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Showing results for tags 'xystridurid'.
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I have just returned from my first visit to a new fossil locality in the Northern Territory, central Australia. The location is around 400km north-east of Alice Springs along some rough dirt roads and once reached, runs for about 10km along the side of the road. When visiting the location today one finds themselves in the very center of Australia and a landscape of flat desert and scrub land, about as far from the sea as possible. In the middle Cambrian the site was very different and home to a vast shallow sea filled with ancient life. Arriving in the late afternoon we set up camp and got prepared for the morning of fossil hunting ahead. I had read about the fossil location from a small local out of print fossicking guide from the 1980's. That lead me to read some of the work done by John R. Laurie who has some papers published online detailing the formation and it's biostratigraphy. We managed to find some good examples of Xystridurid trilobites and stromatolites, all found within a red/white siltstone. There were also a smaller species of Agnostid trilobite, but we found many less of these. Below are some quick images I took of some of the finds, many more yet to properly examine. Also we have some larger slabs of siltstone which we plan to work on. Trip Image Album: The fossil site is found in the location below https://www.google.com/maps/place/21%C2%B042'53.0%22S+135%C2%B039'38.9%22E/@-21.71473,135.66081,1873m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d-21.71473!4d135.66081 In the publication below, NTGS Elk 3 bore samples refer to the location visited. Great trip! Very pleased with the finds and learning more about the geological history of central Australia.
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- middle cambrian
- trilobites
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