Science Visualized Paleontology

See stunning fossils of insects, fish and plants from an ancient Australian forest

New specimens show a parasitoid wasp, fish that have dined on phantom midges and more

image of a fossilized wasp

This parasitoid wasp, one of thousands of newly found fossils at a site in New South Wales, lived in a temperate Australian forest between 16 million and 11 million years ago.

M.R. McCurry et al/Science Advances 2022

By Carolyn Gramling

- More than 2 years ago

A new trove of plant, insect, fish and other fossils offers an unprecedented snapshot of Australia’s wetter, forest-dominated past.