Revealing Riversleigh

Join us for the opening of Revealing Riversleigh, an exhibition that uncovers the processes that shaped Australia’s present biodiversity through the fossil record of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area.

The exhibition will be opened by Professor Dane McCamey, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research at UNSW, and Professor John Long, Strategic Professor in Palaeontology at Flinders University.

Drinks and light refreshments will be provided. Everyone is welcome. 

About the exhibition

Uncover the story of Australia’s ancient past through the fossil record of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, located in Boodjamulla National Park on Waanyi Country in the Lower Gulf region of Queensland. Renowned for its globally significant fossil discoveries, Revealing Riversleigh presents fossils etched out of limestone to reveal why they hold such vital clues to our continent’s past.

Spanning the last 25 million years, Riversleigh’s fossil record documents a period of dramatic transformation. Discoveries by teams of UNSW palaeontologists led by Professor Michael Archer and Professor Suzanne J Hand demonstrate how Australia’s unique wildlife evolved adaptations to cope with the cycles of natural climate change that reshaped the continent’s vast, ancient rainforests into the open forests, woodlands, and grasslands of today. This deep time perspective is now informing innovative conservation strategies, offering hope for critically endangered species like the Mountain Pygmy-possum facing the impacts of human-induced climate change.

Featuring diverse prehistoric mammal fossils and artist reconstructions alongside photographs and videos documenting palaeontological fieldwork, lab processes, and modern conservation efforts, Revealing Riversleigh demonstrates how the past can help us understand the present, in order to better protect the future.

Revealing Riversleigh was developed by UNSW Library in collaboration with the Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre.

For more information about event accessibility at UNSW Library, visit Access to the Library. Please let us know of any accessibility requirements before the event by contacting lib.exhibitions@unsw.edu.au.

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UNSW is located on the unceded territory of the Bedegal (Kensington campus), Gadigal (City and Paddington Campuses) and Ngunnawal peoples (UNSW Canberra) who are the Traditional Owners of the lands where each campus of UNSW is situated.

Image: Fossil in limestone, Riversleigh World Heritage Area, QLD. 29 June 2021. Photograph by Buddy Patrick.