Scientists Discover Ancient Spiders, Wasps And Fish In Australia

Nigel McGrath finds fossilized leaves embedded in rock, (photo: Australian Museum, Salty Dingo)

JAKARTA - Lately, scientists often found something from ancient times, including the discovery of mummies that were 3,500 years ago. Now, they found an ancient ecosystem.

Initially discovered by a farmer in New South Wales, Nigel McGrath who hit a rock while plowing his field which is now dubbed the McGraths Flat site, he did not realize that he was discovering an ancient ecosystem that was 15 million years ago.

McGrath discovered fossilized leaves embedded in rock, which opens the door to further research of this extraordinary site for human understanding of prehistoric life in Australia.

"Many of the fossils we uncovered are new to science and include spiders, giant crickets, wasps, and various types of fish. Until now, it was difficult to say what these ancient ecosystems looked like, but the level of preservation at these new fossil sites means that even organisms tiny fragile (like) insects turned into well-preserved fossils," said Australian NSW Museum and University Paleontologist Matthew McCurry.

For the past three years, McCurry, his partner Michael Frese, and a team of researchers have been secretly excavating and analyzing the McGrath do field near Gulgong in Australia's Central Tablelands. They found thousands of specimens, including rainforest plants, spiders, fruiting bodies, fish, and bird feathers.

Among the insects found were wasps, ants, crickets, mayflies, beetles, flies, and killer insects. The quality of the interacting fossils between species can also be determined. Even after all this time, the fish's guts were preserved, allowing researchers to determine what was in the discovery 15 million years ago.

"We also found samples of pollen preserved on the bodies of insects so we could tell which species pollinated which plants," Frese said.

It is known that McGraths Flat has joined a handful of Lagerstatte sites in Australia. The Lagerstatte site is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils of extraordinary preservation, sometimes including preserved soft tissue. The McGraths site is also a short drive from another important Australian fossil site, the Jurassic-era Talbragar.

But, unlike its older cousins, McGraths Flat opens a window to the Miocene, a time of great change in Australia, as the continent drifted northward. When the Miocene began 23 million years ago, Australia was rich in a rich variety of plant and animal life, only for sudden climate change to cause widespread extinctions around 14 million years ago.

Scientists believe the discovery provides an important case study for figuring out which species are adapting to changing environments, and which are becoming extinct. The findings have now been published in the journal Science Advances.

"Plant fossils on McGraths Flat provide us with 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 the time period during which the fossil record in Australia was rather poor," he said. Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria's director of science, Professor David Cantrill.

McCurry argues that the processes that turn organisms into fossils are the key to why they are so well preserved. Now, the fossils will be kept in the paleontology collection of the Australian Museum to allow further study.

"Our analysis shows that the fossils formed when iron-rich groundwater flowed into the billabong, and that the deposition of organisms encased in ferrous minerals lived or fell into the water," McCurry said.