Spinach, silver louse, plowing bees, plants and fish, dating from 11 million to 16 million years ago during the Trung Tan Dynasty, are painting a vivid picture of Australia's former rich tropical forest ecosystem.
Matthew McCurry, an paleontologist at the Australian Museum Research Institute, author of the study on the new fossil site published in the journal Science Advances on January 7, said: "This is an extremely important fossil site. This place has everything we hope for, the fossils are preserved especially well from the time when we did not know much about it".
"Trung Tan is the time when most of Australia's modern environment is established, so this fossil site is truly a story of Australian origin," he added.
During the Trung Tan period, reduced rainfall has caused tropical forests around the world to narrow, leading to increasingly arid landscapes.
The fossil site is named McGraths Flat, located in the Central Tablelands, near the town of Gulgong. The location was discovered by a local farmer when he found fossil leaves in the fields. Mr. McCurry and his colleagues have visited and excavated this site 7 times.
The fossils are incredibly beautiful and through the use of a microscope, we can look at them in detail and see that the surface of the fossils is also incredibly well preserved. Details such as individual cells and even the bao glands can be seen. This level of detail allows us to talk more about the appearance of this ecosystem," he shared.
According to expert McCurry, the location of the fossil was made from iron-rich stones, known as Lagerstätte - a term used by German paleontologists to describe a special location with many perfectly preserved fossils. Plants and animals have been fossilised as iron-rich groundwater has flowed into a water hole.
