Mind-Blowing Fossil Site Found in ‘Dead’ Heart of Australia

The arid heart of Australia may not easily support life now, but once, many aeons ago, it was lush and teeming. What is now arid desert and dry shrub- and grasslands were once thick with dense forests, alive with life.

In one of these grasslands, in the Central Tablelands of NSW, palaeontologists have found new evidence of this abundance of life. A new fossil site that can most aptly be described as “exceptional” has turned up fossils of spiders, insects, fish, plants and even a bird feather, dating to the Miocene 11 to 16 million years ago.

“The fossils we have found proof that the area was once a temperate, mesic rainforest and that life was rich and abundant here in the Central Tablelands, NSW,” said palaeontologist Matthew McCurry from the Australian Museum Research Institute.

“Many of the fossils that we are finding our new to science and include trapdoor spiders, giant cicadas, wasps and a variety of fish. Until now it has been difficult to tell what these ancient ecosystems were like, but the level of preservation at this new fossil site means that even small fragile organisms like insects turned into well-preserved fossils.”

The assemblage, named McGraths Flat, is so exceptional that it has been classified as a Lagerstätte – a sedimentary fossil bed that’s so extraordinary that sometimes even soft tissues have been preserved. In McGraths Flat, organisms have been so well preserved that even subcellular structures can be made out in some fossils.

Even more amazingly, it’s a type of rock in which exceptional fossils are not usually seen, an iron-rich rock called goethite.

“We think that the process that turned these organisms into fossils is key to why they are so well preserved,” McCurry said. “Our analyses suggest that the fossils formed when iron-rich groundwaters drained into a billabong and that a precipitation of iron minerals encased organisms that were living in or fell into the water.”

The fossils in the assemblage bear a resemblance to the ecosystems in modern Australian rainforests, the researchers said, but it’s the fine details that really make a difference.

For instance, subcellular structures called melanosomes that give tissues their pigment have been preserved in the site’s fossilized feather and also in the eyes of a fish and a fly.

Although the melanosomes themselves are unpigmented, their structure can be compared to the structure of modern melanosomes to help figure out how the tissues might have been hued. This allows the researchers to figure out what colours the various McGraths flat animals were, including the feather.

“The fossils also preserve evidence of interactions between species,” said microbiologist Michael Frese of the University of Canberra.

“For instance, we have fish stomach contents preserved in the fish, meaning that we can figure out what they were eating. We have also found examples of pollen preserved on the bodies of insects so we can tell which species were pollinating which plants.”

Soberingly, the fossils also might contain a hint of what’s in store for our future.

According to an analysis of the pollen grains in the assemblage, the McGraths Flat rainforest was being encroached upon by arid climate areas. This is not unexpected; during the Miocene, global temperatures had started to rise; it was during this period that the Australian continent started to transform from lush to arid.

Since global mean temperatures are rising, the ecosystem found in McGraths Flat could show us how life might change in Australia’s current rainforests in the years to come.

“The McGraths Flat plant fossils give us a window into the vegetation and ecosystems of a warmer world, one that we are likely to experience in the future,” said botanist David Cantrill of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Australia.

“The preservation of the plant fossils is unique and provides important insights into a time period for which the fossil record in Australia is rather poor.”

The research has been published in Science Advances.

Fossil hunters unearth massive mega-wombat graveyard

Australian scientists unveiled the biggest-ever graveyard of an ancient rhino-sized mega-wombat called diprotodon, with the site potentially holding valuable clues on the species’ extinction.

The remote fossil deposit in outback Queensland state is thought to contain up to 50 diprotodon skeletons including a huge specimen named Kenny, whose jawbone alone is 70 centimetres (28 inches) long.

The lead scientist on the dig, Scott Hocknull from the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, said Kenny was one of the largest diprotodons he had ever seen and one of the best-preserved specimens.

Pigeon-toed and with a backwards-facing pouch large enough to carry an adult human, Hocknull likened diprotodon to “a cross between a wombat and a bear but the size of a rhinoceros”.

The deposit contained the largest concentration of mega-wombat fossils ever discovered and could hold important clues on how the diprotodon lived and what caused it to perish, he said.

“When we did the initial survey I was just completely blown away by the concentrations of these fragments,” he told AFP by telephone from the far-flung desert dig site, which he estimated at between 100,000-200,000 years old.

“It’s a palaeontologists’ goldmine where we can really see what these megafaunas were doing, how they actually behaved, what their ecology was.

“With so many fossils it gives us a unique opportunity to see these animals in their environment, basically, so we can reconstruct it.”

The mega-wombats appeared to have been trapped in boggy conditions at the site after seeking refuge there from extremely dry conditions during a period of significant climate change in ancient Australia, he added.

Diprotodon, the largest marsupial ever to roam the earth, weighing up to 2.8 tonnes, lived between two million and 50,000 years ago and died out around the time indigenous tribes first appeared.

Human and climate triggers for its disappearance are hotly debated.

A huge array of other animal bones have also been found at the site, including the teeth of a six-metre long venomous lizard called megalania and the teeth and bony back-plates of an enormous ancient crocodile.

“We’re almost certain that most of these carcasses of diprotodon have been torn apart by both the crocodiles and the lizards because we’ve found shed teeth within their skeletons from both animals,” Hocknull said.

Towering super-kangaroos up to 2.5 metres tall called protemnodon have also been discovered at the location, along with the remains of tiny frogs, rodents and fish — an important find in what is now an extremely arid region.

“Very little is known about arid zone fish and their evolution, and finding a fossil record for them is amazing,” said Hocknull.

A relative of the modern-day wombat, the herbivorous diprotodon was just one of a host of megafauna to roam ancient Australia including the tree-sized kangaroos and gigantic crocodiles.

Megafauna is thought to have evolved to such large sizes to cope with inhospitable climates and food scarcity, with fossils found in Australia of prehistoric emus, tree-dwelling crocodiles and carnivorous kangaroos.

Rare 6,000-year-old mussel shell reveals insights into First Nations technology

New research by archaeologists has described rare shell artefacts discovered at Calperum Station and Murrawong (Glen Lossie) on the Murray River in South Australia.

The artefacts were found in sites known to archaeologists as shell middens during field trips by Flinders and Griffith University scientists, in collaboration with the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation and the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal Corporation.

Two of the modified freshwater mussel shells are perforated, with the other is serrated. The authors say the finely serrated shell is a very rare artefact with few close Australian examples known to exist.

The discoveries range in age from around 6000 to 600 years old and more than double the known examples of such artefacts from this region.

Professor Amy Roberts at Flinders University, the lead author of the paper, says that whilst midden sites are a common type in many parts of the country, shell artefacts are rarely identified within them.

“These artefacts remind us that middens are not only the remnants of meals eaten long ago but that they also provide insights into Aboriginal technologies and cultural activities. It’s a remarkable object to look at, but also highly enigmatic.”

In over 25 years of recording archaeological sites in the Riverland, including many hundreds of shell middens, co-author Craig Westell says he has never come across an object like the serrated artefact.

Potential uses for the perforated shells include ornamentation, tool stringing and fibre scraping while the serrated artefact may have been used for ornamentation, idle tinkering, or as a food utensil.

Dr Chris Wilson, a Ngarrindjeri archaeologist, says accounts about the use of shells recorded from Aboriginal Elders who lived along the Murray River opened space for the team to think about the functional, symbolic, and aesthetic importance of these objects.

“This recent shell finds confirm that our Ancestors not only made utensils and tools for everyday use but they were also gifted with making artistic pieces using any materials that were readily available.”

“The research that Amy and her team do in partnership with the First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee has been much appreciated, their research gives us more accurate details of our Ancestral history within the Riverland,” says River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation spokesperson Fiona Giles.”

The paper, “Aboriginal Serrated and Perforated Shell Artifacts from the Murray River, South Australia,” (2021) by A.L. Roberts, C. Westell, C. Wilson, M. Langley, River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation and the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal Corporation has been published in Archaeology in Oceania.

Did the Ancient Egyptians reach Australia? Archaeologists claim a MAN-MADE structure was built under this mountain 5,000 years ago

An archaeologist believes that there’s a MASSIVE 900-meter tall pyramid hidden in plain sight beneath thick layers of vegetation and soil in Australia. The structure is believed to date back some 5,000 years.

Pyramids are scattered all across the globe. No matter where we look, ancient cultures built marvellous ancient structures across the planet, with the most notorious monument being the Great Pyramid of Giza, an ancient wonder of engineering still standing today after thousands of years.

Now, a group of amateur archaeologists from Australia claims that before Australia was visited by the Europeans—in fact, thousands of years before that, I might add—the ancient Egyptians visited the mainland of Australia and even built Pyramids there.

As outrageous as this may sound to many, according to the group of researchers, more than 5000 years after ancient Egyptians made their way to Australia, it is believed that a Pyramid built under a mountain in North Queensland has been discovered.

According to a set of Hieroglyphs found in Gosford, there are TWO pyramids in Australia – one at Gympie (pictured) here, which has been demolished, and another one which still stands today. The group claims how ‘Walsh’s Pyramid’, located some 30 minutes west of the popular Australian coastal city, stands a staggering 922 meters in height.

The Pyramid is said to be the final resting place of Egyptian Royal Lord Nefer-ti-ru, according to the group. And exactly where most people see only a massive Pyramid-shaped hill is where the vivid group of archaeologists sees more than what initially meets the eye.

Evidence of their claims is supported by the curious “Gosford Glyphs,” a set of strange carvings that according to many researchers are Egyptian in nature.

Located in the vicinity of Sydney, the intricate carvings are believed to be thousands of years old and were allegedly carved by ancient Egyptian sailors when they discovered the Australian continent, some 5,000 years ago.

These are the Gosford Glyphs.

These curious sets of hieroglyphs are referred to as the Kariong Hieroglyphs due to the fact they are located in the Brisbane Water National Park, Kariong, and also called the Gosford Glyphs due to the nearby community of Gosford can be seen in New South Wales.

But countless controversies surround the alleged hieroglyphs. Numerous archaeologists have made it clear that the Gosford Glyphs are nothing more than a modern forgery, and how it’s IMPOSSIBLE that the ancient Egyptians made their way to Australia and carved the curious set of symbols on the side of a massive rock, let alone build pyramids.

As we wrote previously, is said that amateur archaeologist Ray Johnson supposedly translated the alleged glyphs for the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo and was successful in documenting and translating the two facing walls of Egyptian characters.

The translation of the Gosford Glyphs supposedly records the story of a tragic saga of ancient Egyptian explorers that shipwrecked in a strange and hostile land—now known as Australia.

Anyway, returning back to the Pyramid in Australia, Ray Johnson is convinced how the enigmatic set of hieroglyphs at Gosford undoubtedly point how Lord Nefer-ti-ru, a former member of the ancient Egyptian Royal Family is buried at the site. Furthermore, Johnson is convinced how the Gosford Glyphs tell the story of how ancient Egyptian sailors built TWO Pyramids in Australia, one of which was said to be found at Gympie, in central Queensland.

This is the alleged Pyramid in Australia, rising a staggering 900 meters in the air. The Pyramid (pictured), is located outside Cairns in north Queensland. It was eventually demolished leaving the whereabouts of the other Pyramid an enigma all until now.

Mr Johnson believes that the second Pyramid is in fact located beneath thick layers of soil, hidden away from sight, remaining unperceived for thousands of years. Despite the fact that the “hieroglyphs” point to the existence of a Pyramid located in the Area, the site in question—located at the Wooroonooran National Park—has never been researched.

This is mostly due to the fact that experts consider the location where Johnson believes the Pyramid is located a Natural granite peak. However, archaeologists are convinced that this pyramid could be similar to the one discovered buried beneath thick layers of soil and vegetation in Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, mainstream scholars reject the notion there’s a Pyramid in Australia—let alone two—and that the mountain where said structure is supposedly located, only ‘appears to be the shape of a pyramidal structure’.

Investigations have discovered the existence of a 900m high “Great Pyramid” hidden under intense vegetation in Australia

There are pyramid constructions all over the world. Despite the ancient study of culture we, in each of them there are these buildings. That’s why it’s not surprising that there’s even a Great Pyramid in Australia.

A team of amateur archaeologists, assures Australia that before the arrival of Europeans, ancient Egyptians were in the ocean and the built pyramids.

Is this the Great Pyramid in Australia?

The research team found signs of what could be a Great Pyramid dating 5,000 years built by the Egyptians in Australia.

It is placed on a mountain, in North Queensland and according to the hieroglyphics found in Gosford, there is a total of two pyramids: one in the pipe, which was destroyed and the other location remains unknown.

Called” The Pyramid of Walsh ” is about 30 minutes west of the Australian people’s coastal town. Altitude is exactly 922 meters and is believed to have been the last resort of Nefer-ti-ru.

The evidence on which they are based is mentioned in the hieroglyphics Gosford. These strange sizes are considered Egyptian by many experts. They’re near Sydney.

These hieroglyphics are believed to have been made by the Egyptian sailors 5,000 years ago when they discovered the continent.

Hieroglyphics reveal the truth about the pyramid.

Fake hieroglyphics or the hidden truth?

These hieroglyphs have been full of controversy since their discovery. Some archaeologists claim they are modern forgeries.

They say it’s impossible that the sailors from old Egypt arrived in Australia.

Ray Johnson, an amateur archaeologist, translated hieroglyphics for the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo and was able to document and translate two walls facing Egyptian symbols.

The story behind this text shows how ancient Egyptian researchers were shipwrecked in a place “strange and hostile”. Current

Or way, you’re sure these texts mention Australia’s Great Pyramid and how it was King Nefer-ti-ru’s Tomb.

Although signs can be found that this true pyramid exists, experts have not wanted to investigate the country, saying it is nothing more than a “natural granite peak.”However, this will not be the first time a pyramid facility has been unearthed underground for skilled and vegetation.

600-year-old Medieval lingerie set found in an Austrian castle

It is hardly racy by today’s standards but this skimpy lingerie has certainly shocked historians. The lace and linen undergarments date back to hundreds of years before women’s underwear was thought to exist.

They had lain hidden in a vault beneath the floorboards of an Austrian castle since the 15th century.

Despite their state of decay, the knickers bear more than a passing resemblance to the string bikini briefs popular today, while the bra has the fitted cups and delicate straps of its modern-day counterparts.

While it was known that medieval men wore undergarments like modern-day shorts, it was thought that women simply wore a smock or chemise.

It was thought that knickers didn’t make an appearance until the late 18th century. Bras were thought to be an even more modern invention, not appearing until around 100 years ago.

Hilary Davidson, the fashion curator at the Museum of London, said the discovery ‘totally rewrites’ fashion history, adding: ‘Nothing like this has  ever come up before.’

She believes it is ‘entirely probable’ that something similar was worn by Britain’s medieval women.

‘These finds are a very exciting insight into the way people dressed in the Middle Ages,’ she continued.

‘It’s rare that everyday garments of any kind survive from this period, let alone underwear.’

The undergarments were among almost 3,000 fragments of clothing and other detritus found in Lengberg Castle in East Tyrol during recent renovations.

It is thought that they were buried when the building was extended in 1480 and that the exceptionally dry conditions stopped the fragile garments from disintegrating over the centuries.

Beatrix Nutz, of Innsbruck University, who made the find, initially faced scepticism but radiocarbon-dating tests confirmed her suspicions.

The haul included four bras and two pairs of pants. Two of the bras resemble modern counterparts but the others are described rather bluntly as ‘shirts with bags’, the August issue of the BBC History Magazine reports.

Teenage woolly mammoth with soft tissues intact found on Yamal peninsula

She is 42,000 years old and has come a long way for her Australian debut. First, she was recovered from the frozen mud in Siberia that was her tomb for so long. Then she was packed into a crate at a tiny museum in Russia and flown to a humidity-controlled cube at the Australian Museum.

Mammoths – Giants of the ice age

The ice age world of woolly mammoths will be brought to life in Mammoths – Giants of the Ice Age, exclusive to the Australian Museum from 17 November 2017.

Baby Lyuba, the world’s most complete and best-preserved woolly mammoth, has arrived in Sydney. She is in remarkable condition, with her skin and internal organs intact. Scientists even found her mother’s milk in her belly.

We will finally be able to see her when she is unveiled as the centerpiece of the museum’s Mammoths – Giants of the Ice Age exhibition.

Lyuba, who died at 35 days, is one of Russia’s national treasures, and the government is reluctant to let her out of its sight too often. This is only the fifth time Shemanovsky Museum has let her out, and it’s her first trip to the southern hemisphere.

The mammoth was first spotted in 2007 by Yuri Khudi, a Siberian reindeer herder, who found her as the frost thawed on a muddy bank of the Yuribey River.

When he brought a team of scientists back to recover her, she was gone; someone else had got there first. The team tracked her to a village deep within Siberia’s frozen wasteland. She was propped up on the door of a shop. The shopkeeper had reportedly bought her for two snowmobiles and a year’s worth of food from Mr. Khudi’s cousin.

“And while she was propped up, a dog came up and chewed off her tail and her ear. If only for that she’d be completely intact,” says Trevor Ahearn​, the Australian Museum’s creative producer.

Lyuba (Lay-oo-bah) means love in Russian. The museum has chosen to surround her with models of huge, ferocious adult mammoths, much as the herd would have surrounded and protected her in life.

It is thought her feet had become stuck in a muddy hole on the side of a Siberian riverbank. Before her mother could yank her out, Lyuba slipped below the surface, where the mud choked her mouth and trunk.

But the mud that killed her also contained sediments and bacteria that created an acid barrier around her body, in effect pickling her. When the river froze over, she was left perfectly preserved.

Had she lived a full mammoth life – 60 years – Lyuba would have grown to more than three meters in height and about five tonnes. To sustain that bodyweight she would have consumed up to 180 kilograms of grass and 80 liters of water a day.

Mammoths lived in the late Paleolithic period, which stretched from about 200,000 BC, the time Homo sapiens first emerged in Africa, to 10,000 BC. Mammoths were uniquely adapted for the conditions, with small ears and thick, woolly fur. They ate grass and bark and roamed across Europe, North America, and Siberia.

That makes Lyuba the first of her kind to visit our shores, and it took the Australian Museum a fair bit of what director Kim McKay terms “cultural diplomacy” to get her over here. Negotiations involved the Shemanovsky Museum and the Russian government.

Mr. Ahearn says: “One of the first things we had to do before we brought Lyuba over here was absolutely guarantee our Russian colleagues that there was no possibility of her getting seized because there is some controversy over who owns her.

“She’s a little controversial in Russia, with her association with an oil company that helped bring her into the museum. I think it’s paranoia. Russia is feeling a little bit of pressure, so I don’t know if it’s founded. There are lots of myths; it’s all very hazy.”

The prospect of mammoth cloning

Scientists have two competing theories on why mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago. Both have important things to tell us about the modern environment – and perhaps contain a message about why we shouldn’t be trying to bring mammoths back.

The first theory is climate change. The ending of the ice age at about 10,000 BC may have dramatically reduced the area in which these cold-environment animals could survive.

The second theory is over-hunting. Mammoths, with their tonnes of fat, would have represented an incredibly valuable food source for early humans, who developed sharp spears to hunt them. Scientists think it is possible the mammoth is the first species humanity managed to push into extinction.

Mammoth cloning has always excited the popular imagination, and the exhibition dedicates a section to the possibilities.

So far, we have sequenced about 70 percent of mammoth DNA, so the raw material is not there yet. But even if we could, we shouldn’t, says David Alquezar​, manager of the Australian Museum’s genetics lab.

“The money to do that could be better invested in species that are endangered right now, rather than focusing our efforts on a species that has been extinct for 10,000 years,” says Dr. Alquezar.