External websites: learn more

The following websites provide more detailed information on Australian fossils:

• Western Australian Museum
  • Fossil collection — a site describing fossils held by the Western Australian Museum, Perth, including collection highlights
  • Dinosaur discovery online exhibition — online exhibition on dinosaurs and other plants and animals living in the Cretaceous Period
• Australian Federal Government: Australia's fossil past — Federal government website briefly summarising the fossil history of Australia, and providing links to key Australian paleontological collections
• Australian Museum: Fossils — a set of webpages related to fossils, provided by the Australian Museum, Sydney. Pages include information on the Museum’s collections, a listing of Australian fossil sites, and a number of image galleries on the topic.
• Melbourne Museum: 600 million years, Victoria evolves — online exhibition by the Melbourne Museum, Victoria, describing each period of geological time, including paleogeography, environment, and fossils found. The pages focus on the State of Victoria, but most information is relevant for all of Australia.
• Queensland Museum: Dinosaurs and ancient life of Queensland — a set of pages provided by Queensland Museum, summarizing the dinosaurs and megafauna found in Queensland, and providing background information on fossils in general.
• Australian Broadcasting Commission: OZ fossils — an online exhibition on Australia’s dinosaurs and megafauna, designed for older children and hosted by the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).

The following websites provide general information relating to fossils and paleontology:

• Geoscience Australia: Geological time and fossils — a set of downloadable posters, activities, and apps relating to geological time, with an Australia-wide focus.
• Palaeontology [online]: articles about paleontology by paleontologists — blog-style or short, informal articles written by paleontologists on a range of fossil-related topics, including fossil sites, fossil groups, the everyday life of paleontologists, and career advice. Hosted by the British Paleontological Society, but with a general worldwide focus.
• University of California Museum of Paleontology: Online exhibits — a collection of educational pages and online exhibitions on fossil-related topics, including geology, paleontology, and evolutionary biology. There is a focus on North American paleontology topics.
• The Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Fossils of New Zealand — a collection of webpages describing the fossil record of New Zealand, and aspects of New Zealand paleontology. The Encyclopedia also has numerous pages on New Zealand geology and geological topics.
• United States Geological Survey: Fossils — a collection of online fact sheets relating to paleontology in the United States of America, and the importance of fossils to geological organizations.
• British Geological Survey: Geological time —a set of educational pages relating to geological time, the geological time scale, and common groups of fossils. Includes activities suitable for primary school children.
• Natural History Museum, London
  • Dinosaurs and other extinct creatures — educational pages and activities on groups of fossils, particularly dinosaurs and fossils found in the UK.
  • Fossils — educational pages and activities on fossils in general, history of paleontology, and uses of paleontology, with a focus on the UK.
• American Museum of Natural History
  • Dinosaur discoveries — a set of short articles or videos describing recent dinosaur-related news or discoveries from around the world.
  • Ology (for kids) — educational pages and activities on different disciplines of science, including geology and paleontology, directed at primary-aged children.

The following websites provide more detailed information on pseudofossils:

• Museum Victoria: Pseudofossil factsheet — a webpage describing the different types of pseudofossils and their formation.
• Indiana Department of Natural Resources: Pseudofossils — a set of pages describing different types of pseudofossils, grouped according to the items they most closely resemble. Includes many examples.
• Arkansas Geological Survey: Pseudofossils — a page listing all the main types of pseudofossils, with multiple images showing examples of each type.
• University of Wisconsin: Leaverites, pseudofossils, and related things — personal blog of a University of Wisconsin geologist, showing examples of pseudofossils compared to the fossils they resemble.

The following websites provide more detailed information on geological time:

• The Integrative Paleontologists Blog: Geologic time vs. absolute time — interesting blog article explaining the differences between absolute and relative time, and its importance to geology. Blog hosted by PLoS (Public Library of Science), a publisher specialising in biological and medical journals.
• GeoWhen Database — technical database listing all divisions of the geological scale (including local divisions only used in specific countries). Also includes charts showing the relation of different time periods.
• University of California Museum of Paleontology: Geologic time scale — an interactive time scale, linking to pages on each of the geological time periods, describing the history, key events, and important fossil sites of that period. There are also pages describing plate tectonic theory and the history of the time scale itself.
• Australian Museum: The geological time scale — a simplistic page summarising the geological time scale and how geological time is measured.
• Geoscience Australia: Geological time and fossils — a set of downloadable posters, activities, and apps relating to geological time, with an Australia-wide focus.

The following websites provide more detailed information on the uses of fossils in geological interpretation:

• Geoscience Australia: Paleontology — defines what paleontology is, and provides examples of how Geoscience Australia uses paleontology to learn about Australia and its past.
  • Biostratigraphy — explains the uses and methods of biostratigraphy, where fossils are used to tell the age of rocks.
• AAPG wiki: Paleontology — a definition of paleontology and its methods, from the point of view of the petroleum industry
  • Biostratigraphic applications — an explanation of the usefulness of paleontology to the petroleum industry.
• British Geological Survey: Biostratigraphy & Palaeontology — a page explaining the different types of paleontological studies and their usefulness, specifically as used by the British Geological Survey.
• United States Geological Survey: Geochronology — a page explaining the different methods of measuring the ages of rocks, including the use of fossils.
• Indiana Geological Survey: Using fossils — a discussion of the two main uses of fossils in geology, as a method to learn the ages of rocks and to interpret the environments in which rocks formed.
• University of California Museum of Paleontology: Understanding evolution — pages showing the changes in scientific thought on evolution, paleontology, and geology through time.
• Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy: Biostratigraphy — page explaining the usefulness of biostratigraphy and the main concepts in biostratigraphy.

The following websites can help you answer other questions about fossils:

• Western Australian Museum: Discovery centre — the Discovery Centre at the Western Australian Museum has resources and staff to help you find out more about rocks, fossils, plants and animals.
• Australian Museum: Connect with us — the Australian Museum in Sydney has a similar identification service, plus a page listing some previously asked questions to start you off.
• Ask a Biologist — an online forum directed at primary school children, where biology based questions (including evolution and fossils) will be answered by a biologist. Most of the scientists on this forum are based in the UK. No longer active, but retains archive of previously asked questions.
• Natural History Museum, London: Nature Plus — an online forum hosted by staff of London’s Natural History Museum, where people can ask questions or upload images of items to be identified.

The following websites provide more detailed information on fossil collecting and geoheritage issues:

• Department of Mines and Petroleum
  • Geological Survey of Western Australia: Geoheritage — a page explaining laws surrounding rock collection (including fossils) and the protection of geologically significant sites in Western Australia.
• Australian Federal Government: Moveable Cultural Heritage — an explanation of the Federal Australian laws surrounding the export (temporary or permanent) of Australian cultural heritage (including artefacts, rocks, meteorites and fossils).

In Western Australia, fossicking and fossil collecting is permitted under the following conditions:

• collectors first obtain a Miner’s Right from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS)
• written permission has been granted when collecting on people’s property or pastoral leases
• no collecting is to be made on Crown Reserves (e.g. National Parks, State Forest areas, regulated Geoheritage Reserves) without prior written approval from the relevant State or Federal Government agencies. The only exceptions to this are those State Reserves listed as having a Common, Public Utility or Mining purpose.

All collectors are encouraged to bring interesting fossils to either GSWA or the Western Australian Museum for identification. Understanding what fossils are found and where helps scientists better understand the geology of the State and helps government correctly identify and regulate important fossil sites for future generations.

It should be remembered that any Australian fossils sent overseas (even for non-commercial purposes) are subject to Federal Heritage laws. See the Federal Moveable cultural heritage website for more information.

Many of the fossils discussed here, including the Trendall locality ‘egg carton’ stromatolites, can be seen in the Western Australian Museum’s Origins gallery.

Contact
For more information contact:
paleontology@dmirs.wa.gov.au