Fossil discovered in 1960s finally reveals its secrets.

Islamabad -- Antoine Champreux, a PhD student in the Global Ecology Lab at Flinders University, has catalogued the discovery of the new fern-like plant species as part of an international effort to examine the Australian fossil in greater detail. The fossil was found in the 1960s by amateur geologist Mr. John Irving, on the bank of the Manilla River in Barraba, New South Wales. The fossil was exposed after major flooding events in 1964, and Mr. Irving gave the fossil to the geological survey of New South Wales, where it remained for more than 50 years without being studied. It was dated from the end of the Late Devonian period, approximately 372-to-359...