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Riversleigh, in North West Queensland
Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
, is Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
's most famous fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
 site. The 100 kmē area has fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene
Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Geologic Timescale and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present....
 and Miocene
Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
 age. The site was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1994 and is an extension of the Lawn Hill National Park
Boodjamulla National Park

Boodjamulla National Park, formerly known as Lawn Hill National Park, is a national park in the Gulf Country region of northwestern Queensland, Australia....
.

Fossils at Riversleigh are found in limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
 by lime-rich freshwater pools, and in caves, when the ecosystem
Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment....
 was evolving from rich rainforest
Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750?2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests....
 to semi-arid grassland
Grassland

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found....
 community.






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Riversleigh, in North West Queensland
Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
, is Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
's most famous fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
 site. The 100 kmē area has fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene
Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Geologic Timescale and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present....
 and Miocene
Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
 age. The site was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1994 and is an extension of the Lawn Hill National Park
Boodjamulla National Park

Boodjamulla National Park, formerly known as Lawn Hill National Park, is a national park in the Gulf Country region of northwestern Queensland, Australia....
.

Fossils at Riversleigh are found in limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
 by lime-rich freshwater pools, and in caves, when the ecosystem
Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment....
 was evolving from rich rainforest
Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750?2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests....
 to semi-arid grassland
Grassland

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found....
 community. Thirty-five fossil bat species have been identified at the site, which is the richest in the world. The skull and nearly complete dentition of a fifteen million-year-old monotreme
Monotreme

Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young like Marsupialias and Placentalia .They are conventionally treated as comprising a single order Monotremata, though a recent classification proposes to divide them into the orders Platypoda and Tachyglossa ....
, Obdurodon dicksoni, provide a window into the evolution of this characteristically Australian group. Fossil ancestors of the recently extinct Thylacinus cynocephalus, the marsupial Tasmanian tiger, have also been identified among Riversleigh's fauna.

Creatures of Riversleigh

Mammal
Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s
  • Yalkaparidon, a bizarre marsupial
    Marsupial

    Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by a distinctive Pouch , in which females carry their young through early infancy....
  • Ekaltadeta
    Ekaltadeta

    Ekaltadeta is an extinct genus of giant marsupials related to modern rat-kangaroos.They are hypothesized to have been either predatory, or omnivore with a fondness for meat, based on their chewing teeth....
    , a carnivorous rat kangaroo
  • Wakaleo
    Wakaleo

    Wakaleo , was a genus of medium-sized Thylacoleonidae that lived in Australia in the early to late Miocene. It was approximately 2.5 ft long, or the size of a dog....
    , a marsupial lion
    Marsupial lion

    Thylacoleo is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene . Some of these "marsupial lions" were the largest mammalian predators in Australia of that time, with Thylacoleo carnifex approaching the weight of a small lion....
  • Priscileo
    Priscileo

    Priscileo was the basal -most genus of Thylacoleonidae. Fossils of this genus have been found in Oligocene and Miocene strata of South Australia and Queensland....
    , a marsupial lion
  • Burramys
    Burramys

    Burramys is a genus of the family Burramyidae, and is represented by one extant and 3 extinct species. It is one of two genera of pygmy possum, the other being Cercartetus....
    , the mountain pygmy possum
  • Nimbacinus
    Nimbacinus

    The genus Nimbacinus contains two species both of which are extinct:* Dickson's Thylacine '* '...
    , a precursor of the Tasmanian wolf
  • Obdurodon
    Obdurodon

    Obdurodon is an extinct monotreme genus containing three species. Obdurodon differed from modern Platypuses in that it had molar teeth ....
    , a giant platypus
    Platypus

    The Platypus is a semi-aquatic mammal Endemic to Eastern states of Australia, including Tasmania. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay Egg instead of giving birth to live young....
  • Nimiokoala, an ancient koala
    Koala

    The Koala is a wikt:thickset arboreal marsupial herbivory native to Australia, and the only Extant taxon representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
  • Yarala
    Yarala

    Yarala is a genus of fossil mammals that resemble contemporary bandicoots. The superfamily Yaraloidea and family Yaralidae were created following the discovery of the type species Yarala burchfieldi in 1995, on the basis that it lacks synapomorphies that unite all other peramelemorphian taxa....
    , a tube-nosed bandicoot
    Bandicoot

    A bandicoot is any of about 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. The word bandicoot is an anglicised form of the Telugu language word pandi-kokku, which originally referred to the unrelated Indian Bandicoot Rat....


Bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s
  • Pengana
    Pengana

    The Flexiraptor is an extinct species of Accipitridae – the only one of its genus known to date – probably related to harrier s. It probably resembled a cross between the Secretary Bird and Crested Caracara, and lived during the Early Miocene ....
    , a flexible-footed bird of prey
    Bird of prey

    Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. Their claws and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....
  • Menura tyawanoides, a prehistoric lyrebird
    Lyrebird

    A Lyrebird is either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds, most notable for their superb ability to mimicry natural and artificial sounds from their environment....
  • The first fossil record of the Orthonychidae
    Orthonychidae

    The Orthonychidae is a family of birds with a single genus, Orthonyx, which comprises three species of passerine birds Endemic to Australia and New Guinea, the Logrunners and the Chowchilla....
     (logrunner) family


Reptile
Reptile

Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia, are air-breathing, cold-blooded vertebrates that have skin covered in scale as opposed to hair or feathers....
s
  • Trilophosuchus
    Trilophosuchus

    Trilophosuchus is an extinct genus of the crocodilian family Mekosuchinae. It is hypothesised to have been arboreal, and may have dropped down onto prey....
    , a tree-dwelling crocodile
    Crocodile

    A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e....
  • Baru
    Baru

    Baru was an extinct genus of Australian mekosuchine crocodile. It was semi-aquatic, around 4 m in length. Being semi-aquatic its habitat was around fresh pools of water in wet forests, ambushing their prey, much like modern species....
    , the cleaver-headed crocodile
  • Yurlunggur, and Wonambi
    Wonambi

    Wonambi is a genus currently consisting of two species of very large snakes. These species are not Pythonidaes, like Australia's other large constrictors of the genus Morelia, but a member of a now extinct family Madtsoiidae....
    , extinct snakes (Madtsoiidae
    Madtsoiidae

    Madtsoiidae are an extinct group of mostly Gondwanan snakes with a fossil record extending from early Cenomanian to late Pleistocene stratum located in South America, Africa, India, Australia and Southern Europe....
    )


See also

  • List of fossil sites
    List of fossil sites

    This is a worldwide list of important and/or well-known localities where fossils have been found. Such locations may either be a geological formation or a single site....
     (with link directory)


External links