Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

The site is on Camfield Station about 550 km south-southeast of Darwin. It is 1 of the 3 vertebrate fossil sites known from the Northern Territory. The others are Alcoota Fossil Beds on Alcoota Station and Kangaroo Wells on Deep Well Station. The site is part of the Camfield Fossil Beds outcropping as a narrow belt about 50 km long. The Bullock Creek Local Fauna, part of the Camfield Fossil Beds, have been dated to about 12 million years ago in the Middle Miocene. The fossils are contained in light-coloured calcareous sandstone, siltstone and limestone, with ferruginous mottling at the base and capped with chalcedonic silification. The fossils at this site range from complete skulls, partial skeletons to fragmentary remains.

Fish

• Mioceratodus anemosyrus, Middle Miocene
• M. diaphorus, Middle Miocene
• M. gregoryi, Middle Miocene

Marsupials

• Nimbacinus dicksoni
• N. richi (The status of this as a separate species has been questioned, based on the claim it may be within the range of variation of N. dicksoni)

Sources & Further reading