Age Of Fishes AGM - 2017

Wednesday 13th of December saw the Age of Fishes Board hold the 2017 AGM  during which Dr Alex Ritchie was awarded a Life Membership of the AOFM presented by Ms Sharon D’Elboux (Chair)

Dr Alex Ritchie is a Palaeontologist, Senior Fellow at the Australian Museum of Natural History and the ‘Father’ of the Canowindra fossils.
In January 1993, after a 20 year search, an exploratory dig by Dr Alex rediscovered the source of the 1955 fossil fish slab and with local community support and  earth moving equipment (provided by Cabonne Shire Council), he supervised the 10-day major excavation of this world-class fossil fish site.


The find exceeded all expectations with some 70-80 tonnes of rock slabs, containing around 4,000 fish specimens recovered from the Canowindra site. Thousands of complete fish specimens still remain buried at the original site, awaiting excavation.



These could well include other animals new to science and possibly even the skeletal remains of some of the earliest known amphibians, our distant ancestors – a world class thrilling prospect not just for Australia but the international science community  to anticipate!