Fossil bones
Fossil bones and a wombat tooth (top right) uncovered at Dirk's Towers Site.

Exstrata Site
Exstrata Site is a rich new deposit.

A newly discovered Cambrian reef deposit
A newly discovered Cambrian reef deposit with uncrushed trilobites, brachiopods and other marine invertebrates in an area found by Dr Ian Graham and his students.

Dr Rick Arena
Dr Rick Arena pointing to a fossil snake he has found in a fissure deposit in a previously unexplored region of primarily Cambrian limestone.

2011 field trip to Riversleigh

By Phil Creaser
05 September 2011

A wide range of individual projects were part of the 2011 annual field trip to Riversleigh.

A major collecting site was Inabeyance Site on Godthelp’s Hill which was very productive in the 2010 field trip and further quality specimens were uncovered this year.

Other sites collected from included Gillespie’s Wounded Knee, VIP, Encore, AL 90, Hiatus, Creaser’s Ramparts and Wang sites.

Following controlled burning of the area by Queensland National Parks, there was more exploration of the fossiliferous limestones searching for new sites. This was successful with a major new deposit, Exstrata Site, being discovered and a representative sample collected.

Other new sites were recorded for further examination next year. Samples for radiometric dating were also collected following the success of work in previous years which is now providing an accurate timeframe for the Riversleigh sediments and their faunas.

In addition, samples were also gathered for clumped isotope analysis which can provide information on palaeotemperatures.

The research team also continued to work with Queensland authorities on a number of projects relating to the management of the Riversleigh World Heritage area. Work at Riversleigh is also enabled by the Xstrata North Queensland Community Support Program and a grant from the Australian Research Council.

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