As a result, the fossils at McGraths Flat are preserved in a dense, iron-rich rock known as goethite. As iron-rich runoff from nearby basalt mountains seeped into the billabong, the pool’s low pH caused the iron to precipitate and encase the organic material. ![]() ![]() Nearly devoid of oxygen, this stagnant pool kept scavengers at bay, allowing plant material and animal carcasses to accumulate. 2/13 /2CRnSG6HbGįifteen million years ago, a river carved through the jungle, leaving an oxbow lake (known as a billabong in Australia) in its wake at McGraths Flat. We visited the site to excavate and were surprised to find so much more than fossil leaves. This work began when a local farmer from the central tablelands of NSW notified us that he had found fossil leaves in one of his paddocks. ![]() The scientists’ discoveries, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, help reconstruct Australia’s Miocene rainforest in extensive detail, and the site “opens a whole new area of exploration for Australian paleontology,” said Scott Hocknull, a paleontologist at Queensland Museum who was not involved in the research. Also read | A naturalist stumbled on an Ichthyosaur skeleton, the largest in UK history
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