The climax of this pair of flies came to an abrupt end when a sticky amber globe engulfed them, and millions of years later a team of humans has discovered them. It is one of the oldest known remains of southern Gondwana , the ancient supercontinent that existed about 180 million years ago before spreading into present-day South America, Africa, and Madagascar, India, Antarctica, and Australia.
Finding the "fossiliferous amber in Australia and eastern New Zealand is a dream come true for a paleontologist in this country, as amber preserves fossils in exceptional 3D space, just as they died many millions of years ago.
Researchers unearthed more than 5,800 pieces of amber in the Macquarie Harbor Formation in Western Tasmania and the Anglesea coal measures in Victoria, Australia. Amber dates back to around 53 million (in the early Eocene period) and 41 million years ago (middle Eocene), respectively.
Australia, the new cradle of amber paleontology.
Reference: Amber from the Triassic to Paleogene of Australia and New Zealand as exceptional preservation of poorly known terrestrial ecosystems, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038 / s41598-020-62252-z, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62252-z
