An important new fossil site in New South Wales, Australia, contains magnificent examples of fossilized animals and plants from the Miocene epoch.As its discoverers publish in Science Advances, the new fossil site (called McGraths Flat), located in the Central Tablelands, near the city of Gulgong, represents one of the few fossil sites in Australia that can be classified as "Lagerstätte", that is, a deposit that contains fossils of exceptional quality.Over the past three years, a team of researchers, led by Dr. Matthew McCurry, paleontologist at the Australian Museum (AM) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and Dr. Michael Frese, from the University of Canberra, has secretly excavated the site and discovered thousands of specimens, including jungle plants, insects, spiders, fish and a bird's feather.McCurry explains that the fossils formed between 11 and 16 million years ago and are important to understanding the history of the Australian continent."The fossils we have found show that the area was once a very wet temperate rainforest and that life was rich and abundant here on the Central Flats of New South Wales," he added in a statement. of the fossils we are finding are new to science and include trapdoor spiders, giant cicadas, wasps and a variety of fish."As he recalls, "until now it has been difficult to know what these ancient ecosystems were like, but the level of preservation of this new fossil site means that even small, fragile organisms like insects became well-preserved fossils."Associate Professor Michael Frese, who imaged the fossils using stacking photomicrography and a scanning electron microscope (SEM), stresses that the McGraths Flat fossils show incredibly detailed preservation."Using electron microscopy, I can image individual plant and animal cells, and sometimes even very small subcellular structures," he says."Fossils also preserve evidence of interactions between species," he continues. "For example, we have preserved stomach contents of fish, which means we can find out what they ate.We have also found examples of pollen preserved in the bodies of insects, so we can tell which species pollinated which plants.""The discovery of melanosomes (subcellular organelles that store the pigment melanin) allows us to reconstruct the color pattern of birds and fish that lived on McGraths Flat.Interestingly, color itself is not preserved, but by comparing the size, shape, and stacking pattern of melanosomes in our fossils with those in extant specimens, we can often reconstruct color and/or color patterns." Frese explains.The fossils were found in an iron-rich rock called 'goethite', which is not usually considered a source of exceptional fossils."We think the process that turned these organisms into fossils is the key to why they are so well preserved. Our analyzes suggest that the fossils formed when iron-rich groundwater flowed into a well, and that a precipitation of iron ore it embedded the organisms that lived in or fell into the water," adds McCurry.As he explains, the fossilized plants and animals are similar to those found in the tropical forests of northern Australia, but there were signs that the McGraths Flat ecosystem was beginning to dry out."The pollen we found in the sediment suggests that there may have been drier habitats around the wetter rainforest, indicating a shift to drier conditions," McCurry said.The Executive Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria, Professor David Cantrill, notes that the variety of preserved fossils, coupled with extraordinary preservation fidelity, provides unprecedented insight into an important time in Australia's past, a time in which mesic ecosystems still dominated the continent."The plant fossils from McGraths Flat offer us a window into the vegetation and ecosystems of a warmer world, which we are likely to experience in the future.The preservation of plant fossils is unique and provides important insight into a time period for which the fossil record in Australia is quite poor."For his part, the chief scientist of the Australian Museum and director of the Research Institute of the AM, Professor Kristofer Helgen, points out that the fossil site gives life to an image of the Australian outback that we can now hardly believe existed."Australia is the most biologically unique continent, and this site is extremely valuable for what it tells us about the evolutionary history of this part of the world. It provides further evidence of climate change and helps fill in the gaps in our knowledge of that time and region," says Helgen."The AM has a rich history of scientific expeditions and investigations, and we love that the public is always fascinated by these fundamental human endeavors of exploration and discovery," he adds.Marvel Explains If Netflix's Daredevil Is MCU CanonThey raise an alert that the volcanic risk is increasing in the Canary Islands and demands a strategy from public institutionsSchedule, route and where to see the parade on October 12, 2022 for the national holidayNews and current affairs portal of the Europa Press Agency.© 2022 Europe Press.The redistribution and redistribution of all or part of the contents of this website without your prior and express consent is expressly prohibited.