An international group of scientists has discovered fossil evidence of the ancient rainforest of the Miocene’s era (from 23 to 5 million years ago) in the Australian desert, in the new South Wales. This is reported in an article published in the journal Science Advances.
The new place of paleontological excavations McGraths Flat contains fossils of plants and animals, including insects, spiders, fish and birds. Their age is 11-16 million years, and good safety allows you to visualize individual cells and subcellular structures using an electron microscope. In addition, some fish could determine the contents of the stomachs, and the samples of pollen were found on some insect bodies.
According to researchers, the presence in the fossils of the residues of cell organelles melanosoma allows you to reconstruct the color patterns of birds and fish. To do this, you can compare the dimensions, shape and structure of fossil melanos with organelles in the samples of the tissues of the living animals.
Scientists explain the good preservation by the fact that fossils were formed in a breed enriched with iron-containing mineral gheetite. Rich with iron groundwater glasses in standing reservoirs, and mineral particles deposited together with the remains of living organisms. At the same time, more dry ecosystems occurred around wet rainforests, which indicates that plants adapted to the deficiency of moisture indicate the deposits of pollen. This corresponds to climate change in the region of about 14 million years ago, which led to the mass extinction of the Australian fauna.