IN an astounding discovery, palaeontologists think they might have found an even more fossil-rich site in northwest Queensland than the world-renowned Riversleigh World Heritage Area.
The site could become one of the planet’s most important prehistoric places because scientists hope it holds the missing link between the demise of the dinosaurs and the emergence of mammals.
The dig is near Riversleigh but can be accessed only by helicopter or foot.
Renowned palaeontologist Mike Archer initially visited for just a couple of hours two years ago, the first time the area had likely been trod by Europeans.
He had been tipped off by Xtrata employee Ned Stephenson who had been using satellite images to examine landscapes.
ut what has really excited scientists is that the new fossil deposits, dubbed New Riversleigh, are either on or near marine rocks that are about 500 million years old and which have not been below sea level since.
“Theoretically, it means limestone sediment of any age could have accumulated their way back to the dinosaur age,’’ he said. “I’m not interested in dinosaurs but what happened between the age of the dinosaurs and the earliest mammals.’’
This was a dark age of emerging mammal species, roughly from the end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to 24 million years ago.
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