Australian amber is now helping to understand ... Unlike typical, squashed fossil rock shapes, paleontologists value amber for its remarkable ability to preserve inclusions in full three dimensions.

Fossils can tell scientists what extinct animals looked like and what their environment was like. But what about their diet?

But in Australia, since the oldest ... During the extraction of the overlying rock, which spans many miles and dates to the Early Jurassic period, fossil footprints such as these can be found.

making it difficult to pinpoint their arrival in Australia and understand their evolution. The fossils of F. brocksi, found at the popular McGrath Flat site, are embedded and mineralized in iron-rich ...

At the McGraths fossil site, imprinted in the rock, the Ferruaspis brocksi marks the first freshwater smelt fossil ever found in Australia. However, they didn't appear in the fossil record enough ...

a researcher at the Australian National University. He and some colleagues had examined the site on a whim, after a dig at a nearby fossil site had proved fruitless. "I split the rock and thought ...

in Australia. Until now, scientists could only speculate when smelts first arrived on the continent due to a lack of fossil evidence, but this new finding offers crucial insights into the region ...

The name derives from "ferru" (Latin for iron) due to its preservation in iron-rich rock and "brocksi" after Prof. Brocks. It is the first fossil of an Australian Smelt species, helping to ...

Speaking from Sydney to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke, McCurry explains his new find which shows climate — and change: Can you describe your work? I am a palaeontologist — we study ancient animals ...