A Unique Discovery.

About 360 million years ago in a time known as the Devonian period, thousands of strange looking armoured fish perished in a billabong as it dried up during a severe drought. The whole fish population, adults and juveniles alike, were tightly concentrated in a small area. They were quickly covered with sediment which later turned to rock, preserving them for all time. Today that rock provides evidence of the mass kill event that took place all those millions of years ago, in what has since become known as the 'Age of Fishes'.

The first portion of the fossil bed to surface was discovered by chance back in 1955, when a road worker found a large rock slab with strange impressions on its undersurface during the grading of an unsealed road between Canowindra and Gooloogong. He pushed it aside to the fence line, where it was later spotted by a local apiarist who recognised its importance and notified the Australian Museum in Sydney. Expert examination of the slab revealed it to be one of the most remarkable discoveries of its kind anywhere in the world. It has been on display in the Australian Museum, Sydney, since 1966, and can now be seen in its new evolution gallery, 'More than Dinosaurs'. Unfortunately by the time the original slab was recovered, the road had been regraded and the actual location from which the fish slab came could not be pinpointed. However in January 1993 an investigatory dig, led by Dr Ritchie, palaeontologist at the Australian Museum, successfully rediscovered its location. Dr Ritchie subsequently undertook a major excavation of the site in July 1993. The finds exceeded all expectations, with some 70 tonnes of rock slabs containing about 3,000 fish specimens being recovered. Because of the sheer scale of the 1993 discoveries, it was decided that all new finds should remain in Canowindra to form the basis for a unique local museum illustrating the remarkable story of the Age of Fishes.

Species Descriptions