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Tasmania’s Oldest Fossils

This is a joint presentation of the Tasmanian Branch of the Geological Society of Australia and the Northern Branch of the Royal Society of Tasmania.

Darwin was puzzled by the paucity of fossils in Precambrian rocks. Twelve years ago, a new occurrence of an enigmatic Precambrian macrofossil (Horodyskia – ‘string of beads’) was described from a quarry near Balfour. The first Horodyskia fossils were found in Montana, and the Tasmanian occurrence is now known to be of similar age. This talk will describe the Tasmanian Horodyskia discovery and geological (and historical) links between Tasmania and Montana. Some results from recent Balfour field work will be presented, emphasising the importance of the site for, perhaps, solving ‘Darwin’s dilemma’.

LECTURER
Dr Peter McGoldrick
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in Earth Sciences/CODES, University of Tasmania

Aug 14, 2022 01:30 PM in Hobart