Amazing fossils from 15 million-year-old deposits in Australia, preserved in iron-rich rocks.
The exquisite details include feathers, tiny parasites riding on larger organisms, even pollen grains.
This spot seems to have been an Oxbow Lake in a rain forest ecosystem. As to how this happened, the excavators are not sure:
The secret to the fossils’ preservation is up for debate, but McCurry thinks it would have happened over hundreds of years rather than in a sudden event.
Iron-rich water, maybe from nearby outcrops, could have flowed into a shallow billabong, periodically deoxygenating the water, killing the organisms or encasing flora and fauna in sediment that turns into the rocks found in the field.
Close-up of the sawfly above, showing its head, and a microscopic image showing the pollen grains still visible there. Astonishing.
A larval mussel riding on the fin of a fish as a parasite.
Tiny flowers.
Longhorn Beetle.
Original publication, long story at the
NY Times.
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