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The Lake Ngapakaldi to Lake Palankarinna Fossil Area is a group of fossil sites located in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

within the

Tirari Desert The Tirari Desert is a desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia. It stretches 212 km from north to south and 153 km from east to west. Location and description The Tirari Desert features salt lakes and ...

in the north-eastern part of the state's Far North region. The group has an overall area of and is located about east of

Lake Eyre Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in the east-central part of the Far North (South Australia), Far North region of South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. It is the larg ...

and about north-north-east of Marree, off the

Birdsville Track The Birdsville Track is an outback road in Australia. The track runs between Birdsville in south-western Queensland and Marree, a small town in the north-eastern part of South Australia. It traverses three deserts along the route, the Strzel ...

near

Etadunna Station Etadunna is a pastoral lease in the Australian state of South Australia located in the gazetted locality of Etadunna and which is operating as a cattle station. In about 1867, German Lutheran missionaries J. F. Gossling and E. Homann, Broth ...

Description

The area consists of four lakes grouped into two areas located about apart. They are surrounded by extensive areas of sand

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s in a flat, arid landscape. The lake beds are largely unvegetated and usually dry. Low cliffs on the western margins of the lakes have produced a variety of

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

fossils ranging in age from the late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

to the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

Lakes Kununka, Ngapakaldi and Pitikanta

The following three lakes are located on the west side of the gazetted locality of Mulka with Lake Ngapakaldi being partly located within the locality of

: * Lake Kununka Rich ''et al''. (1982). * Lake Pitikanta * Lake Ngapakaldi

Lake Palankarinna

Lake Palankarinna is located in the gazetted locality of Etadunna on the west side of the Birdsville Track to the south of the other three sites. The lake is part of a reserve known as the ‘Lake Palankarinna Fossil Reserve’ which consists of part of the western half of the lake bed and a parcel of land to the west.

Status

The four sites are subject to a number of past and present heritage listings while one is located with a protected area: *All four sites were listed as one entity on the now-defunct

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heri ...

(No.5905) on 21 October 1980.Australian Heritage Database. *Lakes Kanunka, Pitikanta and Ngapakaldi has been listed as state heritage places on the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

since 1997. *Lake Ngapakaldi is also partly located within the

Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park KATI (94.3 FM), branded as 94.3 KAT Country, is a radio station which broadcasts country music and St. Louis Cardinals baseball. Licensed to California, Missouri, the station serves the Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, ...

. *Lake Palankarinna and some adjoining land has been gazetted since 1954 as a ‘fossil reserve’ under what is currently known as the ''Pastoral Land Management and Conservation Act 1989'' in order to “prevent the exploitation for profit of these areas by non-scientists.”Morton et al, 1995, page 96 The fossil reserve has also been listed as a ‘state heritage place’ since 1993.

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