Riversleigh section of the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites World Heritage natural criteria

Key finding

Riversleigh is one of the world's most important fossil sites.

The area provides a superb fossil record of the evolution of exceptional mammal fauna from the late Oligocene (25 million years ago) to present day. The fossils of Riversleigh have profoundly altered our understanding of Australia’s vertebrate diversity. Here we find the first records for many distinctive groups of living mammals such as marsupial moles and feather-tailed possums, as well as many other unique and now extinct Australian mammals such as marsupial lions.

Riversleigh's fossils provide an unparalleled window into the Oligo-Miocene (15-25 million years ago) rainforest mammals that evolved in isolation during Australia's separation from Antarctica. Riversleigh has more than trebled previous knowledge about the diversity of Australian terrestrial vertebrates from the era. Considering just mammals spanning the last 25 million years, hundreds of new species, genera, families and even a new order of very unusual mammals have been described.

Because of its unrivalled richness, expanse of time covered by its record, and the quality of the fossils, Riversleigh was declared, along with Naracoorte in South Australia, a World Heritage site in 1994.

More information:

• World heritage list

• Previous Invasive species pressure on the Wet Tropics of Queensland
• Next Riversleigh section of the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites World Heritage integrity