Curtin researchers have analysed organic molecules preserved within 306-million-year-old fossilised animal faeces (coprolite) and unlocked a wealth of information about the diets of long-extinct animals and prehistoric ecosystems.
New Curtin research has found evidence that Earth’s early continents resulted from being hit by comets as our Solar System passed into and out of the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, turning traditional thinking about our planet’s formation on its head.
Dr Tim Johnson, from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the idea that the continents originally formed at sites of giant meteorite impacts had been around for decades, but until now there was little solid evidence to support the theory.