(photo bk - at Gantheaume Point showing holes in the sandstone that represent vertebrate trace fossils)
Thalassinoides burrows showing the external surfaces which are usually smooth. The producers of the Thalassinoides burrows were decapods, which were crustaceans called Hoploparia, somewhat like shrimp, or lobsters. These holes or tunnels were excavated into the ground or seafloor by the marine animals to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion preserved in the rock record. Because burrow fossils represent the preserved byproducts of behaviour rather than physical remains, they are considered a kind of trace fossil.
'Hoploparia' - (photo Wikipedia)
Feature article: Fossils - 'Seeing is believing'
The main fossils found in Broome are leaf impressions, pollen grains and fossilised wood.
124-145 million years old
This area at Gantheaume was possibly a river delta
The ferns suggest a wet environment but warm conditions
- Five different species of ferns have been found - species:
- Cladophlebis, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladophlebis
- Microphyllopteris gleichenioides, https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/specimens/1064663
- Phyllopteroides lanceolata, https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/specimens/1066671
- Hausmania and
- Sphenopteris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphenopteris
- Abundance of cycadophytes, dipteridacean fern and araucarian conifers.
- Fossils from the cycad order Cycadeoids namely Otozamites bengalensis, Ptilophyllum acutifolium and Nilssonia found in the Broome Sandstone.
- Pteridosperms also known as seed ferns e.g. Taeniopters daintreei has been identified in the Broome Sandstone.
These ferns had seeds rather than spores
Fossilised wood and ferns (photo bk) Otozamites bengalensis is a common plant fossil found in Broome sandstone (photo bk)
(photo bk)
(photo bk)
Two species of conifers or pines have been identified in the Broome sandstone - this one about 50 back from Gantheaume Point Jedda and friend taking notes 2005 at Gantheaume Point
(photos bk)
Check out the leaf veins on this fossil
130 000 000 year old (photo bk)
2005 - My Year 10's examining fossils (photo bk)
Fossil wood and leaves (photo bk)
Worksheet one two (supplied by Ms Jess Ryan 2005 SMC)
"My first impression is that it is not a trace fossil (Thalassinoides or otherwise). The blobby spheres (they don't look like tubes) seem to be some kind of iron precipitate or concretion. So something associated with precipitation of iron from a soil or sand horizon, most likely related to pindan I'd say. On the left of the photo you can see broken parts of on one of the concretions us been lithified with the surround red sand." Steve Salisbury (photo Margaret Wovodich)
Photo : Ingrid Otaola
Photo Ingrid Otaola
Got very lucky today and found my best one so far... It was just sticking out of the rock, as if it was still alive. What are the chances of those bits not having been broken off ?! It saddens me to think that it will very soon be gone forever. You can still see all the tiny veins on it. (Photo Ingrid Otaola)
"This looks like the silicified natural cast of part of a leaf known as Taeniopteris daintreei, a type of pentoxylale. Pentoxylales are a type an extinct order of seed plants that occurred across the Gondwanan landmasses during the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. They are typically classified as a type of gymnosperm, and would have looked a little bit like large cycads, with a short, woody trunk, bearing clumps of long leaves and clusters of fleshy seeds. They have been recorded from various sites across Australia, including the Broome Sandstone, and there are specimens in the Western Australian Museum". Dr. Steve Salisbury
You can read all about them here: https://sites.google.com/.../classification/pentoxylon