See stunning fossils of insects, fish and plants from an ancient Australian forest

New specimens show a parasitoid wasp, fish that have dined on phantom midges and more


Jan 7, 2022

A new trove of plant, insect, fish and other fossils offers an unprecedented snapshot of Australia’s wetter, forest-dominated past.

McGraths Flat in New South Wales contains thousands of beautifully preserved specimens of flowering plants, ferns, spiders, insects and fish, vertebrate paleontologist Matthew McCurry and colleagues report January 7 in Science Advances.

Images of the fossils’ soft tissues, captured with scanning electron microscopy, reveal them in astonishing detail, from the facets of a crane fly’s compound eye to phantom midges trapped in a fish’s stomach.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...ts-fish-plants