The Emu Bay Shale fossil location, on Kangaroo Island in South Australia is a Cambrian Lagerstatten - a site of exceptional preservation (the subject of a future blog entry). I did my PhD on the fossils from this site a while ago, and it is currently being studied by an international team led by the South Australian Museum and the University of New England.
Earlier this year a good friend of mine Paul Willis, another ex-palaeontologist and now reporter on the Australian Broadcasting Company’s Catalyst science program, did a story on the deposit. The story can be seen here. I'm not sure if it will play for international viewers, but at least there's a good cover shot of me at the South Australian Museum with a wierd exotic creature, and an Anomalocaris model!
I think Paul wanted to do the story just so that he could say “the world’s oldest turd” on national televation.
The trilobites and Anomalocaris fossils featured here were collected from the site featured in the story.
This is grand and wholly available where I live (midwest U.S.). Would that we had such programs on a regular basis!
ReplyDeleteThat was excellent! I was on Kangaroo Island some years ago and it was good to get a reminder of it. I didn't know it had Cambrian fossils or I'd have spent more time looking at the rocks and less having fun driving on those dirt roads!
ReplyDeleteThat was an excellent video, hitting a lot of major points in a succinct presentation. It's a shame we don't produce more videos of this quality here in the US. Kangaroo Is. is now on my must-see list, if ever I am able to get over to Australia.
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