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HI! New member here on the Fossil Forum from Sydney, Australia. My son wanted to find some marine fossils a couple weeks ago, so we went to Ulludulla's Permian aged (kungurian) Gondwana fossil coast. I need ID on the poorly preserved largest fossil in the middle (ignore spiriferid brachiopod on top right). Note this fossil is part of the Wandrawandian Formation (Shoalhaven group), south of the Sydney basin, Ulludulla. Thank you in advance for any help you guys can provide because I'm no expert.

Over the last few weeks I have been preparing a nice xenacanth skull. Will continue to post updates as I go, but here it is so far! The nodule was huge, so we started off by removing a small chunk to see if there was anything in the cross section. It was up a fairly steep embankment, so after we rolled it down I inspected it for any signs of fossils. Surprisingly, it had something in it! The nodules from this horizon are usually empty. It is hard to see in the photo, but it was clearly the cross section of a xenacanth skull. The distinctive bubbly texture of cartilage and weird looking teeth ruled out any of the other fish from this site. Our car was already full by this point, so we decided to leave the rest of the nodule and take the smaller chunk to prepare and see if it was worth going back for more. After preparing this piece, it became clear that it was a nicely articulated (but slightly squished) skull! The nodules from this site tend to be shocking to extract and prepare since they splinter into pieces right through the fossils, but this one was surprisingly solid and nice to work on. The matrix was still incredibly hard, but good separation between the fossil and matrix made it much easier to air scribe than most others I've worked on from here. After our success on the first chunk, we decided we needed the rest! It was too heavy for one (or even two) people to lift, se we had to slide it up to the work bench on a trolley. Here it is after bulk matrix removal with the angle grinder, plus some air scribe work. Some more work over the last couple of days And here it is currently! Still lots more to do, but it is coming out well. A pleasant surprise considering how terrible some other things from here have been to prepare. The nodule is incomplete, so we only have the skull and some vertebrae, but hopefully there is enough for some pectoral fins to fit in there somewhere. Time will tell!

While preparing a large xenacanth tail from a new site south of Sydney I noticed this juvenile of the same species within the nodule. Xenacanths are very common in this horizon of the Ashfield Shale but are often poorly preserved, so this example offered a unique opportunity to photograph certain features such as the denticles. Unfortunately, both specimens are incomplete since half the nodule was missing, but that is just the nature of this site! Here is the whole nodule with the partial xenacanth tail, three poorly preserved Cleithrolepis and juvenile xenacanth towards the right: The juvenile xenacanth. Towards the top middle section is the base of the dorsal spine which never seems to preserve on adult specimens, and towards the left are impressions of denticles and the vertebrae. Towards the right, the lower jaws with teeth are preserved and there even seems to be an impression of the eye. Ammonium chloride images of a latex peel showing the whole specimen and closeups of the jaw and teeth: Closeups of denticles:

Hello everyone! A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Turimetta Beach, a Triassic fossil locality in the Sydney Basin. I found several plant fossils. Some were too fragmentary for ID, but if possible I would like to know people's opinions on the ID of these three. I've read through previous forum posts and am aware these might not be able to be ID'ed. Fossil plate which I found as a rockfall near Turimetta Headland. A relatively large stem which was found in the same rockfall. A small leaf I found at an outcrop on the beach itself. Thanks for any possible help!

A large fish from the Ashfield Shale SW of Sydney, Australia. The nodule it's in is really annoying to work with, it fractures vertically in most cases so lots of smaller pieces are missing. Unfortunately the specimen is pretty poorly preserved so I labelled one of the photos with what some parts may be, please feel free to correct me if any labels are incorrect. Also, it is difficult to photograph the details well due to poor contrast between the fossil and matrix, so hopefully these photos are adequate (I may readjust some soon). Thank you for any help! Skull Pectoral fin? Caudal fin Pelvic fin? Dorsal fin? Possible fin from the lower middle part of the body

A couple of days ago we had a quick trip just south of Sydney to show a researcher some potential temnospondyl tracks, but on our way home we had a quick look in some road cuttings for fossil fish. Many fantastic fossils have been found in the nodules which are common in this area, such as xenacanths, temnospondyls and various fish. This time, we were lucky enough to find a big nodule with quite a large fish inside, although it's pretty poorly preserved. We only had time to remove the skull and some of the front part of its body but I hope to get back there soon to remove the rest of the nodule. The nodule was really crumbly and broke into many pieces, so I had to spend a long time trying to fit it all back together once I got home. Here is what I have so far (not including the counterpart which is even more fragmentary): This image shows the skull (left), and some nicely preserved scales (top right) and part of what I believe to be the pectoral fins (far right): A close up of some scales: A nicely preserved bone from the rear of the skull which is on the counterpart: The site:

I have found these 2 fossils near a creek near the Illawarra escarpment in Sydney basin in New South Wales, Australia which was formed as I understand it 180-200 million years ago (http://www.geomaps.com.au/scripts/illawarraescarpment.php). It was found among a large number of petrified wood and coal fragments. The 2 rocks are very different, the dark one seems to come from a coal shoal, the light one seems to come . I do not have the expertise to determine if these are leaves or feathers.

Hi All Found this on a red clay mound near my house, newly developed area, so may have been dug up during excavation works.

Fossil footprints found in Sydney suburb are from the earliest swimming tetrapods in Australia by Phil Bell, University of New England https://phys.org/news/2020-05-fossil-footprints-sydney-suburb-earliest.html Roy M. Farman et al. Australia's earliest tetrapod swimming traces from the Hawkesbury Sandstone (Middle Triassic) of the Sydney Basin, Journal of Paleontology (2020). DOI: 10.1017/jpa.2020.22 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-paleontology/article/australias-earliest-tetrapod-swimming-traces-from-the-hawkesbury-sandstone-middle-triassic-of-the-sydney-basin/2C787D68A8F2F300B2111A0E68E5981C Yours, Paul H.

Below is a very interesting open access paper. Vajda, V., McLoughlin, S., Mays, C., Frank, T.D., Fielding, C.R., Tevyaw, A., Lehsten, V., Bocking, M. and Nicoll, R.S., 2020. End-Permian (252 Mya) deforestation, wildfires and flooding—An ancient biotic crisis with lessons for the present. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 529, p.115875. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X19305679 Yours, Paul H.

Picked this strange looking item out of a gray mudstone/shale layer within the Narrabeen Group (second picture). Should be Triassic in age. It broke into 3 pieces as I removed it but inside was a beautiful arrangement of black, white and red minerals. It also has small round 'nodules' on the left part (seen as the small dark circles), and appears to have 'veins' on the right. Any thoughts on what it is would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Susan

Went for a walk and noticed some of the big chunks of sandstone that had been used to edge a carpark had fossils in them! Possibly Triassic, although not sure as they aren't in situ. One looks like it has Glossopteris leaves, which leads me to believe they may actually be Permian. Some look like lepidodendron/lycopod type stems, others are just a mash up of fragments. Thoughts, comments etc. all welcome! Not sure what this curved structure is Top of a lycopod? Stem, lycopod? Another top of a lycopod? Stem, lycopod? Glossopteris? Stem, lycopod? Seed, unidentified Plant fragments