All That Interesting: [2] A research team from Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere, and Environment in Melbourne just discovered some of the oldest fossils ever found in Australia. The historic findings include a pair of 41-million-year-old flies frozen in amber while mating.
[3] Published in the journal of Scientific Reports, the study claims that the discovery is a strong candidate for the first frozen mating behavior to be inscribed in Australia’s fossil record.
[4] According to ABC News Australia, amber is quite rare in the land down under — making this discovery all the more remarkable.
[5] This extensive haul consisted of 5,800 pieces of amber from dig sites across Australia’s southeast, Tasmania, and New Zealand.
[6] According to CNET, it includes fossil ants, wingless hexapods (known as “slender springtails”), liverworts, biting midges, and the aforementioned flies and spiders.

“This is one of the biggest discoveries in Australian paleontology,” said lead author of the study, Monash University’s Dr. Jeffrey Stilwell. “Almost all amber records are from the Northern Hemisphere. There are very few from the Southern Hemisphere.”