Guest Speaker(s): Tom Hurley

Many factors influenced the marine life and the sediment accumulation during the Cretaceous. As the sea levels rose and fell to form and to drain an almost landlocked intra continental sea, the fortunes of the faunas changed with it as did the make-up of the sediment and eventually the rock units we know today.

Observations make up where literature is limited but they have provided a workable theory and a repeatable exploration strategy for the fossils. Numbers, locations, preservation and taphonomy all tell what is a part of this very interesting story.

Tom Hurley was fascinated from a very early age by the rocks and fossils that were already being collected by family members. This was never dampened and it led to an underground mining career and several years with his wife as the volunteer collecting team for the “stone house museum” collection at Boulia, North West Queensland. In those years, Tom and Sharon have both had large dinosaur aged fish named after them and Tom has a Cretaceous isopod named after him as well.