Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Pinpa Fauna

This local fauna is in the Namba Formation, southeast of Lake Frome. The fossils here include turtles, lungfish, crocodiles, platypus and ray-finned fish. There are many water birds, pelicans, ducks, flamingos, rails and grebes. The fact the flamingos were present indicates that at this time there were already salt lakes. The nitre-rich and salt-rich waters in rift valleys and arid lands are the place flamingos are usually found. Among the marsupial fauna there were early koalas, wombats, possums, including gliders and ringtails, carnivorous marsupials related to thylacines. The fossils indicate that a high proportion of the animals inhabited the gallery forests, being mostly arboreal.

Fish - Freshwater fish

• Archaeceratodus djelleh, Tertiary.
• A. theganus, Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene.
• Ceratodus diutinus, Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene.
• Mioceratodus anemosyrus, Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene.
• M. diaphorus, Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene.
• M. gregoryi, Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene.
• M. poastrus, Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene.

Sources & Further reading

Mary E White, After the Greening, The Browning of Australia, Kangaroo Press, 1994

• Fossil Sites
• Fish