Decades Of Neglect For One Of Australia's Best Fossil Deposits

[Oxytropidoceras]

Decades of neglect for one of Australia's best fossil

deposits by Nicky Phillips, The Age, February 10, 2013

http://www.theage.co...0209-2e595.html

Welcome to the Age of Fishes Museum http://www.ageoffishes.org.au/

and http://www.ageoffish...discovery.shtml

Devonian billabong http://members.ozema...hams/devbil.htm

A related paper is:

Young, G. C., C. J. Burrow, J. A. Long, S. Turner, and

B. Choo, 2010, Devonian macrovertebrate assemblages

and biogeography of East Gondwana (Australasia, Antarctica)

Palaeoworld. vol. 19, no. 1-2, 55–74.

PDF file at http://ipac.kacst.ed...10/190169_1.pdf

Abstract at http://www.sciencedi...871174X0900064X

Yours,

Paul H.

[Missourian]

I can think of one way to remedy the problem.

[Shamalama]

Forum Field trip!

[THobern]

Unfortunately a lot of important sites have been ignored. Woolshed Creek is a complete mess, with fossiliferous tailings just rotting under a bridge.

Good quote from Prof. Young on the importance of Paleontology;

But Dr Young said that as well as being of great public interest, fossils were relevant to some of the globe's most pressing issues.

''At the time the Canowindra fish were alive, the earth's atmosphere underwent some of the most dramatic changes in carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in the history of the planet.''

Investigating the causes of this change was contributing to scientific predictions of climate change, he said.

[RichW9090]

I really wish paleontologists and geologists would stop using this argument. Constantly we are told that geology and paleontology are relevant because they help predict the future, particularly in regards to climate change. That is entirely untrue. Our predictions about future climate change, whether for the next 5 years or the next 5 centuries are wildly speculative and notoriously inaccurate. We are in the position of having to watch it as it happens, not in the position of predicting its future course. I myself have taken part in symposia with names like "The Pliestocene: Window on future climate change" where not a single paper given, of some 20 or so, made any testable predictions about future climate, and only one or two even mentioned future climate. It's just a set of buzz words used to insure funding and support for the symposium.

Rich

[Down under fossil hunter]

It is a wonderful museum and I was fortunate enough to visit it a few years ago.

The detail in the preservation of the fossils is stunning.

Well worth the trip in my opinion.

As for re-burying the site, that occurs commonly in Australia to prevent unskilled/commercial diggers coming in and destroying scientifically important specimens, the same thing was done at the Hawkesbury fossil fish site.

I just hope that enough funds are raised in the near future for these sites to be reopened and explored.

[DitchDiggerUno]

I really wish paleontologists and geologists would stop using this argument. Constantly we are told that geology and paleontology are relevant because they help predict the future, particularly in regards to climate change. That is entirely untrue. Our predictions about future climate change, whether for the next 5 years or the next 5 centuries are wildly speculative and notoriously inaccurate. We are in the position of having to watch it as it happens, not in the position of predicting its future course. I myself have taken part in symposia with names like "The Pliestocene: Window on future climate change" where not a single paper given, of some 20 or so, made any testable predictions about future climate, and only one or two even mentioned future climate. It's just a set of buzz words used to insure funding and support for the symposium.

Rich

Bravo Sir,

I always appreciate when someone who knows and has studied the facts, steps forward to give their opinion, even if it is not the popular opinion of the time. When people echo an opinion that they have heard, and have no basis for, it really disappoints me.

-Joe