Possibly, but Australia is a slightly unique example as it dried out extremely rapidly in the Miocene.
In fact, it dried out so fast that’s why the soil is so bad there today. It had no time to transition from a rainforest to a woodland to a grassland and eventually desert. It went straight from rainforests to dry scrub and the already leeched soil hardened and turned into the rock hard pan covering most of the continent today.
It varies. But in Australia’s case it was because it’s moving north rapidly. Much faster than the other continents. So it shifted in latitude quickly enough due to its small size and flatness that the climate shifted rapidly and abruptly in geological terms.
There aren’t any mountains or anything to block in fronts or create rain shadows so as it moved into the horse latitudes it just got drier and drier every year.
I hope this leads to the discovery of other unknown fossil depositions. I have to wonder if there is anywhere else with this known fast environmental transition from rainforest to scrub that could be a potential spot to discover more.
iron fossils are like a whole new avenue in research. people thought there was nothing there for a long time and it turns out these rock types can have some of the best preservation
Which is amazing to think about the massive iron ore deposits in australia. They date back to when oxygen producing organisms first appeared in the oceans, and caused all the dissolved iron to rust and sink to the bottom.
It sounds amazing and important. Too bad the article only swiped gravel and unlabeled images that could be literally anything. No
Delineation of parts or sketch of some mite’s nasal hair or any eyestalk or whatever.
ThruTheUniverseAgain | 18 hours ago
I wonder if any kind of similar fossil beds may exist in the deserts of the western US that used to be covered by swamps and rainforests.
wdn | 18 hours ago
That's pretty much what all the biggest fossil beds we've found are -- places that were swamps when the animals died and are deserts now.
SomeDumbGamer | 7 hours ago
Possibly, but Australia is a slightly unique example as it dried out extremely rapidly in the Miocene.
In fact, it dried out so fast that’s why the soil is so bad there today. It had no time to transition from a rainforest to a woodland to a grassland and eventually desert. It went straight from rainforests to dry scrub and the already leeched soil hardened and turned into the rock hard pan covering most of the continent today.
foreststarter | 3 hours ago
How long is each transition? Is rainforest 2 million years the woodland 5 million?
SomeDumbGamer | an hour ago
It varies. But in Australia’s case it was because it’s moving north rapidly. Much faster than the other continents. So it shifted in latitude quickly enough due to its small size and flatness that the climate shifted rapidly and abruptly in geological terms.
There aren’t any mountains or anything to block in fronts or create rain shadows so as it moved into the horse latitudes it just got drier and drier every year.
ThruTheUniverseAgain | 21 minutes ago
I hope this leads to the discovery of other unknown fossil depositions. I have to wonder if there is anywhere else with this known fast environmental transition from rainforest to scrub that could be a potential spot to discover more.
SomeDumbGamer | 20 minutes ago
Sadly rainforests are terrible at preserving fossils. Maybe former swamps would have some though.
costafilh0 | 22 hours ago
Fossils of what?
hughperman | 19 hours ago
> Scientists can see pigment cells in fish eyes, internal organs in insects and fish, delicate hairs on spiders, and even nerve cells.
Lots of things, it seems
account_not_valid | 12 hours ago
Hairy spiders?? That's it, I'm definitely not travelling back in time now.
the_noise_we_made | 8 hours ago
Ever heard of tarantulas?
Aimin4ya | 2 hours ago
That's it. I'm not travelling forward in time anymore either.
SeaToTheBass | 50 minutes ago
I held a tarantula in Victoria BC last week
hughperman | 8 minutes ago
Fine, I'm not travelling in either time or space
PossibleAlienFrom | 13 hours ago
This might change things.
ExtremaDesigns | 23 hours ago
A sensational find!
TryptaMagiciaN | 22 hours ago
iron fossils are like a whole new avenue in research. people thought there was nothing there for a long time and it turns out these rock types can have some of the best preservation
ventodivino | 22 hours ago
Does that mean a lot of this stuff could have been used by older cultures
Onemilliondown | 18 hours ago
Iron ore is produced by photosynthetic bacteria (cyanobacteria). In a natural process, in the ocean.
account_not_valid | 12 hours ago
Which is amazing to think about the massive iron ore deposits in australia. They date back to when oxygen producing organisms first appeared in the oceans, and caused all the dissolved iron to rust and sink to the bottom.
Nathan-Stubblefield | 10 hours ago
It sounds amazing and important. Too bad the article only swiped gravel and unlabeled images that could be literally anything. No
Delineation of parts or sketch of some mite’s nasal hair or any eyestalk or whatever.