Fossils

Perhaps when you think of a fossil, you picture either a dinosaur bone or the imprint of a seashell in rock. In fact, paleontologists distinguish many different kinds of fossils, according to the speciﬁc way in which the organism was fossilized. Let's look at examples of these categories.

Frozen or dried body fossils: In a few environments, whole bodies of organisms may be preserved. Most of these fossils are fairly young, by geologic standards their ages can be measured in thousands, not millions, of years. Examples include woolly mammoths that became incorporated in the permafrost (permanently frozen ground) of Siberia (figure above a). In desert climates, organisms can become desiccated (dried out). Such "mummified" corpses can survive for millennia in caves.

Body fossils preserved in amber or tar: Insects landing on the bark of trees may become trapped in the sticky sap or resin the trees produce. This golden syrup envelops the insects and over time hardens into amber, the semiprecious "stone" used for jewellery. Amber can preserve insects, as well as other delicate organic material such as feathers, for 40 million years or more (figure above b). Tar similarly acts as a preservative. In isolated regions where oil has seeped to the surface, the more volatile components of the oil evaporate away and bacteria degrade what remains, leaving behind a sticky residue of tar. At one such locality, the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, tar accumulated in a swampy area. While grazing, drinking, or hunting at the swamp, animals became mired in the tar and sank into it. Their bones have been remarkably well preserved for over 40,000 years (figure above c).

Preserved or replaced bones, teeth, and shells: Bones (the internal skeletons of vertebrate animals) and shells (the external skeletons of invertebrate animals) consist of durable minerals, which may survive in rock (figure above d). Some bone or shell minerals are not stable, and they recrystallize. But even when this happens, the shape of the bone or shell can be preserved in the rock.

Molds and casts of bodies: As sediment compacts around a shell, it conforms to the shape of the shell or body. If the shell or body later disappears, because of weathering and dissolution, a cavity called a mold remains (figure above e). (Sculptors use the same term to refer to the receptacle into which they pour bronze or plaster.) A mold preserves the delicate shape of the organism's surface; it looks like an indentation on a rock bed. The sediment that had filled the mold also preserves the organism's shape; this cast protrudes from the surface of the adjacent bed.

Carbonized impressions of bodies: Impressions are simply flattened molds created when soft or semisoft organisms (leaves, insects, shell-less invertebrates, sponges, feathers, jellyfish) get pressed between layers of sediment. Chemical reactions eventually remove the organic material, leaving only a thin film of carbon on the surface of the impression (figure above f).

Permineralized organisms: Permineralization refers to the process by which minerals precipitate in porous material, such as wood or bone, from groundwater solutions that have seeped into the pores. Petriﬁed wood, for example, forms by permineralization of wood, causing the wood to become chert. In fact, the word petriﬁed literally means turned to stone. When the wood dries out, open spaces form inside the cells because the protoplasm of cells is 80% water. The chert precipitates inside these spaces and the organic matter of the cell walls becomes carbonized. The fine detail of the wood's cell-wall structure can be seen in a petrified log (figure above g).

Trace fossils: These include footprints, feeding traces, burrows, and dung (coprolites) that organisms leave behind in sediment (figure above h, i).

Chemical fossils: Living things consist of complex organic chemicals. When buried with sediment and subjected to diagenesis, some of these chemicals are destroyed, but some either remain intact or break down to form different, but still distinctive, chemicals. A distinctive chemical derived from an organism and preserved in rock is called a chemical fossil. (Such chemicals may also be called molecular fossils or biomarkers.)

Paleontologists also ﬁnd it useful to distinguish among different fossils on the basis of their size. Macrofossils are large enough to be seen with the naked eye. But some rocks and sediments also contain abundant microfossils, which can be seen only with a microscope or even an electron microscope (figure above). Microfossils include remnants of plankton, algae, bacteria, and pollen.

Fossil Preservation

Not all living organisms become fossils when they die. In fact, only a small percentage do, for it takes special circumstances namely, one or more of the following three to produce a fossil and allow it to survive.

Death in an anoxic (oxygen-poor) environment: A dead squirrel by the side of the road won't become a fossil. As time passes, birds, dogs, or other scavengers may come along and eat the carcass. And if that doesn't happen, maggots, bacteria, and fungi infest the carcass and gradually digest it. As the flesh rots, some reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere and transforms into carbon dioxide gas. The remaining skeleton weathers in air and turns to dust. Thus, before roadkill can become incorporated in sediment, it has vanished. If, however, a carcass settles into an oxygen-poor environment, oxidation reactions happen slowly, scavenging organisms aren't abundant, and bacterial metabolism takes place very slowly. In such environments, the organism won't rot away before it has a chance to be buried and preserved, so the likelihood that the organism becomes fossilized increases.

Rapid burial: If an organism dies in a depositional environment where sediment accumulates rapidly, it may be buried before it has time to rot, oxidize, be eaten, or undergo complete weathering. For example, if a storm suddenly buries an oyster bed with a thick layer of silt, the oysters die and become part of the sedimentary rock derived from the sediment.

The presence of hard parts: Organisms without durable shells or skeletons, or other "hard parts," usually won't be fossilized, for soft flesh decays long before hard parts do under most depositional conditions. For this reason, paleontologists have learned more about the fossil record of bivalves (a class of organisms, including clams and oysters, with strong shells) than they have about the fossil record of jellyfish (which have no shells) or spiders (which have very fragile exoskeletons).

By carefully studying modern organisms, paleontologists have been able to provide rough estimates of the preservation potential of organisms, meaning the likelihood that an organism will be buried and eventually transformed into a fossil. For example, in a typical modern-day shallow-marine environment, such as the mud-and-sand sea ﬂoor close to a beach, about 30% of the organisms have sturdy shells and thus a high preservation potential, 40% have fragile shells and a low preservation potential, and the remaining 30% have no hard parts at all and are not likely to be fossilized except in special circumstances. Of the 30% with sturdy shells, though, only a few happen to die in a depositional setting where they actually do become fossilized. Thus, fossilization is the exception rather than the rule.

Extraordinary Fossils: A Special Window to the Past

Though only hard parts survive in most fossilization environments, paleontologists have discovered a few special locations where rock contains fossils of soft parts as well; such fossils are known as extraordinary fossils (figure above a, b). We've already seen how extraordinary fossils such as insects and even feathers can be preserved in amber, and how complete skeletons have been found in tar pits. In a few cases, such ﬁnds include actual tissue, a discovery that has led to a research race to ﬁnd the oldest preserved DNA. Extraordinary fossils may also be preserved in sediment that accumulates on the anoxic ﬂoor of lakes or lagoons or the deep ocean. Here, oxidation cannot occur, and ﬂesh does not rot before burial.

Credits: Stephen Marshak (Essentials of Geology)

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Most fossils are found in sediments or sedimentary rocks. Fossils form when organisms die and become buried by sediment, or when organisms travel over or through sediment and leave imprints or debris. The degree of preservation of a fossil reﬂects the context of burial.

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Collecting Fossils in NSW In New South Wales there is no legislation specifically dealing with the collection of fossils. Fossils may be collected by fossicking (manual digging only and no major excavation as defined in the New South Wales Mining Act.

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If you’ve ever gone combing beaches for ammonite fossils, you might have wondered about the processes which produced them. They can come in a number of…

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How Do Opalised Fossils Form – Geology In

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Opal forms in cavities within rocks. If a cavity has formed because a bone, shell or pinecone was buried in the sand or clay that later beca…

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Photo by Roz Kerr

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Photo by Roz Kerr

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** Glossopteris - Fossils found in the cliffs of Newcastle, NSW **

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** Glossopteris - Fossils found in the cliffs of Newcastle, NSW **

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Photo from Roz Kerr

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Photo from Roz Kerr

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Photo from Roz Kerr

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** The Ampitheatre - Newcastle, Susan Gilmore Beach, Newcastle NSW **

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** The Ampitheatre - Newcastle, Susan Gilmore Beach, Newcastle NSW **

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Photo Mr Evans

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** The Ampitheatre - Layers - Newcastle, Susan Gilmore Beach, Newcastle NSW **

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** The Ampitheatre - Layers - Newcastle, Susan Gilmore Beach, Newcastle NSW **

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Photo by Roz Kerr

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I don't know... Fish scales? Tree tissue? I took this photo at Susan Gilmore Beach Newcastle, NSW - Mr. Evans

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Photo by Mr. Evans

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** Fossil stick imprints, Narabeen NSW ***

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** Fossil stick imprints, Narabeen NSW ***

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Photo by Mr. Evans

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** Layers likely containing fossils, Narabeen NSW **

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** Layers likely containing fossils, Narabeen NSW **

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You can see the natural layers that these rocks were laid down in before compression. Photo Mr. Evans

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** Cast of Dinosaur fossil, Australian Museum, NSW **

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** Cast of Dinosaur fossil, Australian Museum, NSW **

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Photo Mr. Evans

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** Dinosaur fossil, Australian Museum, NSW **

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** Dinosaur fossil, Australian Museum, NSW **

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Photo by Mr. Evans

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** Cast of Dinosaur fossil, Australian Museum, NSW **

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** Cast of Dinosaur fossil, Australian Museum, NSW **

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Photo by Mr. Evans

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** Cast of Dinosaur fossil, Australian Museum, NSW **

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** Cast of Dinosaur fossil, Australian Museum, NSW **

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Photo by Mr. Evans