Riversleigh, Queensland

Riversleigh is an Australian World Heritage Site that is of particular interest to archaeologists, but will interest the layman tourist as well. The Riversleigh section is home to fossils that date back to the Oligo – Miocene period. This period was in existence some fifteen to twenty five million yrs ago. Riversleigh site is located at the Boodjamulla National Park in Queensland.

The Oligocene, along with Miocene and Eocene, are three epochs in geology that is part of the same Tertiary. Oligocene lies between Eocene and Miocene, while Pliocene comes after Miocene. The Tertiary was during a time when dinosaurs were already extinct.

Fossils . . .

The region of Riversleigh had a number of fossils discovered that are inclusive of teeth and bones of pre historic animals that are extinct. This includes such animals as tiny bats, marsupials and flightless birds. There are a huge number of other fossils found. In addition to the Naracoorte Caves located in South Australia, at a distance of more than two thousand kilo meters away.

Riversleigh was declared as a World heritage Site in 1994, and represented a major stage of the evolutionary history of the earth, and is a superb example of the ongoing ecological and biological processes of the earth.

The Riversleigh fossil mammal sites encompass close to ten thousand hectares of area. It is part of the Boodjamulla National Park at the southern section of the park, located two hundred and fifty kilo meters to the north of Mt Isa.

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