Fossil sites around Australia

1. Fossil sites around Australia Evolution of Australian Flora and Fauna

2. Fossil sites in Australia represent key stages in the development of Australia's fauna. These sites represent extreme diversity and quality of preserved materials. They represent links through time that unify the biota of the past with those of today.

3. Riversleigh

4. Riversleigh - located in north-west Queensland .

5. Tasmanian Tiger • Thylacine Thylacinus cynocephalus is a recently extinct marsupial. • Also known as the Tasmanian Tiger • Was the largest living mammalian carnivore in Australia. • Other ancestral marsupial forms found at Riversleigh include moles, bandicoot, marsupial 'lions', koala, wombat, kangaroo and possums.

6. Time line and position of the continents during formation of the Riversleigh fossil deposits.

8. More than 250 fossil sites have been discovered in the rough, inaccessible terrain at Riversleigh. [Photo: Stephan Williams]

9. Riversleigh fossils • Our understanding of the origins, evolution and history of many of Australia's vertebrate groups has been greatly enhanced by the fossil record of Riversleigh's rich Oligo-Miocene habitats. • These Tertiary faunas include ancestors and representatives of the kangaroos, rat-kangaroos, bandicoots, wombats, marsupial moles, thylacines, koalas, possums, pygmy possums, bats, rodents and platypuses.

10. The unique teeth and skull of Yalkaparidon

11. Fangaroo

12. The unique teeth and skull of Yalkaparidon (top) earned it the nickname 'Thingodonta'. Even though it was a herbivore, 'Fangaroo' (bottom) had huge canine teeth, which it may have used for defence in the same way as the pygmy deers of modern rainforests.

13. Naracoorte

14. Naracoorte • Naracoorte (300ha) lies in the south-east of South Australia. • There are Pleistocene fossil vertebrate deposits at Naracoorte Caves and are considered to be Australia’s largest.

15. Extinction • 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.

16. Macropus titan • 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.

17. Marsupial Lion Thylacoleo carnifex

18. Skeleton of Short-faced kangaroo Sthenurus

19. Skeletons of two extinct megafaunal animals

21. Naracoorte fossil time periods

22. Throughout this period Australia was almost in the same position that it is in today (red). The continent is still moving northwards and will collide with south-east Asia within the next 30 million years. The Pleistocene Epoch lasted from 2 million years ago to 10,000 years ago.

23. Murgon

24. The Murgon Fossil Site is located near Kingaroy in south-east Queensland. The site is significant as the only site in Australia that records a diverse vertebrate fauna dating from the early Tertiary Period (55 million years before present), approximately ten million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. The site includes some outstanding fossil records, including the world's oldest fossil songbirds, the oldest fossil marsupial remains in Australia, a placental mammal (Condylarth), one of the world's oldest bats, the only known fossil remains of leiopelmatid frogs, and the only known fossils of salamanders in Australia.

26. The cavy-like Thylacotinga bartholomaii approaches the waters' edge with its young. At left is a microbiotheriid marsupial, the closest relatives of this primitive marsupial are known only from South America. On the right is the primitive Condylarth Tingamarra porterorum, an animal that changed scientific understanding of Australia's fossil mammal history. In the trees are the world's oldest known songbirds. In the background Australia's oldest fossil bandicoot drinks as the oldest known Australian fossil bat, Australonycteris clarkae, flies overhead. [Reconstruction: Anne Musser]

27. Tingamarra porterorum • One of the most significant finds from Murgon, confirming the Gondwanan connection was the discovery of the placental Condylarth Tingamarra porterorum. This internationally significant fossil is Australia's oldest placental land mammal.

28. Molar of Tingamarra porterorum

29. Time line and position of the continents during formation of the Murgon fossil deposits.

30. Early Eocene 54.6 million years agoTime line and position of the continents during formation of the Murgon fossil deposits.Still connected to Antarctica and South America by a land bridge, the Australian continent (red) was moving northward. The Eocene Epoch lasted from 55 million years ago to 34 million years ago.

31. The ancient swampy environment was home to soft-shelled turtles, Australia's oldest known frogs and swamp crocodiles of the genus Kambara. Among the trees flew Australia's oldest known bat, Australonycteris clarkae, and birds that have been recognised as the world's earliest known songbirds, raising the possibility that this group of birds evolved in Australia.

33. Crocodile skull fossil at Murgon

34. Palaeontologists excavating at a fossil quarry at Murgon. Brushes and fine tools are used to remove clay from around fossil bones such as this crocodile skull (far right). [Photos: Henk Godthelp].

35. Bluff Downs

36. Bluff Downs wetland 3.8 million years ago

37. A view of Bluff Downs wetland 3.8 million years ago. A sthenurine kangaroo nervously watches a saltwater crocodile ambushes a large marsupial herbivore Euryzygoma. Looking on ravenously is an 8m giant python Liasis and a giant goanna Megalania. Flamingoes wade in the shallows beyond. [Reconstruction: Anne Musser]

38. At Bluff Downs a wetland environment, similar to modern-day Kakadu, was home to a rich diversity of animals. Their fossils provide crucial information about this important stage in the evolution of the Australian continent and its animals.

39. Pliocene 3.8 mya

40. Pliocene 3.8 million years agoTime line and position of the continents during formation of the Bluff Downs fossil locality.

41. Skull of the giant Pliocene herbivore Euryzygoma

42. Molar tooth of the mysterious koala-like Koobor

43. The skull of the giant Pliocene herbivore Euryzygoma with its unusual protruding cheek bones (top) and a molar tooth of the mysterious koala-like Koobor (bottom) [Photos: Brian Mackness].

44. Also at Bluff Downs were the ancestors of modern animals including animals unlike any known today. Koobor jimbarretti was a strange koala-like animal that still puzzles researchers. Flamingoes, which are no longer found in Australia, waded in the shallows for food. Ancestral dasyurids (marsupial carnivores), kangaroos, wombats and bandicoots all flourished here, as did Thylacoleo crassidentatus, the precursor of the leopard-sized Pleistocene Marsupial Lion T. carnifex.