I wasn’t out in the field everyday (I was on holidays after all), but I liked to see what people brought in at the end of the day. One afternoon, Hubby returned with slabs of Cambrian trilobites and brachiopods. I was very happy because trilobites are my favourite fossils.

I like their other-worldliness, these fossils being representatives from another time – when the Gulf Country and most of Eastern Australia was still under water, and when the only creatures on land were insects and spiders. Hubby suspected that there may be a new species in those slabs – he was only partially right.

This trilobite is a known species in the Gulf.

We’re yet to find out what species this is.

The ridged brachiopod (shell) is a known species, but those specimens came from western NSW. We’re yet to find out what species the smooth brachiopod is.

These are giant burrows of some kind. So far no one has any idea of what could have made them. It must have been big, scary thing, whatever it was.

And lastly, these are fossilised mud cracks! Surprising the things that survive.