Writing on Stone - Graptolites and Ancient Ground (Short)
Channel: The Royal Society of Victoria
Date: 2020-07-14

Since the earliest days of geological investigation, the primary method of determining the ages of Victoria’s foundational rocks has been the analysis of fossils. In much of Victoria, the most critical fossils are no more than tiny marks on the rocks — the remains of extinct animals called graptolites. The name means "writing on stone," and that is what many of them look like.

An accomplished geologist and palaeontologist with Museums Victoria, Alfons VandenBerg has dedicated much of his working life to the study of graptolites. Here he explains what these curious creatures were, and when and how they lived. Are they extinct, as was long believed? Given that we can’t access their DNA, how can we determine their relationships? How are they useful for geological mapping? How did they protect themselves?

Fons demonstrates a variety of these 'marks' magnified, displaying an amazing diversity of characteristics. Most importantly, a close examination reveals the remarkably rapid evolution of those characteristics, making them a key tool in unravelling the sequence of events that made the "basement" sedimentary rocks of eastern Australia.

Excerpts are from the 2020 Howitt Lecture, a joint presentation with our friends and colleagues from the Geological Society of Australia.

Full presentation available at https://youtu.be/CKpohQktN30.

Filmed by Robert Cross. Interview by Mike Flattley and Dr William Birch. Produced by the Royal Society of Victoria with support from the Inspiring Australia program.