Embedded Files
Riversleigh and Naracoorte are among the world's largest, best preserved and richest deposited fossil sites: Riversleigh comprises Queensland’s southern Lawn Hill National Park; and Naracoorte lies in South Australia.
Riversleigh represents Australia's mammal fauna development, spanning over 20 million years for many distinctive groups, such as marsupial moles and feather-tailed possums, and other unique, extinct mammals such as 'marsupial lions'.
A combination of factors have given rise to the site where an exceptional diversity of superb fossils provide unparalleled window into Oligo-Miocene (15-25 million years ago) rainforest faunas that evolved in isolation during Australia's separation from Antarctica.
These faunas present pinnacle of marsupial evolution, predating the influx from Asia to Australia and consequent fauna wholesale re-orderings 7-2.5 million years ago as the environment changed from rainforest to semi-arid grassland.
A 15 million-year-old almost complete skull and dentition of monotreme has already provided a great deal of information about this highly distinctive mammals group.
Ancestral marsupial forms found include Tasmanian tiger, mole, bandicoot, marsupial 'lion', koala, wombat, kangaroo and possum, while placental mammals are represented bybat species.
Riversleigh landscape has a large number of visible archaeological traces of Aboriginal occupation and sites of cultural significance.
Naracoorte opens a window into 170,000 years of marsupial-dominated continent history and provide a key clue to understanding marsupial responses to great climatic changes.
Its assemblage spans probable time of human arrival in Australia, providing additional value in unraveling complex relationships between humans and their environment.
Naracoorte caves are also a source of specimens of potential values in extinct species’ DNA analysis not always available from studies of swamp/lake/dune recovered fossils, representing vertebrate species, ranging from very small frogs to buffalo-sized marsupials.
Other preserved examples include Ice-Age megafauna and modern species such as Tasmanian devil, thylacine, wallabies, possums, bettongs, mice, bats, snakes, parrots, turtles and lizards.
Riversleigh footprints (Carole MacKinney/Wikipedia, CC0 1.0).
Nearest Cities:
Mount Gambier (pop. 25,000) is located midway in South Australia between Adelaide and Melbourne. It is 15 kilometres west of the Victorian border. It is in the CST timezone (GMT+9.30), half an hour behind Victorian time <read more>.
Horsham (pop. 14,000).
Mount Isa (pop. 22,000) is a mining city in the north-west of the Australian state of Queensland, situated some 900 km west of Townsville and some 1900 km north-west of the capital Brisbane. Geology is the key drawcard to Mount Isa, best represented in the World Heritage Riversleigh Fossil Field located near the city (250 km! - "near" for Queensland....) <read more>.
Victoria Fossil Cave, Naracoorte (Alpha/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0).
Reviews/News Link:
Apr 23 2015 - Australia's UNESCO World Heritage-listed cultural and natural attractions; Stuff
Jan 17 2015 - Australia | Down nowhere road; Lakshmi Sharath; Live Mint
Jun 17 2014 - World Heritage listing bid; Barossa Herald
Jun 01 2012 - Why our amazing state is world-class; Penelope Debelle; Adelaide Now
Feb 17 2012 - Delectable Diversity - Limestone Coast; Annette Tan; Today Online
Jan 18 2012 - World Heritage Probe for McLaren Vale; Katelin Nelligan; Where I Live
Virtual Tours:
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse